Guo Yiming — China's exclusion from TPP and TTIP against globalization

The major international trade pacts known as the TPP and TTIP will involve historical errors without China's participation, a Chinese expert claimed during the annual conference of the Istanbul Chamber of Industry on Saturday.

Wang Wen, executive dean of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, a think tank under Beijing's prestigious Renmin University, made the remark during a session on the rise of free trade agreements.

As the only Chinese representative invited to the event, Wang voiced his concern on the exclusiveness and creating negative influence for the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that are set to launch a new revolution in the international economic and trade system.

"Fresh trade protectionism is taking shape with new forms, and the unnecessary internal frictions in competition between developed countries and emerging economies continue to grow," said Wang, expressing concern the negative influences of TPP and TTIP could cause large scale strategic misjudgment, and increase tensions and uncertainties in the global economic and political systems.

He said the controversial trade pacts, which exclude all emerging economies, such as China, India, Russia, Brazil, and whose standards are obviously favorable to the developed nations, overlook the former's rights, and constitute a powerful rejection and even discriminate against them. He regarded the pacts as a de facto trade barrier protecting the developed countries' interests.…

Protectionism masquerading as "free trade."

China.org.cn
China's exclusion from TPP and TTIP against globalization

Guo Yiming

Ryan Avent — The global secular savings stagnation glut

What this discussion should make clear is that secular stagnation isn't much of a puzzle. Rather, it is a dilemma. The ageing societies of the rich world want rapid income growth and low inflation and a decent return on safe investments and limited redistribution and low levels of immigration. Well you can't have all of that. And what they have decided is that what they're prepared to sacrifice is the rapid income growth. In aggregate that decision looks somewhat reasonable if not entirely right. But it is a choice with pretty significant distributional consequences. And the second era of secular stagnation will come to an end when political and demographic shifts allow the losers from this arrangement to say: enough.

The Economist
The global secular savings stagnation glut
Ryan Avent
ht Tyler Cowen

See also Brad DeLong, The Current State of the Secular Stagnation-Savings Glut Debate

They haven't figured out that the problem is stagnant wages coupled with desire/ability to borrow to finance consumption is the issue and that interest rates are not the solution to this problem. The previous model of financing consumption on the back of household debt is over unless wages rise significantly, or government provides the funding, which is out of favor politically. So in the end this "secular stagnation" is really brain stagnation at the top.