IN THE years leading up to the financial crisis, household debt soared in most rich countries. There were a couple of notable exceptions. See chart here.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Household debt
IN THE years leading up to the financial crisis, household debt soared in most rich countries. There were a couple of notable exceptions. See chart here.
China's Search for A New Energy Strategy
Time To Liberalize Energy Prices
Beijing can start to solve its environmental and economic troubles by ending one of the most stubborn legacies of the planned economy: highly regulated energy prices. If recent reports are any indication, that is exactly what it plans to do.
A taxi driver fills his car near a board showing price increases at a gas station in Shenyang, Liaoning province, 2011. (Courtesy Reuters)
Much like the United States, China has an “all of the above” energy strategy: it plans to continue to rely on traditional sources of energy even as it makes the transition to cleaner fuels. And this is only natural. Both countries are continent-sized economies with diverse energy needs and geographically dispersed resources.
Suppressed prices drive China’s uncontrolled energy consumption and its negative side effects.
June 4, 2013
Damien Ma
Summary:
Beijing can start to solve its environmental and economic troubles by ending one of the most stubborn legacies of the planned economy: highly regulated energy prices. If recent reports are any indication, that is exactly what it plans to do.
A taxi driver fills his car near a board showing price increases at a gas station in Shenyang, Liaoning province, 2011. (Courtesy Reuters)
Much like the United States, China has an “all of the above” energy strategy: it plans to continue to rely on traditional sources of energy even as it makes the transition to cleaner fuels. And this is only natural. Both countries are continent-sized economies with diverse energy needs and geographically dispersed resources.
Suppressed prices drive China’s uncontrolled energy consumption and its negative side effects.
Mutually assured ambiguity
How to play nuclear-armed poker
AMERICA, which has more deployed nuclear weapons than any other country, is open about precisely how many warheads it has in what state of readiness. Russia is a little less so, though it does share information with America. States with fewer nukes prefer not to give many details of what they are holding. China, which is the only one of the five legally recognised nuclear-armed states to be expanding its arsenal, according to the latest report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, prefers this strategy. Iran, which is not yet a nuclear state, seems to follow a different strategy. Analysts think that it may have so many centrifuges spinning that it could enrich enough uranium for a bomb quite quickly—within a couple of months. But it may not go as far as to build a bomb, for risk of provoking both further sanctions and arms race in the region. Iran may thus invent a third category: states with all the kit to build a nuclear bomb that are not technically nuclear-armed states.
AMERICA, which has more deployed nuclear weapons than any other country, is open about precisely how many warheads it has in what state of readiness. Russia is a little less so, though it does share information with America. States with fewer nukes prefer not to give many details of what they are holding. China, which is the only one of the five legally recognised nuclear-armed states to be expanding its arsenal, according to the latest report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, prefers this strategy. Iran, which is not yet a nuclear state, seems to follow a different strategy. Analysts think that it may have so many centrifuges spinning that it could enrich enough uranium for a bomb quite quickly—within a couple of months. But it may not go as far as to build a bomb, for risk of provoking both further sanctions and arms race in the region. Iran may thus invent a third category: states with all the kit to build a nuclear bomb that are not technically nuclear-armed states.
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