Original Articles
The following are articles published originally on the New Silk Road Monitor Site.
The Top Ten Largest Chinese Companies
The Fortune magazine Global 500 annual list of the world's largest companies by revenue has always been a high-profile, headline-grabbing snapshot of global business. This year, however, it's also a snapshot of our emerging geo-economic order. For the first time in...
Troubles Mount for Sudan Amid Covid-19 Challenge
Two recent articles on Sudan, one in the New York Times and the other in Asharq Al-Awsat, highlight the immense challenges faced by the East African country over the next year amid the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the IMF, Sudan faces a 7.2% economic contraction -...
Charlie Lay: Demand Shocks and the Death of the Bull Market
I recently met Charlie Lay in November of 2019 at the CommerzBank Emerging Markets Macro Conference held in Dubai. Charlie is a Singapore-based senior economist and FX strategist at CommerzBank, one of Germany's largest banks and its biggest player in trade finance...
Korean Air Pilots Go on Unpaid Leave to Save Airline
Global airlines continue to stare down the abyss as the novel coronavirus pandemic has crushed bottom lines amid a historic slowdown in air travel. Airlines across the world are clamoring for government support. Korean Airlines is trying a different tactic, opting to...
Robin Mills on Oil Prices, “Demand Destruction” and Iraq, Oman, and Iran Pain
I've known Robin Mills for more than a decade and he is always one of my favorite people to see on my Dubai visits. In one sitting, Robin will take you on a tour d'horizon of the Middle East energy landscape. It's not surprising to me that Foreign Policy called him...
Breaking: Saudi Arabia Seals off Three Major Cities in Coronavirus Battle
In an unprecedented move, Saudi Arabia has sealed off three major cities, barring exit or entry to the country's capital Riyadh, and the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina in response to the coronavirus pandemic, as reported in global news agencies. The Kingdom also...
Fareed Mohamedi: Wall Street Losing Romance With Shale
Fareed Mohamedi is one of the smartest guys I know on oil markets, the geopolitics of energy, the New Silk Road, and the political economies of oil-rich states. He has worked at Statoil, PFC Energy, Moody’s Investor Service, the Institute of International Finance, and...
South Korea, Other Asian Economies Headed for Contraction: S&P
Revised Downward. We'll be hearing those two words a lot over the next month as ratings agencies scramble to update their forecasts for countries and companies reeling from the historic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The latest "revised downward" forecast from S&P...
Asian EM Currencies Feeling Covid-19 Pinch As Flight to Dollar Rises
Emerging market currencies across Asia are feeling the pinch from the Covid-19 pandemic, with values in some places falling to levels not seen since the 1998 Asian financial crisis. An Asian currency stress test by a leading European bank discovered the most trouble...
Japan Mulls $270 Billion Stimulus Package to Battle Covid-19
Japan is considering a stimulus package of some $270 billion to counteract the economic decline triggered by the global Covid-19 pandemic, according to Japan Times. This amounts to double the emergency economic package initiated by the government after the 2008-9...
