Fitch Cuts China Rating Over Weakening Finances, Debt Concerns NEW Fitch Ratings downgraded China's sovereign rating to 'A' from 'A+' due to concerns over weakening finances and rising public debt. Summary by Bloomberg AI The downgrade reflects expectations that China's public finances will continue to weaken and public debt levels will continue to rise, based on forecasts made before the US imposed new tariffs. Summary by Bloomberg AI The downgrade could hurt China's borrowing plans, which include considering more regular debt sales to tap international investors, and Fitch forecasts that China's augmented deficit will widen to 8.4% of GDP in 2025. Summary by Bloomberg AI Fitch Ratings downgraded China’s sovereign rating on concerns over weakening finances and rising public debt, just one day after the US imposed higher tariffs on the country. The cut takes China’s long-term foreign currency default rating to ‘A’ from ‘A+’ with a stable outlook, Fitch...
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In the piece below, the WSJ encapsulates my politico-economic analysis of the relationship between production and politics. The Journal's editors acknowledge that the military might of the US may help Trump's strategy of re-shoring industrial production. But they object that "soft power" is essential. Essentially, then, they should concede that Trump is right on tariffs but wrong on ensuring Western hegemony. Re-shoring requires "re-assuring" of allies to ... ensure success! Trump’s New Protectionist Age - WSJ Trump’s New Protectionist Age All details aren’t clear as we write this, but Mr. Trump’s tariffs look “reciprocal” in name only. First he’s hitting every nation in the world with a 10% “baseline” tariff to sell in the U.S. market. For those he calls “bad actors,” he’s adding up the country’s tariff rate on U.S. goods, plus an arbitrary estimate of the cost of its “currency manipulation” and non-tariff barriers. He then takes that total number and ap...
A False Choice for Progressives Democrats don’t have to decide between the abundance and anti-monopoly movements. Illustration by Claudine Hellmuth/POLITICO (source images via iStock) Opinion by Hannah Garden-Monheit 04/03/2025 05:00 AM EDT Hannah Garden-Monheit is a senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project. She served in the Biden-Harris administration as director of the Federal Trade Commission’s office of policy planning and as special assistant to the president for economic policy at the National Economic Council. At a recent talk about his new book Abundance , Ezra Klein derided the anti-monopoly movement for a “monomaniacal” focus on antitrust , faulting anti-monopolists for purportedly trying to explain too many problems through the lens of corporate power. His co-author Derek Thompson elaborated that in the “abundance” worldview, government must be pro-business, because it is business that will build the housing and clean energy needed to...
This is an extremely important piece. All along, I have argued that the capitalist international division of social labour, from "directive" labour in the core countries to "operative" labour in the peripheries, is inconsistent with strategic geopolitical interests of the directive nations because the operative countries assume the material means to wage war - they produce guns and not just clever technical blueprints or financial engineering. As Mike Tyson put it, "we are all clever, until we get punched in the face!" Trump Tariffs Aim to Bring Down Curtain on Era of Globalization - WSJ Trump Tariffs Aim to Bring Down Curtain on Era of Globalization The new tariffs include a baseline duty of 10% on foreign imports and larger so-called reciprocal tariffs. China faces an additional 34% tariff on top of levies totaling 20% applied since February. When combined with levies from previous administrations, economists estimate that China now faces total tariffs o...
We have argued recently that AI will become commoditised and cannot justify the resources devoted to it in terms of profitability. Here is early proof: Microsoft Pulls Back on Data Centers From Chicago to Jakarta The construction site of the Docklands Data Centre Campus in London. Photographer: Betty Laura Zapata/Bloomberg Save Translate 6:43 NEW Microsoft has halted or delayed data center projects in several locations, including Indonesia, the UK, Australia, Illinois, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. Summary by Bloomberg AI The company's pullback on data center projects has raised concerns about demand for AI services and has weighed on global tech stocks, particularly chipmakers like Nvidia. Summary by Bloomberg AI Microsoft has acknowledged making changes to its data center plans, citing the need for flexibility in its strategy, but has not provided details on the specific projects affected. Summary by Bloomberg AI Microsoft Corp. has pulled back on data center project...
BOYCOTT SUCKERBERG! Congress Inside Congress newsletter 9 hours ago Senators to scrutinize Meta’s work in China A bipartisan trio of lawmakers is asking Mark Zuckerberg for internal documents. Hailey Fuchs 04/02/2025, 8:13pm ET Senators are probing Meta for its work to develop a presence in China, even in the wake of the company’s moves to boost its Republican credentials in President Donald Trump’s Washington. The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism will hold a hearing to scrutinize the parent company of Facebook and Instagram next Wednesday, which will be titled, “A Time for Truth: Oversight of Meta’s Foreign Relations and Representations to the United States Congress.” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), the chair of the subcommittee, joined the leadership of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to ask Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for a host of internal records relating to the company’s work in China. The letter to Zuckerberg da...
One of Martin Wolf's unfortunate proclivities is to believe the China story uncritically. The more history wrongs his impervious judgment, the more blindly he pursues it. Indeed, Wolf's own analysis and avowals here blatantly contradict his contention about Chinese economic potential: his policy advice for further Sinic growth may be correct; but he overlooks the most essential factor which, unless reversed, will surely doom China. That factor is the inability and unwillingness of the Chinese dictatorship- like all dictatorships that hold on to power indefinitely- to raise the income and welfare of its vast, albeit sinking, population. Given the the rest of the world will no longer allow China's vast trade surpluses to continue- something Wolf himself has often pointed out - the future of this truculent dictatorship, of its bestial myrmidons, and of its economy is dark indeed. The Trump tariffs may just have nailed the Chinese coffin! China sees an opportunity in Trump’s c...