Commentary The long-ago-discredited “mixed economy” practice of “industrial policy” is when the state, in its infallible wisdom, decides which capitalist ventures are going to be successful, and pours prodigious amounts of the taxpayers’ hard-earned cash into them, the most infamous example being Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). The late economist Charles Schultze, who held top jobs in the Kennedy, Johnson and Carter administrations, understood the foolishness of industrial policy and illustrated the absurdity of a government bureaucracy picking private-sector winners and losers in a Brookings Institution paper. Mr. Schultze pointed out how MITI “tried very hard—and, as is evident, to no avail—to keep Honda out of the automobile business.” (It was thought back in the 1960s that consolidating Japanese auto production into several giant companies was wise.)...Read more https://www.theepochtimes.com/china/china-charging-americans-paying-5527117
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission releases its annual report at 10:30 a.m. ET on Nov. 14. Topics this year include China’s increasingly global legal reach; China’s United Front and Propaganda Work Department; China’s next generation workforce; China’s fiscal, financial, and debt problems; China’s relations with foreign militaries; weapons, technology, and export controls; Europe-China relations and transatlantic cooperation; and a review of Taiwan, Hong Kong, economics, trade, security, politics, and foreign affairs developments in 2023. ...
Commentary For the past month, the number and severity of risks to the bond and stock markets has risen, with some pundits wondering just how the market can trade so confidently higher when there are so many large-scale events unfolding that threaten to pose a systemic risk to the United States and global financial markets. Let’s start with an easy one—a “sleeper” that caught everyone off guard. At last week’s 30-year Treasury auction, in which a mere $26 billion in debt was being bid for, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s largest lender by assets, said its financial services experienced a ransomware attack that reportedly disrupted their trading of Treasurys. That attack prevented the ICBC from settling trades and rendered the bank unable to clear commitments that forced the bank to send the settlement details to its counter parties by a messenger carrying a thumb drive—a heroic effort to limit the damage....
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will meet her Chinese counterpart, Wang Wentao, at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in San Francisco this week, marking the third meeting between the pair since May. Ms. Raimondo first mentioned the meeting during an interview with CNN that aired on Nov. 12. A Commerce Department spokesperson later confirmed that two commerce chiefs’ planned meeting to Reuters, without providing details. The APEC summit, which runs until Nov. 17, is headlined by the highly-anticipated meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday. Ahead of the summit, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen held two days of talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in San Francisco last week....