In this three-part video interview, Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, discusses with Chrystia Freeland, FT’s US managing editor, a range of topical issues concerning the global economy, new economic hotspots, China’s currency peg and lessons from the crisis.

Part 1: China and the dollar Zoellick talks about President Barack Obama’s recent trip to China and the effects of Chinese currency being pegged to the dollar. He also discusses increased criticism from China of US economic policy.

Click here or on the image below to view Part 1 of the interview.

Part 2: World economy Zoellick talks about the state of the world economy, including the financial recovery, concerns about protectionism and the role the US consumer will play in the recovery. Additionally, he discusses America’s fiscal position, the weakening US

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This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (Telegraph): Is $6,300 fair value for gold? November 19, 2009. The last parabolic spike in gold took off when central banks joined the fray in the 1970s, hoarding bullion with the same enthusiasm as gold bugs. Dylan Grice from Société Générale says it smells much the same today. He sees an eerie similarity between the decision of India’s central bank to buy half the IMF’s entire sale of gold, and the move by France’s central bank to start converting dollars into gold in 1965.

• Gregory Zuckerman (The Wall Street Journal): John Paulson making big new bet on gold, November 19, 2009. John Paulson, who scored about $20 billion of profits between 2007 and early

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President Obama's trip to China has returned to scrutiny the role of China's currency and macroeconomic policies in perpetuating global imbalances. [0] [1] [2]

Figure 1: Log real value of RMB (blue, left axis), and Chinese trade balance in billions USD at annual rates (red, right axis) from Chinese statistical sources, and twelve month trailing moving average (maroon). Source: IMF, International Financial Statistics, ADB, NBER and author's calculations.

Various observers have continued to ascribe a central role to real RMB appreciation to effect global rebalancing. I think it's useful to remember that, given a Chinese trade balance in excess of 260 billion USD, appreciation can only have a certain impact. From Cheung, Chinn and Fujii (forthcoming):

...using a single equation error correction model, allowing for coefficient shifts with Chinese accession to WTO, leads to a statistically insignificant estimate of the price elasticity. In

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Japanese cosmetics company Shiseido has announced plans to introduce a new brand into China with the aim of gaining 20% growth in this market. According to Yasuhiko Harada, the chief financial officer of Shiseido, the company made revenues of JPY690 billion last year. Of the total revenue, 10% was from the Chinese market. Shiseido says that due [...]

This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Robert Reich (Robert Reich’s Blog): The great disconnect between stocks and jobs, November 18, 2009. How can the stock market hit new highs at the same time unemployment is hitting new highs? Simple. The market is up because corporate earnings are up. Corporate earnings are up because companies are cutting costs. And the biggest single cost they’re cutting is their payrolls. So they let people go and, presto, their balance sheets look better and their stock prices rise. Where is this heading? No place good. Without a major shift in policy - both at the Fed and in the White House - the economics point to a big stock-market correction and a double dip. The politics point to substantial losses for Democrats

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This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Robert Reich (Robert Reich’s Blog): The great disconnect between stocks and jobs, November 18, 2009. How can the stock market hit new highs at the same time unemployment is hitting new highs? Simple. The market is up because corporate earnings are up. Corporate earnings are up because companies are cutting costs. And the biggest single cost they’re cutting is their payrolls. So they let people go and, presto, their balance sheets look better and their stock prices rise. Where is this heading? No place good. Without a major shift in policy - both at the Fed and in the White House - the economics point to a big stock-market correction and a double dip. The politics point to substantial losses for Democrats

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British retail giant Tesco has announced that it will set up a joint venture in China to develop its shopping center business in the nation. The joint venture will be 50% owned by Tesco and the remaining 50% will be owned by Asian investors, including HSBC Nan Fung China Real Estate Fund, Singapore's Metro Holdings, and [...]

This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• OUPblog: Oxford Word of the Year 2009: Unfriend, November 16, 2009. Every year the New Oxford American Dictionary prepares for the holidays by making its biggest announcement of the year.  This announcement is usually applauded by some and derided by others and the ongoing conversation it sparks is always a lot of fun, so I encourage you to let us know what you think in the comments.

Without further ado, the 2009 Word of the Year is: “unfriend”. “Unfriend” - verb - to remove someone as a “friend” on a social networking site such as Facebook.

• Martin Wolf (Financial Times): Grim truths Obama should have told Hu, November 17, 2009. Obama

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Charlie Rose sits down with Henry Kissinger, German-American scholar and Secretary of State of the United States from 1973 to 1977, to discuss President Obama’s visit to China.

A link to the transcript of the interview follows at the end of the post.

Click here or on the image below to view the video. (As there is no direct link to the clip, you need to click on “Archive” on the Charlie Rose site, and then scroll down to the President Obama’s trip video of November 16.)

Click here for a transcript of the interview.

Source: Charlie Rose, November 16, 2009.

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The South Korean retailer, Lotte Mart, has opened its first hypermarket in Beijing at Gongyi Xiqiao. With a total area of 24,000 square meters, this new hypermarket will provide a variety products, will have over 300 free parking spaces, and will host fast food restaurants serving Chinese, Western, Japanese, and South Korean delicacies. Compared with Lotte [...]