Opinion

Chinese property buying spree raises alarm

  When signs of world economic crisis began to show up, China was an exemplary business hub for western investors, especially from the US. Now, there seems to be a sort of role reversal as Chinese investors are flocking to the US, Canada and Australia, to buy properties. Chinese investors may be seeking to move money abroad amid abysmal look ...

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AIIB looks towards co-financing projects

  Ankit Panda SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Early last year, when the United States’ Western European allies began eagerly signing up for China’s nascent Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as founding members, it seemed as if Washington was confident that the AIIB would emerge as a poorly governed tool of Chinese geoeconomic statecraft, beholden to lower standards than the World ...

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Trump or Clinton: Does it matter to India?

  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting the U.S. in June, where he will address Congress at the invitation of Speaker Paul Ryan. Modi will be the fifth Indian prime minister to address that body, following Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Manmohan Singh. It will also be Modi’s fourth visit to the U.S. in ...

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Japan: Abe set to delay next tax hike

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has reportedly cancelled plans to hike the consumption tax in 2017, bowing to sluggish growth, a strong yen and a falling stockmarket. Will it be enough to save Abenomics? Avoiding the prospect of another potential recession in the world’s third-largest economy, Abe reportedly told senior government and ruling coalition officials Friday that he would postpone ...

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Thailand’s constitutional referendum: A Hobson’s choice

  When Thailand votes on August 7 to pass or reject a new constitution, voters will head to the polls knowing that the country’s two dominant political parties are opposed to the military-sponsored draft’s content and spirit. While the ruling junta is actively promoting the draft charter’s hybrid vision of a military-guided democracy, punitive bans imposed on organized opposition, public ...

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Let us praise GDP

It’s time to cut the GDP some slack. Overhauling the GDP — as some critics would — threatens to politicize one of our most useful economic indicators. It could be twisted to advance or retard political agendas. This is a bad idea. First, some background. GDP stands for “gross domestic product,” and it’s our standard measure of economic growth. When ...

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Bonn meet must move from vows to action

  The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement will face its first acid test when signatories gather in Bonn, Germany, on Monday to iron out details and set new mechanisms to fund climate adaptation projects amid reports the global warming has caused the water-rise that vanished five Islands of Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. Against the backdrop of such a grim ...

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China eyes Vietnam and the TPP warily

  Andrew Collier SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Vietnam later this month, taken together with the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, signals a closer economic alliance between the two countries. The TPP will be a boon to Vietnam – but could be a problem for China. The TPP – which has been signed but not ratified ...

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How we’re losing the other climate fight

  Christopher Flavelle The proposal boiled down to just three paragraphs in the Federal Register: Would it be a good idea, the Federal Emergency Management Agency wondered, if Washington gave states a financial incentive to pass building codes, better protecting their residents against the effects of climate change? That was in January. By March, the response from states was clear: ...

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NATO’s build-up in the Baltics unnecessary

  While showing off some new UAZ Patriot pickup trucks armed with machine guns and grenade launchers to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, a general couldn’t open the door of one of the trucks and, in his desperate desire to please the commander-in-chief, ripped off the door handle. “Well done,” Putin said, laughing. Meanwhile, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ...

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