Beware of Reform Fatigue Syndrome

Dec 17-2018   

“Some of the technical things cannot be called a reform, e.g. delayed retirement, which is an adjustment to current policy and not an institutional overhaul,” said NSD and Prof. Yao Ying in a recent media interview. “To label everything as reform risks evolving into Reform Fatigue Syndrome, and ultimately no reform would be possible.” Besides sounding the alarm, Prof. Yao delved into the secret recipe of China’s success in reform and opening up, the internationalization of Chinese currency, as well as the new cycle of the Chinese economy. He pointed out that the success of the Chinese economy is due to the application of neo-classic economics, which prescribes industrialization, an educated workforce, young population, among others. He believed that the Chinese currency would appreciate as it catches up with the US, but the greenback will remain the world’s dominant currency for a fairly long period to come. On the issue of business cycle, his research found that the Chinese economy moves in 7-year cycles, and in 2017 it ended 7-year downward cycle and started to tick upward.