China and the United States:    
Cooperation and Competition - A Macro-Finance Approach

 What does this thematic report offer? 

China and the United States, the world’s two largest economies, operate in a complex and ever-evolving relationship. In recent years, we have seen strains in the economic/financial relationship between China and the US. It is said in the pure sciences, however, that “whatever is inevitable becomes necessary.” This will certainly hold true regarding the evolving interactions between China and the US.

It is remarkable that along almost any economic dimension, we find China and the US as complementary partners/competitors that often operate in starkly different ways. This makes for a truly fascinating study. In most of this insight, the primary focus is on China. Comparisons are made with the US as a counterpoint; a way to highlight similarities and differences.

In this report, we present an overview of what makes China both different and interesting as a major world economy and then look at aspects of the Chinese economy from a macro-finance perspective. Specifically, we examine China’s fundamentally different approach to measuring GDP, external finance issues and costs and returns to capital in China.