What’s holding back the economy, in 10 charts

Posted by Zachary A. Goldfarb on November 27, 2012 at 3:09 pm

Lately, there has been quite a bit of excitement that the big overhang of debt left over from the financial crisis may be starting to ease. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has noted that there’s been a “significant reduction” of debt, and a number of indicators point to American households getting their finances in better shape.

How U.S. can once again define the future

By Patrick Doherty, Special to CNN

November 27, 2012 -- Updated 1859 GMT (0259 HKT)

 

Editor's note: Patrick Doherty is the deputy director of the National Security Studies Program at the New America Foundation and author of the forthcoming report, "Grand Strategy of the United States of America."

(CNN) -- Washington is all about the fiscal cliff these days. In Doha, Qatar, world leaders are negotiating over climate change. Federal debt and carbon emissions are indeed two big problems on the nation's front burner. But they are just the beginning.

Tobacco companies ordered to admit they lied over smoking danger

Reuters in Washington guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 November 2012 04.59 GMT

US judge says tobacco firms must spend their own money on a public campaign admitting deception about the risks of smoking

The public advertisements are to be published in various media for as long as two years. Photograph: Alex Segre/Alamy

 

Major tobacco companies who spent decades denying they lied to the US public about the dangers of cigarettes must spend their own money on a public advertising campaign saying they did lie, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. 

The ruling sets out what might be the harshest sanction to come out of a historic case that the justice department brought in 1999 accusing the tobacco companies of racketeering.

Greece, markets satisfied by EU-IMF Greek debt deal

By Jan Strupczewski and Luke Baker

BRUSSELS | Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:58pm EST

 

(Reuters) - The Greek government and financial markets were cheered on Tuesday by an agreement between euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund to reduce Greece's debt, paving the way for the release of urgently needed aid loans.
The deal, clinched at the third attempt after weeks of wrangling, removes the biggest risk of a sovereign default in the euro zone for now, ensuring the near-bankrupt country will stay afloat at least until after a 2013 German general election.

Xi feels threat of a China Spring

By Brendan O'Reilly

Recent statements from China's new leadership suggest a growing awareness of serious economic and political problems. The era of relative political stability garnered through rapid economic growth may be coming to an end. A rising tide lifts all boats, but structural problems in the world's second largest economy have the potential to dam the flow of increasing prosperity. Concrete reforms must accompany the promising slogans if the Communist Party is to maintain its monopoly on political power.

The World According to Xi

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BEIJING – On November 15 Xi Jinping became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of the CCP’s Central Military Commission, giving him supreme authority over China’s armed forces. Next March, he will become President of China as well.

China’s Leadership Change Puts Pair Ahead of Their Peers for 2017

By EDWARD WONG

Published: November 26, 2012

BEIJING — When American diplomats in China scanned the political landscape this year for officials on a fast track to the Communist Party’s top ranks, one name jumped out: Hu Chunhua. 

So in June, the United States ambassador, Gary F. Locke, traveled to Inner Mongolia, the coal-rich region of grasslands and boom cities, where Mr. Hu is party chief. At a banquet in Hohhot, the regional capital, Mr. Hu proudly opened a bottle of local liquor, and Mr. Locke joined in a toast.

Sun Zhengcai, A Rising Star

Last week Sun Zhengcai, 49, was named as the secretary general of Chongiqong Province, the same position that Bo Xilai held before being purged from the CCP.

Sun is part of a small group of young rising stars in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that many believe are being prepared as China's 6th generation leaders who are expected to take power from Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang in 2022. Sun became one of the fifteen new Politburo members at the 18th Party Congress.

Sun obtained a doctorate in agriculture from Beijing Agriculture University in 1987 and spent a year in the British countryside as a visiting fellow at Britain’s Rothamsted Experimental Station.

Reconsidering Vietnam’s political system

November 26th, 2012

Author: Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, ANU
Despite being a one-party state, Vietnam’s political system has often been responsive to peasants, workers and others pushing for better economic, social and political conditions.

Major policy shifts in the last 25 years — especially replacing a centrally planned economy with a market economy and abandoning collective farming in favour of individual household farming — have been consequences, to a considerable measure, of bottom-up pressure for change, to which the country’s Communist Party leadership has acquiesced.

Is China Up to the Challenge?

Long menu of problems: New Party Secretary General Xi Jinping (top); angry protesters demand cancellation of polluting petrochemical plant in Zhejiang

WASHINGTON: China has ended the suspense by announcing the new leadership headed by Xi Jinping to the nation and the world. While the Communist Party and Central Military Commission elites are now identified, we must wait until March for a clearer idea of the policy orientations of China’s new elite, when the National People’s Congress will appoint ministers of State Council and other government officials. But it is not premature to identify their main challenges and speculate about how the leaders  may respond.

There exists a surprisingly strong consensus inside and outside of China on the principal problems and what reforms are needed. They essentially constitute significantly relaxing state and party control and allowing private sector and civil society greater leeway, while redirecting resources to spurring innovation and reducing social inequities. Specifically, urgent tasks include: 

 – reorienting the economic growth model away from investments into physical infrastructure and subsidized exports to one driven by domestic consumption and innovation, emphasizing the knowledge economy and service industries;