News & Insights

Plane crashes, Brexit chaos, and leadership in a fog of uncertainty

Author: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute

Who or what is to blame for the Boeing 737 MAX 8 disasters? Andrew Sheng, Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, talks about how an investigation into the cause recalls the way leaders across the world grapple with today’s highly complex problems, and the comparison is hardly reassuring.

An Accountant’s Guide to Quantum Finance

Author: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute

Counterintuitive quantum concepts can be difficult to understand. Quantum physics is now widely accepted for its capacity to explain things classical physics cannot — but its lessons extend beyond the physical sciences. Andrew Sheng, Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, argues that finance is quantum in nature because finance is a representation of nature.

Condivergence: Polanyi’s great transformation

Author: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute

In his Condivergence series in The Edge Malaysia, Andrew Sheng, Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, explains how the neoliberal free market economies are trapped in a dilemma of their own making, and how Polanyi’s historical and sociological analysis is more superior to the broken market creed.

Unleashing women's potential

Author: Noeleen Heyzer, Distinguished Fellow, Asia Global Institute

In her op-ed to Bangkok Post, Noeleen Heyzer, Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, says that the unleashing of women's potential has begun to transform our societies.

What Is Xi Jinping’s Major Power Diplomacy?

Author: Yoshikazu Kato, Adjunct Associate Professor, Asia Global Institute

With China’s foreign policy in the spotlight during the annual meeting of its legislature, Asia Global Institute's Adjunct Associate Professor Yoshikazu Kato outlines his thoughts on what this diplomacy is and how it came about.

Unlike Warren Buffet, the world is missing the forest for the trees, evident in the proliferation of debt

Author: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute

Berkshire Hathaway sees its investments as groves of trees, still picked for their solid fundamentals. Meanwhile, Asia Global Institute's Distinguished Fellow Andrew Sheng says that the world has spent the past decade feeling rich due to a bubble of debt and central bank liquidity, ignoring challenges like climate change.

Will Economic Disarray Challenge Xi’s Power?

Author: Yoshikazu Kato, Adjunct Associate Professor, Asia Global Institute

In his New York Times (Chinese version) op-ed, Yoshikazu Kato, Adjunct Associate Professor of Asia Global Institute, explores whether President Xi Jingping’s power would be challenged due to the recent disarray in China’s economy.

Stock Buybacks Are the Wrong Target

Author: Michael Spence, Advisory Board Co-Chair, Asia Global Institute

Michael Spence, Advisory Board Co-Chair of Asia Global Institute, argues that limiting companies' purchases of their own shares will not address economic inequality.

Can Trump Make a Deal with China?

Authors: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute / Geng Xiao, Professor, HKU

Asia Global Institute's Distinguished Fellow Andrew Sheng and HKU Professor Geng Xiao think Trump can make a deal with China only if his administration abandons its zero-sum approach to trade and multilateral cooperation.

Condivergence: The neo-liberal order and its discontents

Author: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute

Andrew Sheng, Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, talks about the neo-liberal order and its discontents in his Condivergence series in The Edge Malaysia.

From Brexit to the US-China trade war, it’s time to be realistic about solutions or risk massive global fallout

Author: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute

Andrew Sheng, Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, says the reversal of globalisation is a major risk to global growth. If deals are not struck on Brexit and the trade war, steps such as competitive currency devaluation could lead to a 1930s-style recession.

Embrace diversity or accept divorce

Author: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute

Andrew Sheng, Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, talks about the two major negotiations in March 2019: Brexit and US-China trade war.

Artificial Intelligence or Augmented Stupidity?

Author: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute

Andrew Sheng, Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, talks about the potential for AI and what is happening to AI globally.

Condivergence: China’s mental maps

Author: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute

Andrew Sheng, Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, analyses why China’s economic and political system is different from the Western one through the divergence of the Chinese and Western ways of thinking, values and ideals in his Condivergence series in The Edge Malaysia.

The free market is a destructive myth. Down with the free market

Author: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute

Andrew Sheng, Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, says the free market is a bad idea that probably belongs in the rubbish bin of history. A system where human beings and mother nature have been reduced to cogs and commodities has brought only misery, and climate change.

When Will China Achieve Quality Growth?

Authors: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute / Geng Xiao, Professor, HKU

Asia Global Institute's Distinguished Fellow Andrew Sheng and Xiao Geng identify several crucial steps that are needed to achieve inclusive, innovative, and sustainable growth.

Should Beijing prop up stock markets to combat its slowest economic growth since 1990?

Professor Zhiwu Chen, Director of Asia Global Institute, shares his comments with the South China Morning Post why it is problematic if the Beijing government intervenes in the stock market to attempt to combat slowing economic growth.

CEO Agenda 2019 for the Fashion Industry

Initiated by Global Fashion Agenda, a non-profit organization for fashion industry's collaboration on sustainability, CEO Agenda 2019 spells out eight priorities that will help make fashion more sustainable.

Ten Highlights of China's Commercial Sector 2019

Key trends have been identified by 160 top-tier experts in China’s commercial sector from the Expert Committee of China General Chamber of Commerce together with the team from Fung Business Intelligence to draw key insights into China’s commercial developments over the coming year.

An Unshakable Powerlessness as a Venezuelan

Author: Yoshikazu Kato, Adjunct Associate Professor, Asia Global Institute

Yoshikazu Kato, Adjunct Associate Professor at Asia Global Institute, talks about the issues faced by Venezuelans and the resulting unshakable feeling of powerlessness living in that country.

What Next for China’s Development Model?

Author: Michael Spence, Advisory Board Co-Chair, Asia Global Institute

Michael Spence, Advisory Board Co-Chair of Asia Global Institute, argues that tensions with the West will be a major factor shaping further economic reform.

From Donald Trump’s government shutdown to Brexit chaos, is a pattern emerging of women restoring order?

Author: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute

Andrew Sheng, Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, says climate change and human inequality are the urgent problems political and business leaders should be focusing on. With male leaders ineffectual, and worse, the rise of women offers some hope.

No absolutes, no certainty: welcome to life in a quantum world (aka Trump’s world)

Author: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute

Andrew Sheng, Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, says the US leader’s erratic behaviour in fact illustrates some of the principles of quantum physics that more accurately describe the physical world and human behaviour. When old rules don’t apply, new thinking is required.

How Inequality Undermines Economic Performance

Author: Michael Spence, Advisory Board Co-Chair, Asia Global Institute

Michael Spence, Advisory Board Co-Chair of Asia Global Institute, explains why non-inclusive growth patterns are inherently unsustainable.

Fake news, cooked books and declining trust – who can we believe when markets and politics corrupt each other?

Author: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute

Andrew Sheng, Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, says the ongoing decline in institutional trust is caused by the capture of the state by business interests. What’s less clear is the solution.

Free market can’t save us from climate change – the likes of China, not the US, can lead the effort though

Author: Andrew Sheng, Member, Asia Global Institute

Andrew Sheng, Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, says the world has bigger problems than trade or national security threats. Instead of spending on defence against each other or leaving it to the free market, countries should step up and deal with climate change.

China Still Lacks a Consistent "Story"

Zhiwu Chen, Director of Asia Global Institute, talks about China’s reform and why the country still lacks a consistent value and institutional system after 40 years of transformation.