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November 22, 2024
 

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Christopher Lingle
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2001
Tobin tax: fodder for spendthrift pols
Suggestions have been made that the turmoil that swept through East Asia in 1997-98 is evidence of the instability of global capital markets. Supporters of this idea validated their claims by asserting that a contagion effect spread the turbulence to other emerging market economies.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2001
Fight the good fight for press freedom
What strange set of circumstances could connect the issue of tax probes of South Korean media outlets with China's bid for the Olympics and the advertising policy of a Hong Kong bank? While it may not seem obvious at first glance, the linkage relates to freedom of expression.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2001
OECD policy equals fiscal imperialism
There has been a lot of noise over the issue of tax laundering and tax havens. While much of the focus of publicity will be on stopping money-laundering associated with criminal activities, the subtext of it all will be to restrain tax competition. Despite the initial aim to limit "harmful tax competition,"...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 23, 2001
Bush may not be wrong to reject Kyoto
U.S. President George W. Bush has announced his opposition to an international global-warming treaty, citing the harm it could do the U.S. economy and the costs it would impose upon its workers. Predictably, this decision not to pursue approval of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change generated a firestorm...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2001
Nothing new about U.S. boom-bust cycle
Fears that a bear market in the United States will dampen consumer spending and cause a recession are unfounded. This is not to say that the U.S. economy will not experience a slowdown. But when the recession comes, it will be for a different reason.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2001
The high human cost of anticapitalism
There has been a rising swell of voices to denounce the forces of capitalism and globalization. It has gone beyond the normal complaints of professors, journalists and politicians who criticize capitalism and markets and, if not the wealth they create, the way it is distributed. Demonstrations at the...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2000
Keep government out of the stock market
A few months ago, members of Japan's ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party encouraged the government to take steps to prop up the stock market. They also urged the government to accelerate spending from the public-works reserve fund of 500 billion...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2000
Tax evasion vs. official misbehavior
Globalization is widely seen as contributing to clear increases in economic growth. Yet many governments view this development as a poisoned chalice. Politicians and bureaucrats fear that eliminating exchange controls and removing barriers to capital flows will lead to extensive revenue losses from tax...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 16, 2000
Globalization proves a taxing issue
Listening to the bureaucrats at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and in other transnational organizations like the European Union, it appears that the most pressing issues about globalization is the impact upon governments' ability to collect taxes. Of course, these international...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2000
Beijing's de facto currency devaluation
Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji approached Hong Kong officials to seek advice on the potential impact of greater flexibility in the valuation of the yuan and a possible devaluation. Of course, officials in Hong Kong are quite interested in the impact of changes in China's exchange-rate regime. Nonetheless,...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 24, 2000
Korea's chaebol are obstacles, not answers
South Korea's industrial conglomerates, the chaebol, were once seen as a driving force behind that country's high rates of economic growth. At the beginning of the 1997 economic crisis, optimists saw them as the engine that would pull South Korea out of its doldrums. Indeed, about 40 chaebol still account...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2000
Raising taxes invites economic catastrophe
Newspaper reports indicate that Japan's Tax Commission has used its role as an advisory panel to the prime minister to propose lowering the minimum taxable individual-income level. Raising taxes on the poor is justified by attempting to share the income-tax burden more widely. A wide range of allowable...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2000
No easy fix for Japan's economic woes
The debate over monetary policy in Tokyo is shaping up to be the mother-of-all-battles over economic policy. The latest skirmish began when Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami spoke out in favor of ending Japan's zero-interest policy.
COMMENTARY / World
May 27, 2000
Politicians don't create jobs, people do
As Japan's leaders do battle against the ravages of deflation and recessionary conditions that grip their economy, unemployment rates are at a postwar high. Government data indicate the unemployment rate set a record high for the second consecutive month in March and now stands at 4.9 percent.
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2000
Making mountains out of molehills
SYDNEY -- China's opening to the world amid its economic reform and modernization has brought immeasurable benefits to many of its citizens who are being enriched through growing trade linkages. Trading with the rest of the world and even the lukewarm welcoming of foreign investment capital have improved...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2000
China clamps down on Hong Kong press
SYDNEY -- While the rest of the world debates the terms under which they might engage China, Beijing is busy trampling on its agreement with the British over Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty. In the handover agreement, both parties agreed upon Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, as...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2000
The risks of banking on Japan's future
SYDNEY -- The near-zero interest-rate policy pursued so doggedly by Japan's government and central bank has created an incentive structure for corporate managers that encourages bank borrowing rather than turning to security markets for investment funds. In so doing, corporate borrowers face less pressure...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2000
High savings symptomatic of Asian crisis
SYDNEY -- A high rate of saving among Asians was once credited for its important contribution to the remarkable performance of their "miracle" economies. It has become clear that neither aggressive investment spending nor high saving rates can guarantee sustainable growth. Now, high savings should be...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2000
Take politics out of economic decisions
It is amazing how quickly conventional wisdom can shift. Just a few years ago, most people would have considered as heretical a proposal that central banks should make decisions independent of the influence of the executive and legislative branches of government. Today, central bank independence is universally...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 1999
No mystery to doing business in China
It seems that many so-called China experts try to enhance the value of their services by attributing a certain amount of "inscrutability" to the Chinese that only they can decipher. Besides being a patently offensive assertion, this is also grossly misleading.
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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