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North Korea: Witness to Transformation Reviewing the Bidding: the North Korean Statements
Stephan Haggard — March 15, 2013
Over the last several weeks, the North Koreans have issued three separate statements, all emanating from different parts of the state apparatus; they can be found on the KCNA website on the dates cited below.  All are intended to show resolve, not only ...

China Economic Watch Local Government Financing Vehicles Under Fire Again
Ryan Rutkowski — March 14, 2013
If anyone suspected the new Chinese leadership would relax controls on local government spending in 2013, they were wrong. CBRC is preparing to issue the third installment of the now annual guiding opinion on monitoring the risk of local government financing vehicles (LGFVs). When released, the new ...

Peterson Perspectives Interview Doing Business in India: High Risk, High Reward
Arvind Subramanian — March 14, 2013
Arvind Subramanian discusses his Congressional testimony in favor of expanding US-Indian economic relations.

Policy Brief 13-7 The Congress Should Support IMF Governance Reform to Help Stabilize the World Economy [pdf]
Edwin M. Truman — March 14, 2013
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) continues to play an indispensable role in stabilizing the world economy and financial system, but it will need assistance (particularly from the US Congress) if it is to continue to help troubled and strong countries alike.

Congressional Testimony Flirting with Disaster: Solving the Federal Debt Crisis [pdf]
Simon Johnson — March 14, 2013
The disaster with which the United States now flirts is that it will inflict upon itself unnecessary and damaging austerity. A sudden move towards further tightening fiscal policy would undermine US economic recovery and could destabilize financial markets.

Event US-Canadian Trade Relations: Continued Leadership on the World Stage
Ed Fast —March 14, 2013
The Honorable Ed Fast, Canada's Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, discusses the successful two-way economic relationship the between Canada and the United States.

RealTime Economic Issues Watch The Challenge of Climate Change (in One Chart)
Arvind Subramanian and Aaditya Mattoo — March 14, 2013
Is the world making progress on climate change? Recently, the OECD [pdf] struck a hopeful note, reporting that emissions were growing more slowly than GDP in both the high-income and developing count ...

Peterson Perspectives Interview Risky Repercussions from Cyprus: Another View
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard — March 13, 2013
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard says depositors as well as bondholders might take losses in a Cyprus bank bailout—and that this would be a good thing.

Event Exorcising Ghosts of Inflation and Unification from German Economic Policy
Adam S. Posen —March 13, 2013
Adam S. Posen delivers the annual Kurt Viermetz Distinguished Visitorship in Economics lecture at the American Academy in Berlin.

Working Paper 13-2 The Elephant Hiding in the Room: Currency Intervention and Trade Imbalances [pdf]
Joseph E. Gagnon — March 13, 2013
Official purchases of foreign assets—a broad definition of currency intervention—are strongly correlated with current account (trade) imbalances. Causality runs in both directions, but statistical analysis using instrumental variables reveals that the effect of official asset purchases on current accounts is very large.

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A country's current account balance increases between 60 and 100 cents for each dollar spent on currency intervention—a much larger effect than is widely assumed. Working Paper 13-2 by Joseph E. Gagnon.

Simon Johnson testifies that it is far more important to get the US economy back onto a sustainable growth path than to rapidly move toward an excessive and inappropriate degree of immediate austerity, which would only undermine US economic recovery and could destabilize financial markets.

Joseph E. Gagnon testifies before the US House of Representatives that the United States needs more expansionary monetary policy. The United States can add millions of jobs by following the International Monetary Fund's recommended policies for reducing the trade deficit.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) continues to play an indispensable role in stabilizing the world economy and financial system, but it will need assistance (particularly from the US Congress) if it is to continue to help troubled and strong countries alike. Policy Brief 13-7 by Edwin M. Truman.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports will deliver economic benefits to the US economy, but attentive regulators must prevent negative consequences, say Gary Clyde Hufbauer, Allie E. Bagnall, and Julia Muir. Policy Brief 13-6.

US business is failing to fully capitalize on India's growing economy and the problem will worsen without a deepening of US-India trade relations, Arvind Subramanian tells the House Ways and Means Committee.

Prime Minister David Cameron made a number of unfounded assertions in his speech on the British economy, write David Blanchflower and Adam S. Posen. The UK government needs to recognize that it is engaging in the same misguided economic policies as those plaguing the euro area, warns Posen.

Nicholas R. Lardy and Nicholas Borst present a blueprint for rebalancing the Chinese economy. Policy Brief 13-2.

For the United States, international economic strategy is the new foreign policy, writes Robert B. Zoellick.

When a large country such as Japan reaches its fiscal limit, growth ends not with a bang but with a whimper, writes Adam S. Posen.

C. Fred Bergsten and Joseph E. Gagnon propose an ambitious and far-reaching US strategy to halt currency manipulation. Policy Brief 12-25. Sooner or later the global financial imbalances created by currency aggression [pdf] must be corrected, writes Joseph E. Gagnon. Listen to related interview Is the World on a Binge of Devaluation?

The World Trade Organization needs to be de-democratized, and the large countries should reassert themselves, writes Arvind Subramanian. The time is ripe for a multilateral agreement on investment, which should be formed within the framework of the WTO, proposes Anders Åslund. Policy Brief 13-1.

Peterson Perspectives Interviews

The IMF Needs Support from Congress

with Edwin M. Truman

Budget Outlook after the State of the Union

Part I | Part II

with David J. Stockton

Prospects for a US-European Trade Deal

Part I | Part II

with Jeffrey J. Schott

New Books on TPP

 Understanding the Trans-Pacific Partnership

by Jeffrey J. Schott, Barbara Kotschwar, and Julia Muir

 The Trans-Pacific Partnership and Asia-Pacific Integration:

A Quantitative Assessment

by Peter A. Petri, Michael G. Plummer, and Fan Zhai

 See also the book release event.

Arvind Subramanian notes that under prime ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi's leadership, the Indian state of Gujarat has ranked among the poor performers in the level of tax collection, and the record has not improved despite strong growth.

A year ago Russia seemed to be on the verge of new economic and political reforms, writes Anders Åslund, but that is no longer the case. Rather than being a guarantor of stability, Vladimir Putin has suddenly become a source of destabilization in Russia. Listen to related interview: More Rough Weather in Russia?

With new leadership in place and the economy facing new stresses, Stephen Haggard and Marcus Noland wonder if this could be North Korea’s reformist moment [pdf].

New Book: Private Rights and Public Problems: The Global Economics of Intellectual Property in the 21st Century
by Keith E. Maskus