A high-level of dollarisation, largely attributable to the presence of United Nations personnel and peacekeepers in the early 1990s, has largely been the reason for a relatively stable Khmer riel. The recognition of foreign currencies as valid legal tender under statute ensured the existence of a competing currency in the market, enforcing discipline on the central bank by preventing manipulation of interest rates, inordinate expansion of money supply and ensuring that inflation remains relatively low.

Hun Sen's personal interest in reviving Cambodia's ethnic Chinese community likely grew from a combination of economic and personal factors. Economically, Hun Sen was convinced by 1990 that only capitalism could bring development to Cambodia.

Cambodia is the only country in the modern era to have had money, had that money abolished, and then had money reinstated. Shiller, in the article mentioned previously, mentioned - without detail - that Marxist Communism supported the idea of societies without money. This, of course, is correct. But I should emphasise that Marx went further than just support the abolition of money. In fact, this was central to Marxism. 

The Yellow River is to China what the Mekong is to Southeast Asia: both the origin and the prop of civilisation, providing water and agricultural land to nurture a growing society. While the Mekong is thought of with affection and gratitude as the “Mother of Waters”, however, the Yellow River has always been feared and distrusted.

While wishing everyone the best for the Pchum Ben holiday - let's see what the Middle Kingdom has been up to in the Kingdom of Wonder as of late...

Modern Western ideas concerning the purpose and practice of politics are threaded through with assumptions and concepts developed during the Enlightenment, and primary among these is the vision of the state as a kind of formalised protection racket.

It is time to catch up with most recent news from Vietnam!

Cambodia's National Commercial Arbitration Center has successfully settled its first two cases. This is an important milestone for the NCAC and for building successful institutions in Cambodia. It also provides a homegrown alternative to Cambodia’s court system.

From the perspective of political economy, the realities of contemporary Anlong Veng make perfect sense – Douglass North’s famous statement about the “stickiness” of institutions, both formal and informal. At the same time, however, it raised the question of the current state of societal trust in Cambodia and the impacts thereof as to economic development.

Some news updates of significance from the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.