Market Summary

The U.S. The U.S. market got a modest boost from the announcement of a trade truce with China, in which China agreed to boost some U.S. agricultural imports, and the U.S. suspended a tariff hike on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports.  According to the announcement, the initial deal will Read more…

China and Iran Deepen Ties

China and Iran Deepen Ties A recent report in the Petroleum Economist provided some confidential details about the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement that Iran and China signed in 2016.  The Iranian and Chinese foreign ministers met at the end of August to hammer out some of the accord’s details. According Read more…

A Tale of Two Chinas

For the past year, concern about the intensifying trade war between China and the United States has gone hand-in-hand with concern about the health of the Chinese economy.  China’s dramatic rise as an economic power over the past two decades, and the deep interdependence of the global economy, means that Read more…

THE NEW ROBOT OVERLORDS

1.  Hong Kong in the crosshairs of the trade war.  Hong Kong is experiencing massive protests against the Chinese government’s erosions of the city’s traditional liberties and democratic governance.  These protests have occasioned the introduction of a bipartisan bill in the U.S. Congress that would strip the city of its Read more…

Emerging Markets Beyond China

Emerging Markets Beyond China:  Reforms and Opportunities in India and Brazil Six weeks ago in these pages, we wrote that 2019 might be the year during which emerging markets finally begin to outperform.  We argued that after a decade of emerging-market underpeformance, global investment flows would begin favoring EM assets Read more…