Sunday, May 20th 2012
Investing in sustainable growth in China and America
Recent Updates:
For 2012, Signs Point to Tepid Consumer SpendingCli (2012-03-06)
American consumers are running out of tricks. As the weak economy has trudged on, they have leaned on credit cards to pay for holiday gifts, many bought at discounts. They are dipping into savings to cover spikes in gas, food and rent. They are substituting domestic vacations for international trips, squeezing more life out of their washing machines and refrigerators and switching to alternatives as meat prices have risen. That leaves little room for a big increase in spending in 2012, economists say, a shaky foundation for the most important pillar of the American economy.
Click here for article (NY Times, HTML)
English Global Dominance and the Other Languages of Higher Education and Research (2012-02-22)
The increasing dominance of English in higher education and research over the last few decades is often assumed to be a linear, unavoidable, and cumulative process resulting in improved, perhaps more egalitarian, international academic communication worldwide. In this note I want to challenge this view of a global trend in the adoption of English and to discuss some dilemmas confronted by academics in developing countries where English is not the national lingua franca (i.e., outside the British Commonwealth countries).
Click here for article (Columbia University blog, HTML)
Made in the World (2012-02-03)
The Associated Press reported last week that Fidel Castro, the former president of Cuba, wrote an opinion piece on a Cuban Web site, following a Republican Party presidential candidates’ debate in Florida, in which he argued that the “selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is — and I mean this seriously — the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been.”
Click here for article (NY Times, HTML)
China’s Number of Web Users Rises to 513 Million (2012-01-16)
The number of Internet users in China has surged past 500 million as millions of new Web surfers go online using mobile phones and tablet computers, an industry group reported Monday.
Click here for article (NY Times, HTML)
The world in balance sheet recession: causes, cure, and politics (2012-01-14)
A recurring concern in the Western economies today is that they may be headed toward a Japan-like lost decade. Remarkable similarities between house price movements in the U.S. this time and in Japan 15 years ago, illustrated in Exhibit 1, suggest that the two countries have indeed contracted a similar disease. The post-1990 Japanese experience, however, also demonstrated that the nation’s recession was no ordinary recession.
Click here for report (Real-World Economics Review, PDF)
IPhone 4S sales halted in Beijing Apple store (2012-01-14)
A salesperson at the company’s store in the Sanlitun shopping district announced through a megaphone early Friday morning that the store would not open its doors, according to customer Wang Qiannan, who remained waiting outside of the store. Wang said the store’s staff did not explain why they were not opening, but suspects it was out of safety concerns. At least 1,000 people who were hired by scalpers to stand in line and wait for the phone to go on sale were displeased with the decision to keep the store closed. A bag of broken eggs was found on the ground in front of the store and egg residue was seen on the store’s glass walls.
Click here for article (China Daily, HTML)
For 2012, Signs Point to Tepid Consumer Spending (2012-01-12)
American consumers are running out of tricks. As the weak economy has trudged on, they have leaned on credit cards to pay for holiday gifts, many bought at discounts. They are dipping into savings to cover spikes in gas, food and rent. They are substituting domestic vacations for international trips, squeezing more life out of their washing machines and refrigerators and switching to alternatives as meat prices have risen. That leaves little room for a big increase in spending in 2012, economists say, a shaky foundation for the most important pillar of the American economy.
Click here for article (NY Times, HTML)
US energy companies seek partnerships with nation’s coal firms (2011-12-23)
US-based companies are looking for opportunities to build cooperative relationships with the Chinese mining industry by providing machinery, safety equipment and clean coal technology, aiming to open the market further.
Click here for article (China Daily, HTML)
Laughs in translation (2011-12-23)
David Henry Hwang’s new comedy, Chinglish, which opened on Broadway last week, explores the often-hilarious misunderstandings that separate the United States and China – not only through linguistic mistranslations but also through navigating major cultural differences. The show, directed by Leigh Silverman, premiered in Chicago over the summer. It centers on a hapless businessman from Cleveland, who hopes to score a big contract in China for his sign-making company. Negotiations are conducted mostly in Chinese, with inept translators.
Click here for article (China Daily, HTML)
As they stroll between two buildings that echo the grandeur of Daniel Burnham’s demolished Union Station here, pedestrians can easily forget that they are walking over a bridge that spans a sunken interstate highway. But that’s what happens at the retail complex called the Cap at Union Station (left), where the classically styled buildings flank what looks like — but isn’t — a typical city street.
Click here for article (Chicago Tribune, HTML)