India Loses AI-Driven Market Lead to Taiwan, South Korea
#IndiaWatch🇮🇳: India’s stock market was worth more than 2x Taiwan’s and 3.5x South Korea’s just 18 months ago. Today, FT reports that both Taiwan and South Korea have OVERTAKEN India. INDIA'S MISSED THE AI PARTY. https://t.co/svCrdvJhVS
April Equity Flows Don’t Explain KRW Weakness
really enjoy the work of East Asian Econ -- I will just add that in April the equity flow (whether Koreans buying foreign equities or foreigners selling Korean equities) doesn't seem to account for KRW weakness 1/2 https://t.co/8xAF2xvq8U
Bab El‑Mandeb Traffic Remains Depressed Two Years Later
traffic through Bab el Mandeb is still down more than 2 years after the Houthis seized a cargo ship.
China’s April Investment Contracts, Tied to Fiscal Timing
Caixin: "China’s fixed-asset investment slipped back into contraction in April after a first-quarter expansion, as earlier policy support faded before new fiscal tools took effect. The pullback suggests China’s investment cycle remains highly dependent on fiscal timing rather than underlying...
Liquidity, Not SIPs, Drives Foreign Investment Inflows
I disagree with the notion that SIPs and domestic equity investors are what creates a negative in that foreign investors will leave. If all they were looking for is liquidity, then it's fine, they have it now, and they're leaving;...
Sub‑Saharan Giants Post Over 5% Growth Since 2000
Since 2000, several large sub-Saharan African economies have grown at rates that exceed 5% annually – among the fastest rates in the world. https://t.co/aFQMvpw6QJ https://t.co/lHxnlOWCm8
No‑headline US‑China Summit Reveals Bleak Outlook for US
My latest @opinion column looks at what last week's "no headline" US-China summit told us about the bilateral relationship, and little of it is good for the US side: https://t.co/RyxTa0KLuu (🎁) https://t.co/VGS33PAZL2
US Custodian Treasury Drop ≠ China’s Bond Holdings Decline
There is a bit more to the story -- Don't equate a fall in Treasuries held in US custodians with a real fall in China's holdings of US bonds https://t.co/ikBtmc32fc
Foreign Investors Flee India, $21B Out, 2026 Worst Since 199
#IndiaWatch🇮🇳: Foreign portfolio investors have pulled nearly $21 BILLION from Indian equities in the last 2 months. This makes 2026 the WORST YEAR for foreign capital flows since 1993. THE US-ISRAELI WAR ON IRAN HAS HIT INDIA AND ITS RUPEE HARD....
Infrastructure Spending Drives China's Growth Target, up 4.3%
Caixin: "Infrastructure investment remained relatively resilient, rising 4.3%, supported partly by spending on new infrastructure projects." No surprise. Infrastructure spending is the main thing under Beijing's control with which to hit the GDP growth target. https://t.co/oOGHoKEAkQ
US Neglect Ceded Global Trade Dominance to China
China didn't steal global trade dominance. The US handed it over. What happened between 2000 and 2025 was not a military victory or a political coup but the symptom of decline. It was WTO membership, manufacturing scale, commodity demand, and infrastructure investment...
China’s State Banks Hold $1.5 Trillion, Eclipsing Japan’s Reserves
The net foreign asset position of China's state banks (in both dollars and RMB) is now $1.5 trillion -- a rather big sum (close to 1/2 China's formal reserves, a sum bigger than Japan's reserves ... ) 1/ many https://t.co/Rd90nZTcgw
Trump‑Xi Summit Seeks Stability Amid Ongoing Disagreements
Five Takeaways From the Trump-Xi Summit—Both sides want to stabilize U.S.-China relations, but disagreements remain @hannahmiao_ @Kubota_Yoko https://t.co/6VYzkbTZoV https://t.co/6VYzkbTZoV
China’s Q1 Surplus Lifts Four‑quarter Total to $750bn
China's $184 billion q1 current account surplus pushed the surplus over the last 4qs of data to $750b -- a sum well short of the just under $1.2 trillion goods surplus/ what the surplus should be, but still a very...
Xi Urges US‑China Leaders to Defy Thucydides Trap
Xi's opening remarks ask whether China and the US can avoid the Thucydides Trap: "These are questions of history, of the world, and of the people. They are also the defining questions of our time that you and I, as...