Word: free-market
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...become closer than ever. Japan backed America's antiterror campaign, for example, by marshaling refueling missions in the Indian Ocean to support U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Japan was looking more American at home as well. Under Junichiro Koizumi, Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006, the government adopted several free-market reforms to try to restore growth to the perpetually sluggish economy...
...provide a clear direction on policy or control a three-party ruling coalition that is a grab bag of politicians with contradictory ideologies, from relative conservatives to outright socialists. Open disagreements have broken out between Cabinet members, especially over the controversial privatization of Japan's postal system - a free-market initiative begun, not incidentally, during Koizumi's term as Prime Minister. "Whenever you try to get down to reforms you're bound to face difficulties," Hatoyama says, but he insists he has the support of the DPJ and is working cooperatively with his coalition partners. (See the new activism...
...struggles with China over the relative value of its currency capture this dynamic well. The renminbi - it means "the people's money" - is the place where China's control economy touches the free-market world. Just as tensions with the Soviet Union sharpened at places where systems collided, the same will be true of China: the renminbi is the new Berlin. It needs to be handled with appropriate sophistication by both sides, especially since it reveals a deeper tension. Chinese find it inconceivable that the dollar will be the only global reserve currency in 10 years; Americans find it inconceivable...
...Smith was also onto something that many free-market fans who pledge allegiance to him miss. The world is a complicated place. Markets don't exist free of societies and governments and regulators and customs and moral sentiments; they are entwined. Also, while markets often deliver wondrous results, an outcome is not by definition good simply because the market delivers it. Some other standards have to be engaged...
...Such parties are best placed, she says, to promise handouts and paternalism, the things people want at a time of financial crisis. "We've played that bloody game with the Bolsheviks before, and the motives behind these protests are again material. These people don't want to hear about free-market capitalism and European integration. These are foreign notions here, and they will support anyone still capable of throwing them a bone. Don't be confused. The government still has bones to throw...