Anatole Kaletsky Says More…

Date: 19‑01‑2021

Source: Project Syndicate Anatole Kaletsky

Anatole Kaletsky is Chief Economist and Co‑Chairman of Gavekal Dragonomics. A former columnist at the Times of London, the International New York Times and the Financial Times, he is the author of Capitalism 4.0: The Birth of a New Economy in the Aftermath of Crisis, which anticipated many of the post‑crisis transformations of the global economy. His 1985 book, Costs of Default, became an influential primer for Latin American and Asian governments negotiating debt defaults and restructurings with banks and the IMF.

This week in Say More, PS talks with Anatole Kaletsky, Chief Economist and Co‑Chairman of Gavekal Dragonomics.

Project Syndicate: In 2017, you wrote, “Donald Trump’s presidency is a symptom of an interregnum between economic orders – a period that will result in a new balance between state and market.” Will Joe Biden’s inauguration tomorrow mark the end of this liminal moment?

Anatole Kaletsky: The short answer is yes. Even before it begins, Biden’s presidency appears to be confirming and entrenching a tectonic shift in the balance between market forces and political forces – or, put another way, between collective decisions made on the basis of “one dollar, one vote” and those based on “one person, one vote.”

This shift began after the 2008 global financial crisis discredited the market‑fundamentalist model of capitalism that the United States and Europe had embraced and endorsed since the neoliberal “revolution” in the early 1980s. That ideology had come to dominate the entire world after the Soviet Union’s collapse and the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

Brexiters are waking up to the damage they’ve done

Date: 19‑01‑2021

Source: The Guardian by Polly Toynbee

From horse racing to fishing to road haulage, British industry is in chaos. No wonder leavers are turning on each other

Brexit has beached the fishing boats at Hastings. The two‑man crew of Paul Joy’s boat Kaya have left for shore jobs, after the price of the huss they land fell to just 2p a kilo. Exports to the European Union are Brexit‑blighted, with fishers across Britain poleaxed by new costs and regulations, their catches rotting before they reach EU markets. It’s costing them millions already.

For the past two years Joy, a passionate Brexiter, has consistently told me he believes his industry would be shafted in any trade deal. “Betrayed, sacrificed,” he says, outraged at the government’s failure to secure British fishing rights for 12 miles around the coast, and now crippled by the export costs. So when foreign secretary Dominic Raab has the effrontery to tell the BBC’s Andrew Marr that this is “a great deal for the fishing industry”, he must know it’s not true.

The Year of the Renminbi?

Date: 19‑01‑2021

Source: Project Syndicate

Arvind Subramanian, a former chief economic adviser to the government of India, is Professor of Economics at Ashoka University. He is the author of Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China’s Economic Dominance. 

Josh Felman is Director of JH Consulting. 

After years of poor policy and political tumult in the United States, it is not unreasonable to ask whether China’s currency will soon be in a position to challenge the greenback. While neither country has been doing itself any favors in the currency pageant, it is worth remembering that history is not on America’s side.