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Economics

This category contains 13 posts

Should Malaysia ride the coming EV disruption or stay with the norm?

By OOI KEE BENG. For The Edge Malaysia Weekly, April 29, 2019 – May 05, 2019. The advent of electric vehicles (EV) offers opportunities for cities and countries to limit and reverse the use of unclean and non-renewable energy sources. But for that to happen, quite a bit of imagination in policymaking and public behaviour … Continue reading

Penang should make the most of transiting cruise tourists

By OOI KEE BENG, Editorial in Penang Monthly, February 2018 I assume anyone reading this has some time or other been one of those strange global creatures, disliked by some for their transient but disruptive presence and loved by others for their willingness to consume hastily and at inflated prices. I am talking about tourists. … Continue reading

Is Capitalism without Socialism Sustainable?

By Ooi Kee Beng, Editorial in Penang Monthly, October, 2017 The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the communist experiment, and to the extent that the experiment was an application of Marxist ideas about class conflict as the driver of human development, the reunification of Germany that followed also meant for many … Continue reading

The Parochial and the Global are Intertwined

By OOI KEE BENG For The Edge, Forum July 24, 2017 In the time of Brexit and the tenure of Trump; with the triumph of Putin and the threat of Kim, instead of thinking about how Globalisation is being reversed, we should take a longer perspective and think about how the global battle in modern … Continue reading

The Primacy of Political Economy in Asia

By Ooi Kee Beng, Editorial, Penang Monthly, July 2017 It’s a complicated subject, this thing we call Economics. I don’t always know what it means. I remember once talking to Robert Kuok about it. His reply was (and I paraphrase from my vague memory of that conversation): “Economics is simply about living, isn’t it? As … Continue reading

The Hokkien Vernacular

By Ooi Kee Beng, editorial in Penang Monthly, May 2017. IN LIEU OF a normal editorial, and in keeping with this month’s cover story being about Penang Hokkien, I am providing here in somewhat truncated form, the Introductory from “The Hokkien Vernacular” (edited by George Thompson Hare and published in Kuala Lumpur in 1904). I … Continue reading

Does the National Economy Exist?

By Ooi Kee Beng for The Edge Malaysia, 31 July 2016. The income gap, technically defined, is quite an easy concept to comprehend. One can compare Gross Domestic Product per capita or per household within a given country; and collectively, one can use the Italian sociologist Corrado Gini’s measure of statistical dispersion developed in 1912 … Continue reading

Growth and Equality are Compatible

Profile: Jeffrey Sachs By Ooi Kee Beng [Penang Monthly, Dec 2012] Penang Institute held the fourth event in its “Penang in Asia” Lecture Series on 20th October 2012. The honoured speaker was Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs. PM Editor Dr Ooi Kee Beng managed to squeeze a jet-lagging Prof Jeffrey Sachs for an interview while they … Continue reading

Sustainable Development – There is no other choice

By OOI KEE BENG [Editorial in Penang Monthly, December 2012] I just returned from Japan, and like every other visitor, I was struck by how clean the place is. To be sure, there are lots of spotless countries and cities around. Singapore is known for its clinical cleanliness, as we know. Hong Kong’s inner city … Continue reading

Income gap, outcome bad

By Ooi Kee Beng [Editorial in PENANG MONTHLY, Nov 2012] It is certainly true that never before in human history have so many been lifted out of poverty as has been the case in East Asia over the last few decades. The suggested reasons for these are many, though few easily agreed upon. In China, … Continue reading