China’s government has tried to shut down showings of the movie Avatar. Why? Because it is too successful. The Chinese public is choosing Avatar over the locally made movies. So, where is the counter pressure from the US? Our jobs are supposed to advance to providing higher value goods that we export. But when we […]

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 I remember my Econ professors in the 1970s saying that countries can not long maintain an artificial exchange rate. They were wrong as Professor Krugman points out below. Also, these same professors said cartels can’t last a long time. This was during the formation of OPEC. I wonder what was their definition of “long time?” […]

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This is a set of commentary and analysis from a specialist in international affairs that might be off most people’s radars. The group is called Stratfor. They specialize in international analyses for businesses and investors. China and Separatism China also faces significant hurdles, albeit none as daunting as Russia’s challenges. China’s core is the farmland […]

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New York Times is reporting on Google realizing that China internet access to YouTube has dropped to near zero. It harkens back to George Orwell’s book 1984 where the government would re-write or change the news it did not like. Ultimately this will fail, fortunately. We are in an interconnected world. Those who could access […]

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I saw some pretty scary stuff this past weekend. They were fakes of some of the rarest, but attainable, coins in the coin collecting hobby. They came from China. This is happening even though there is a 1973 act, US Hobby Protection Act – 15USC-2101, says that coins must be marked as ‘COPY’ when brought […]

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News agencies are reporting China’s courts issuing death sentences to two executives involved with one of the firms involved with producing melamine tainted milk that lead to the deaths of thousands of infants. Does the punishment fit the crime? I’m not sure any punishment does. Does another killing fix a first killing? Are these ‘public […]

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It was good that President Obama’s inaugural was carried live around the world. It was good that he was a few minutes late in getting started. Why? Because the censors in China could not adjust in real time to completely cover up parts of his speech. As a result, some of it got through. President […]

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New York Times reports: BEIJING — Local officials in Shandong Province have apparently found a cost-effective way to deal with gadflies, whistle-blowers and all manner of muckraking citizens who dare to challenge the authorities: dispatch them to the local psychiatric hospital. In an investigative report published Monday by a state-owned newspaper, public security officials in […]

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As companies eventually look to their own self interest, which ultimately is the self interest of their customers, we will start to see more actions as reported in this Business Week article: China Losing Luster with U.S. Manufacturers A new survey finds rising worries about product quality and intellectual-property theft. More U.S. companies are looking […]

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What caught my attention in the following AP report was the “…more than 10,000 children remain hospitalized…”. I may have missed it but this is the first I’ve seen such a number. Given the wording, “remain hospitalized” means that there were many more. Now China’s got a huge population but still this is a lot […]

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