Author: Matt Hill, ANU
US government finances are in a sorry state. As the federal debt threatens to break the ceiling of US$14.3 trillion authorised by Congress, an extension of Washington’s self-imposed credit limit is required by 2 August.
That this extension will be authorised is certain; as US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has admitted, only a temporary delay can be afforded before the world’s largest economy faces the unimaginable possibility of defaulting to its creditors. Yet while a temporary reprieve, this fiscal expedient will not banish the implications of America’s increased indebtedness. Read more…
Author: John D. Conroy, ANU and FDC
The removal of Muhammad Yunus as Managing Director of Grameen Bank now seems irrevocable.
The Bangladesh Finance Ministry is reported to have prepared a ‘14 point plan’ that will ‘transform the Nobel winning micro-lender into another state-owned bank’, with the government likely looking to increase its equity stake in Grameen (currently less than 4 per cent of paid capital) to restructure the board and ‘establish control over its lucrative sister firms’. Read more…
Author: Michael Cucek, MIT
Prime Minister Naoto Kan has this month passed the year mark in the country’s top office, besting the records of his four immediate predecessors.
However, according to media reports, the prime minister is dangling in limbo, with groups in his own Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) poised to move against him. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, EAF
The success of Asia’s economic growth has seen three quarters of a billion people emerge from poverty in the space of just a few decades.
It has also already witnessed the emergence of a very sizeable middle class. Read more…
Author: Homi Kharas, Brookings Institution
The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development has just celebrated its 50th anniversary. Among the many achievements of this group of advanced economies is the unprecedented improvement in the material lives of millions of their citizens.
Between 1960 and 2010, the number of people who had middle class or better living standards in OECD member countries more than doubled from around 400 million to over 900 million. Poverty, by global standards, was essentially eradicated. Read more…
Author: Scott A. Snyder, CFR
North Korea’s National Defense Commission recently released a rare public statement on inter-Korean relations in response to Lee Myung-Bak’s 9 May Berlin speech inviting Kim Jong Il to attend next year’s Nuclear Security Summit.
The statement came only days after Kim Jong Il’s return from last week’s visit to China where he met with PRC President Hu Jintao, and it responds to the 19 May revelation by South Korea’s Blue House spokesperson that secret contact had been made with North Korean counterparts in advance of Lee’s Berlin invitation. Read more…
Author: Nisa Istiani, PhD candidate
In 2010, Indonesia’s volume of public procurement for goods, civil works and consulting services was around US$36 billion.
According to the State Audit Body (Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan or BPK) around US$8 billion was lost to bad practice including price mark ups, fictitious tenders and collusive behaviour between parties in the bidding process. Read more…
Author: Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, ANU
On 12 May, Mamata Banerjee, the leader of Trina Mool Congress (TMC) succeeded in a landslide election victory, overthrowing the Left Front that came to power in West Bengal in 1977.
In the process of overthrowing the Communists, Mamata has redefined contemporary Bengali ethnic identity, loosening the grip of the urban-based, bhadralok intellectual middle class ideologues on the State’s politics. Read more…
Author: Fiona McConnell, University of Cambridge
When Tibet makes the headlines it is usually for one of three issues: Chinese government crackdowns; ‘Free Tibet’ protests in the West; or the Dalai Lama’s meetings with world leaders.
A different story has engaged the international community in recent weeks: the election of a new Kalon Tripa, or Prime Minister, of the Tibetan Government in Exile. Read more…
Authors: Pisit Leeahtam & Cynn Treesraptanagul, Chiang Mai University
Like many other countries, food and commodity price hikes challenge the current Thai government’s stability, especially in the wake of political turmoil in the Middle East and massive natural disasters throughout many regions of the world.
Amid this, a big question on how effectively the Thai government can cope with the deteriorating situation remains. Read more…
Author: Peter M. Beck, CFR, Keio University
Korea-Japan relations have warmed considerably since President Lee Myung-bak took office, but new agreements have proven elusive.
After raising the idea with hundreds of Japanese, ranging from Diet members to Okinawa pineapple farmers, I have concluded that there is no time to waste for President Lee and Prime Minister Kan Naoto to pursue a formal alliance. Read more…
Author: Purnendra Jain, University of Adelaide
On 8 June, Prime Minister Naoto Kan completes his first year in office, an extraordinary achievement in contemporary Japanese politics.
His four predecessors all resigned after less than a year in office — Shinzo Abe, Yasuo Fukuda and Taro Aso of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and Yukio Hatoyama despite leading the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to an overwhelming electoral victory in 2009 after more than half a century of virtually solid LDP rule. Read more…
Author: Suiwah Leung, ANU
In a previous article I emphasised the urgent need to address the risks to macroeconomic stability in Vietnam.
Indeed, action was taken after the Party Congress and the Tết holidays in January this year, beginning with a large devaluation (9 per cent of the central rate plus reduction of the band around the central rate from 3 to 1 per cent). Read more…
Author: Kyaw San Wai, RSIS
One month into office, President Thein Sein’s fledgling government has sent mixed signals on reform.
There are many uncertainties over the ability of the reformed Parliament to tackle social problems and ethnic divisions domestically, and over how the ‘new face’ of the regime will integrate into the region and be received by international players.
Read more…
Author: Hualing Fu, HKU
Public interest lawyering (PIL) has developed quickly in China since its reception in the mid-1990s, and a small number of lawyers have used litigation as a key law reform strategy.
The popularity of PIL in China can be explained by the lack of alternative opportunities for citizens to assert their rights. Read more…
