Masaaki Shirakawa is a former governor of the Bank of Japan.

This month marked the 50th anniversary of the "Nixon Shock," when U.S. President Richard Nixon decided to suspend the convertibility of foreign official holdings of dollar into gold, making now a worthwhile moment to look back on how it affected the global economy, ponder its historical importance and consider the challenges ahead.

By suspending the dollar's convertibility into gold at a fixed price of $35 an ounce, and also imposing a surcharge

SINGAPORE/TOKYO -- Nissan Motor's Makoto Uchida may well have the unluckiest timing of any chief executive in the history of corporate Japan.

He assumed his role as President and CEO in December 2019 amid management turmoil at Nissan and its top shareholder, Renault, following the dramatic arrest of then-Chairman Carlos Ghosn for alleged financial misconduct.

Nissan was already in an "extremely harsh situation" when he took office, Uchida said during his inauguration speech. And things only became worse.

Due to a

LONDON -- SoftBank Group's Vision Fund has turned to a former chief of Israel's legendary spy agency for investment in the country's myriad cybersecurity startups run by military veterans.

Yossi Cohen, who had retired as director of Mossad, joined the fund in July in an advisory role. The Vision Fund is counting on Cohen's extensive connections cultivated through his years leading one of the world's top intelligence agencies to identify promising technology companies, many of which have links to Israel's military.

Ben Bland is the director of the Southeast Asia program at the Lowy Institute and the author of "Man of Contradictions: Joko Widodo and the Struggle to Remake Indonesia."

America's Central Intelligence Agency tends to be remembered more for its failures than its successes, especially in Southeast Asia, where it left a trail of destruction.

But the CIA's analysis department should be commended for its foresight about the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the regional organization founded in 1967.

Writing just six years later

HO CHI MINH CITY -- Vietnam's Vingroup is betting electric vehicles that can charge in minutes will help win over skeptical drivers as it seeks to enter the U.S. and European markets.

The company's VinFast auto division, which is weighing a public offering in the U.S., said it is working with StoreDot of Israel on "extreme fast-charging batteries" for electric cars. StoreDot says it is the first company in the world to make electric scooter batteries that recharge in five minutes

MANILA -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has accepted his party's endorsement to run for vice president next year, officials of the ruling party said on Tuesday.

Duterte "agreed to make the sacrifice and heed the clamor of the people, and accepted the endorsement of the PDP Laban Party for him to run as vice president in the 2022 national elections," Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, the party's executive vice president, said in a statement.

PDP President Alfonso Cusi, in a separate message earlier

KUALA LUMPUR -- Low-cost carrier AirAsia is looking at five more acquisitions to boost its non-airline business operations to counter its ailing core flight service, hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said Tuesday.

The acquisitions, to be announced in stages, will enable the company to fill in gaps that are standing in the way of its drive to become a key "superapp" provider and catch up to Southeast Asia's top players -- Singapore's Grab and Indonesia's

NEW DELHI -- The sudden seizure of war-torn Afghanistan by Taliban insurgents amid the withdrawal of United States forces presents a quandary for India, which had cultivated good relations with the former Ashraf Ghani government but has neither engaged nor granted global legitimacy to the hard-liner group.

Soon after the Taliban takeover, India's ruling right-wing Bhartiya Janata Party huddled with its various arms -- security, Cabinet, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) -- to craft

JAKARTA -- New banking rules in Indonesia allow near-full foreign ownership of local lenders and reduce red tape for new services as regulators move to spur growth in the country's emerging digital banking industry.

But the regulations from the Financial Services Authority, or OJK, are a mixed bag of carrots and sticks as the agency also seeks to spur consolidation in a vibrant industry characterized by numerous small players in Southeast Asia's largest economy.

In terms of hurdles, for example, the agency has raised the bar for