News stories by Vladimir Popov

BERLIN, Sep 06 (IPS) - The main contradiction of the modern era, and indeed of all human history, is not between capitalism and socialism, and not even between authoritarianism and democracy, but between individualism and collectivism, between public and personal interests.

Countries that are getting ahead in the economic race allow themselves the luxury of individualism, prioritizing human rights, which ultimately undermines their political and economic power and causes their decline and the rise of more collectivist civilizations. It is literally the story that is as old, as the world itself…

BERLIN and KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 06 (IPS) - Industrial policy – or the promotion of particular investments, technologies, industries, regions and enterprises – has been practiced by a variety of governments to try to accelerate economic growth and transformation.

BERLIN and KUALA LUMPUR, Sep 22 (IPS) - ‘Ethno-populism' has emerged and spread in recent decades in response to the mixed consequences of neoliberal globalization. It appropriates nationalist rhetoric for narrow ethnic, religious, cultural or other communal ends, typically with a chauvinist, jingoist rejection of selected Others as politically expedient.

BERLIN and KUALA LUMPUR, Sep 15 (IPS) - In recent decades, many contemporary macroeconomic and financial problems have been blamed on ‘soft budget constraints' (SBCs), with the term becoming quite popular in the economics lexicon, financial media and political discourse.

BERLIN and KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 21 (IPS) - GDP has been increasingly challenged on many grounds as a measure of economic and social progress. Clearly, GDP does not take account of other dimensions of wellbeing, natural resource depletion or environmental damage.

BERLIN and KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 04 (IPS) - The world economic contraction so far this year is largely due to measures, especially at the national or local level, to contain or prevent Covid-19 contagion, particularly those restricting business operations, thus reducing economic activity, output, incomes and spending.

BERLIN, May 13 (IPS) - In public health discussions, it is generally recognized that the social returns to health care investments are greater than the private returns, and much of such investments should be financed by the state.

BERLIN and KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 19 (IPS) - It is now clear that most East Asian government responses to novel coronavirus or Covid-19 outbreaks have been effective. In Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan, the number infected have remained relatively low despite their proximity and vulnerability, while containment in China and South Korea has been impressive.

BERLIN and KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 (IPS) - One mercantilist view is that exchange rate undervaluation – e.g., via accumulation of foreign exchange reserves in China's case – is ‘industrial policy' to promote export-led growth, benefiting producers of exports while discouraging imports.

BERLIN and KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 (IPS) - China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 14%. Since then, its growth rate has declined by more than half to 6.6% in 2018. The five-year moving average growth rate is at its lowest since reforms began in 1978, although annual growth briefly fell lower during 1979, the year of the Tian An Men incident.