Brookings Institution – Questions and Insights

Posted by Bill Belew on April 20th, 2006 in China, India, Japan | 4 Comments

This is one last blog about the panel discussion of the fellows from Brookings Institution when they spoke at UC San Francisco.

It is not difficult to see how politics influences business influences economies and the other way around.

These points/questions were raised:

1. Koreans generally want the US to stay in Korea even though the military’s function there has been long outlived. In this way the US can function as a balancer bewteen Korea/Japan/China.

2.  Japan has granted favored nation status to China.

3. Japan and Korea trade more with China than the US does.

4.  Is China an economic superpower only in volume – considering the number of poor there still are in China?

5.  Japan is now the number two economy in Asia and maybe number three – behind India.

6.  Japan must be more consistent in its apologies with its Asian neighbors in order to smooth out relations.

These are big concerns/ big questions – and each could be a blog in itself.

What do you think about any/all of these points?

Where is Asia headed?

Or should we leave it to the Brookings Institution thinkers to decide?

 


 

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  1. panasianbiz says

    April 21, 2006

    If everybody is working…then business and the economy is good…I would go for unemployment rate.

    Reply
  2. ashok says

    April 20, 2006

    Goodness, I was asking you!

    Point 4 probably reveals a deep irony about China’s economic power, and one wonders if a similar point can be made about India.

    Reply
  3. panasianbiz says

    April 20, 2006

    GDP, unemployment rate…everyone has their own criteria.

    What do you think?

    Reply
  4. ashok says

    April 20, 2006

    Regarding point 5, what determines the strength of an economy?

    Reply