Christopher Lingle - The Japan Times

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Christopher Lingle

For Christopher Lingle's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 6, 2006

Jakarta can't spend a way to prosperity

UBUD, Indonesia -- Indonesia's chief economic minister, Boediono, along with Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Bank Indonesia Gov. Burhanuddin Abdullah are credible and competent bureaucrats. They put forth an action agenda of economic reforms designed to reinvigorate the local investment climate and to speed up the resolution of disputes with foreign investors.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 4, 2005

Folly of vying to rule rather than serve

KATMANDU -- The struggle over Nepal's political future seems to be unsolvable. Just as one group gains the upper hand and consolidates support for their cause, the opportunity slips away in a haze of bullets or boycotts.

COMMENTARY / World

Oct 20, 2005

Proposals threaten South Korean growth

NEW DELHI -- Han Duck Soo, South Korea's deputy prime minister and minister of finance and economy, has unleashed a perfect storm of destructive policy proposals that may ensure that his country's economy remains stuck in under-performance mode. His declarations reveal him to be an inept custodian of the areas of his ministerial brief. It is bad enough that such incompetence should embarrass the ruling Uri Party, but implementation of these policies would seriously damage the South Korean economy.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 19, 2005

Tax cuts key to sustained economic growth

NEW DELHI -- Political officials around the world, even in European welfare states, have discovered that offering tax cuts are not just a vote winner that can swing the outcome of an election. They are also a good way to spark sustained economic growth. So it is not surprising that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has pledged to reduce both corporate and personal taxes to encourage increased investment in Indonesia.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 25, 2005

When will China's miracle hit the wall?

PHILADELPHIA -- U.S. "Fed" Governor Ben Bernanke has blamed net inflows of capital from the rest of the world, especially China, for a global savings glut that is driving up the U.S. current account deficit. Unfortunately, some commentators have echoed this seemingly plausible but outrageously silly idea.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 27, 2005

Will South Korea's economy follow Japan's?

GUATEMALA CITY -- Despite numerous economic stimulus packages during his tenure in office, South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun must regret his promise to oversee annual economic growth of about 7 percent during his five-year term. As it is, the South Korean economy grew in the first quarter of 2005 at the slowest pace in almost two years with GDP increasing by only 2.7 percent from a year earlier, the slowest rate since the third quarter of 2003. The economy also failed to meet expectations in 2004 with economic growth of only 4.6 percent.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 28, 2005

Low rates endanger South Korean banks

GUATEMALA CITY -- Misguided central-bank policies are wreaking havoc around the world. From Seoul to Washington and back, central bankers have forced down short-term interest rates in an orgy of monetary promiscuity.

COMMENTARY / World

Feb 11, 2005

Easy money set up today's dollar slump

GUATEMALA CITY -- There is a great deal of misunderstanding about why the dollar is in a slump. But it's no mystery. Recently, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was quoted as blaming America's infamous twin deficits for the fall of the dollar. And many financial talking heads murmured with relief when U.S. President George W. Bush stated that his administration was committed to a "strong dollar" policy.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 10, 2005

U.S. has self to blame for weaker dollar

UBUD, Bali -- Earth to China-bashers: Beijing should not be blamed for America's trade deficits or for the weakness of the dollar. Those that believe so are confusing symptoms with causes. Other elements of conventional wisdom have it that there is some choice as to whether the exchange value of the dollar will rise or fall.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 8, 2004

Tax and spend no better than borrow and spend

UBUD, Bali -- For most politicians and bureaucrats, so-called tax reform is a cover for them to raise taxes. And so it is not surprising that Japan's Tax Commission insists it is impossible to avoid tax increases to sort out Tokyo's fiscal problems. But it turns out that this assertion is based on logic that places the interests of politicians and bureaucrats above the interest of citizens and taxpayers.

COMMENTARY / World

Nov 8, 2004

China leads but don't count India out

GUATEMALA CITY -- During his visit to India in 2002, the local media fawned over Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji. To a considerable degree the deference shown to him was justified on strategic grounds, given that it came during a time of great instability in South Asia. Yet his proclamations concerning economic affairs were given disproportionate weight.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 16, 2004

State debt no boon for financial markets

PRAGUE -- There is a palpable schizophrenia concerning public-sector debt. On one hand, a high proportion of public-sector debt relative to gross domestic product is seen as a warning sign that a country is suffering from macroeconomic imbalances. Similarly, a high ratio of government debt to total debt is generally considered to be incompatible with long-term economic growth.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 6, 2004

Pie-in-the-sky Asian monetary reform

GUATEMALA CITY -- Following the experiences of the European Union's euro zone, a common currency area for Asia has been widely discussed. Even though an Asian monetary union is a fantasy that ignores both economic and political realities, respectable economists have bought into the idea.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 8, 2004

Inflation targeting can hurt the econom

PARIS -- Many central bankers have been singing the praises of inflation targeting as a way to guarantee stable price levels and bring about sustained economic growth. For its part, the Bank of England helped pioneer inflation targeting and is credited with successfully holding deviations within 1 percentage point from above or below a target rate of 2.5 percent.

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 4, 2004

Seoul's labor moves could destroy jobs

LUXEMBOURG -- Democracy everywhere increasingly involves politicians seeking short-run gains for themselves and small interest-groups while imposing large costs on most of the population. This trend toward cynical, zero-sum games is most evident in South Korea when it comes to the labor market. It is commonplace for populism to be allowed to overwhelm common sense, economic rationality and majority interests.

COMMENTARY / World

May 1, 2004

China lacks sincerity in seeking apologies

GUATEMALA CITY -- It is a constant refrain of officials in Beijing that no other country should interfere with its internal affairs or even pass comment on events that occur inside China. However, this insistence on "noninterference" only works one way since Chinese officials often venture opinions on the internal events in other countries.

COMMENTARY / World

Apr 25, 2004

Fear and loathing of the private sector

GUATEMALA CITY -- Citing Microsoft's dominance in the personal-computer industry, European Union regulators imposed tough sanctions, including a record fine of 497 million euros (about $596 million). Following the arguments of this ruling, South Korean authorities have taken their own actions. Meanwhile, Japanese officials raided Microsoft offices in Tokyo in search of evidence of misdeeds. Earlier, U.S. antitrust regulators had registered a partial victory in a court battle to rein in the software giant.

COMMENTARY / World

Mar 11, 2004

Income disparities widening in China

UBUD, Bali -- China's leaders in Beijing are eager to heap blame on other countries for their past misdeeds and real or imagined affronts to the dignity of the Chinese people. But the ruling Communist Party should be cautious about casting stones at others while occupying its own glass house. China has a history not only of inequalities of income and wealth but also of great disparities in authoritarian rule by despotic monarchs, warlords and autocrats.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 19, 2004

S. Korea's recipe for economic disaster

COLOMBO -- A gathering of South Korea's leading policymakers and economists have agreed that Seoul should apply fiscal-stimulus measures through the first half of 2004. It is a great tragedy that this conclusion reflects the best judgments of mainstream economic orthodoxy, because the simple fact is, they are wrong.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 30, 2003

China, like Japan, using wrong antidote

GUATEMALA CITY -- Just when it seems that China was escaping the economic disasters typical of the bad old days of communism, it is succumbing to the theories of warmed-over Keynesianism. Beijing is giving up class struggle and central planning for discredited tools designed to manage aggregate demand. Whereas central planning kept China's economy on the brink of collapse, Keynesian-style policies will, well, bring China's economy to the brink of collapse.

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