The International Correspondent

By Alice Kantor Free storage, free currency trade and flexible interest rates: many a businessman is considering the commercial perks of the Shanghai Free Exchange Zone. The Chinese government announced on Sep 27 th the opening of a zone of free trade in the autonomous region of Shanghai. The zone, a total of 92,000 square feet, encompasses three areas: a part of Shanghai’s financial district, Pudong, a coast on the region’s North border and Yangshan port, by the East Sea. A trade haven The first goal of the zone is to attract commercial exchanges: goods are stored temporarily until sold on the Asian market. Foreign businessmen can store and exchange their products, free of charge and of control, for a specific amount of time. The areas have been strategically placed on the Northern and the Eastern coastal borders so as to facilitate import. A financial haven Competing with liberal Hong Kong, a city made by foreign investment, Shanghai is intent on becoming ...

Is the Phillips Curve still relevant?                             Alice Kantor on Dec 21st 2013       The 1958 Phillips curve establishes a negative connection between the rate of inflation and the rate of unemployment. It supports the idea that a low level of unemployment allows for employees to ask for higher wages (they do not fear unemployment), which subsequently increases the pace of the rising of general prices. The Phillips curve represents this trade-off between unemployment and inflation. In the 1960s, an estimate of the curve seemed to correctly encapsulate the functioning of the job market. Today, it does not seem to be the case anymore. A time series analysis of the periods between 1998 and 2012 enables us to draw the Phillips curve of the last decade. From then on, we can demonstrate that there is no clear connection between unemployment and inflation in that time peri...