Attempts at austerity and deleveraging in Europe have converted an economic problem into a political dilemma, with leftist governments rising against Germany's austerity-laced rescue packages. Germany now faces a tough economic decision that will involve choosing between a breakup of the current euro system and a movement toward a common fiscal policy in Europe.

Leading WTO and trade-law experts will address whether legislative proposals would violate existing WTO rules and whether a U.S. case against Chinese currency practices could succeed before the WTO.

China's new leadership is threatening to stay content with slower economic growth, and the country's manufacturing, housing, and export sectors are experiencing problems. Nonetheless, China has an opportunity to influence economic growth in 2012 through stimulus measures to its own economy.

The modest appreciation of China's currency should not cause much change and China must do more to prevent an international protectionist backlash.

China is heading for a hard landing in 2012 or 2013 for three reasons: Excess capacity tied to overstimulation of investment in export industries and weak domestic demand growth, a bursting speculative bubble in its real estate sector, and a sharp slowdown in global growth.

If financial stability was at the top of the central banks' agenda by 1999, one can reasonably wonder what they were doing about it from 1999 to 2007.

China's fixed exchange rate is complicating its domestic monetary policy management.

Politicians of both parties are blaming China for high U.S. jobless rates, but in truth, the impact on the U.S. economy of a change in Chinese currency policy could well be so small that it would be almost impossible to detect.