Reg S: A new book gets Karl hot under the collar

The definition of insanity, Albert Einstein once postulated, is to do the same thing over and over again and each time expect different results. We all do it, of course: yet no one person or institution is more insane than the nation-state that adamantly refuses to learn from past mistakes. If a plan failed last time, governments often tell themselves, it was surely the result of bad implementation – and not because it was just a bad plan. So why not try it again? Over the past year, we have seen that sort of skewed thinking again invade the...

Narendra Modi swept to power in the world’s second-most populous country with promises of bold reform. But his privatisation plan, one of the cornerstones of an ambitious campaign to revitalise the Indian economy, has had only mixed success. To help balance the budget, Modi pledged to raise upward of US$10bn by selling minority stakes in state enterprises to the private sector. He has managed barely half that amount, and many of the part-privatisations were near-disasters, salvaged at the very last moment by state-run investment vehicles. In...

Asia will need to search far and wide to meet a huge energy and environmental bill as it turns its back on fossil-fuel dependency. The fast-growing pool of funds in the green bond market seems an obvious solution, but, so far, the region is paying no more than lip service to the concept of environmentally responsible funding. To change that, the new format will require borrowers to retune their approach to cost and transparency – two areas that have historically proven major hurdles for Asian companies and governments. More incentives are...

Asian currencies have been under pressure for the past three years since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made yen devaluation an axis of his strategy to defeat deflation. More recently, the slowdown of the Chinese economy, the related slump in commodities prices and expectations of a coming rise in US interest rates have added to the strain. Currencies such as the Indonesian rupiah have fallen to levels against the dollar last seen during the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, raising fears of another cycle of devaluations and foreign...

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