boosted global trade and triggered a surge in commodity prices: The Economist's metals index is at ten-year From budding to blooming high. This has been a fillip to raw-materials producers, GDP growth, annual average such as Brazil, South Africa and Russia. Low global %2001-04 interest rates have also reduced debt-servic costs, and
From The Economist print edition Why the world cannot count on a repeat of the 1980s PARALLELS abound between Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Like the Gipper, Dubya is a sun- belt conservative with fondness for his ranch. In all, Mr Reagan spent about one year of his eight-year presidency at his California retreat. Mr Bush has turned his patch of Texan scrub near Crawford into the hottest destination for world leaders
Economist.comSURVEYS The price of profligacy Sep 18th 2003 From The Economist print edition How bad is America's borrowing binge? \I JUST think it's a meaningless concept\That was the verdict of Paul O'Neill, George Bush's plain-spoken first Treasury secretary on the current-account deficit. Mr O'Neill reckoned it was silly to worry about external imbalances in a global economy where capital flows
The economic emergence of a fixed exchange rate periphery in Asia has reestablished the United States as the center country in the Bretton Woods international monetary system. We argue that the normal evolution of the international monetary system involves the emergence of a periphery for which the development strategy is export-led growth supported by undervalued exchange rates