BLOGS:
- Cycling in the Tour De Formosa
- David on Formosa with letter in the Taipei Times
- The former native speaker comments on the 2008 ad on my blog.
- Ben with a long one on the politics of retribution
- Peak oil and petrochemicals in Taiwan
- Frozen Garlic on a local candidate desperate for votes.
- Lao Ren Cha comments on Economist article on Taiwan overtaking Japan in living standards.
- Cycling Satin on The Crash
- Hsiao Bi-khim on the elections
- Pat on historical ChengDe road
- KMT desperate as election looms, also from Ben
- Latest Taiwan What's Up out
- Ma warns China not to humiliate Taiwan (=Ma)
- A WSJ
blogcolumn explains how Taiwan's central bank intervenes to keep the currency low -- a fictional low. - A WSJ
blogcolumn says Chen acquittal threatens US attempts to seize properties. I have a brilliant idea, guys. Why not wait until he was declared guilty? - San Francisco paper says SF Giant trip to Taiwan not in the cards.
- China's growing strength, Taiwan's diminishing options: Brookings
- Taiwanese touring Korea -- changes.
- China's Secret Feud with Multinationals (podcast)
- Taiwan's decimated abalone industry shifts to grouper.
- Philippines insists on insurance for its overseas workers. Taiwan bosses threaten to send them home and hire others.
- Obama's cautious approach to reducing tensions between China and Taiwan. ROFL.
- TVBS has Hau up 10 on Su in Taipei, Chu up 7 on Tsai in Xinbei, and Chen Chu up 4 on Yang in Kaohsiung.
- In PPP per capita, Taiwan has now overtaken Japan.
- Cross-Strait Monitoring Alliance to invite Liu Xiaobo to Taiwan.
- Asia Sentinel on the upcoming elections.
- Sovereignty and the Senkakus
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.
That animation is great! You should see the one the CCP produced a couple a while back. [Map Unchanged].
ReplyDeleteThen there's something wrong with the calculation of PPP. Japan is really expensive to live in, but Taiwan surpassing Japan in per capita GDP (even PPP-adjusted) is a bit more than hard to believe.
ReplyDeleteSomething I'd like your input or any sources on about what I put up on Frozen Garlic's blog:
ReplyDeleteAn interesting dig would be how much of the Taipei Floral Expo scandal and his election of president and KMT chairmanship are connected since it was his office who ok'd it if I'm understanding correctly. If you look at a map, his closest challenger was Wang Jingping(sp?) who is based in Kaoshiung. Ma's base is in the north, but if we look at the center we see a huge agriculture and flower business stretching from Taichung to Chiayi that could easily be bought. It's just my idle speculation about 2 events with an interesting link.
Okami, I never want to play Diplomacy with you!
ReplyDeleteThat's an excellent question. During the "long stay" Ma was active in this area. It makes me wonder.
The IMF did the research, and this is now widely reported across a number of publications (including the Economist). If you find it a bit more than hard to believe, then it's your world-view that needs adjusting, not the calculation.
ReplyDeleteTo emphasize (as the Economist head line reads): Taiwan's standard of living has just passed Japan's.
Right, because everyone knows that calculations are like perfect reflections of reality. That's why nobody ever does empirical research.
ReplyDeleteAbout Taiwan surpassing Japan in PPP related to GDP. I'd buy this just from what I know. If you think the Taiwanese economy is nepotistic and mercantilist just take a look at the Japanese economy a little deeper and you find some really weird anomalies.
ReplyDelete-In order for a Costco or Walmart like store to open you have to get permission from the mom and pop shops in the area. I don't believe they have Costco or any wholesale clubs in Japan and Walmart has really struggled there, but Walmart struggles in all foreign countries except Mexico. The busiest Costco in the world is in South Korea with Taiwan's Neihu store being 2nd or 3rd.
-Japan has a grey economy that is as percentage of GDP, twice that of Italy's
-Japanese distribution networks, as some who pays attention to farming related matters this is eye-opening. China got into the market because they would sell direct to supermarkets produce that looked better because it hadn't changed so many hands. It's also illegal for a corp to own farmland in Japan. The whole wet market selling cheaper than Costco or any grocery store, just doesn't happen in Japan.
-It's cheaper to start a corp to do business in Japan in Hawaii than it is to start it in Japan. It's like $50,000 US in Japan. For a fifth of that, you can get a corp started in Hawaii that can do the same things and have a really kick ass vacation
-High tech tariffs and trade regulations. One of the reasons Japanese companies can sell cheaper electronics overseas is because they can gouge their own people at home. Basically Japanese consumers subsidize the purchase price of electronics sold in America.
Japanese consumers just face less choice, higher tariffs on imported goods and less efficient distribution networks causing them to pay more for things then we do in Taiwan. Their pay is also normally 50% bonus probably due to tax issues, and very few companies are paying bonuses nowadays like they did in the past. Don't even get me started about Japanese corps and the literal mountains of cash they are sitting on.
Let's put it this way. I'm sure there are a range of reasonable constructions of PPP that could put Taiwan ahead of Japan. But "standard of living" is more than just how much a gadget costs.
ReplyDelete