Barry D. Wood
Washington writer Barry D. Wood for two decades was chief economics correspondent at Voice of America News, reporting from 25 G7/8, G20 summits. He is the Washington correspondent of RTHK, Hong Kong radio. Wood's earliest reporting included covering key events in South and southern Africa, among them the Portuguese withdrawal from Mozambique and Angola and the Soweto uprising in the mid-1970s. He is the author of the book Exploring New Europe, A Bicycle Journey, based his travels – by bicycle – through 14 countries of the former Soviet bloc after the fall of Russian communism. Read more of his work at econbarry.com. Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07OIjoanVGg
Articles By This Author
The Gordie Howe Bridge—A Terrible Way to Treat a Friend
Canadian Gordie Howe was one of the greatest hockey players ever. Known as Mr. Hockey, Howe played 25 years with the Detroit Redwings, leading them to four Stanley Cup titles. He retired from professional hockey in 1980 at the age of 52. Howe died in Ohio in 2016.
Letter from Hong Kong: flexibility and transition
HONG KONG: Outwardly, Hong Kong hasn’t changed. Vintage trams still trundle through Central, street names are unchanged since the 1997 handover, and Hong Kongers drive on the left as they always have. Hong Kong’s currency peg to the US dollar is still in place.
Life-changing sudden wealth: financial windfalls for a few
Seoul, Korea: If you’re working at SpaceX in the States or chip-makers Samsung and SK Hynix in South Korea, you’ve struck it rich. At rocket
Assessing Powell’s performance at the Fed
MIT professor Kristin Forbes says Jay Powell successfully dealt with four extraordinary events during his eight years heading the Federal Reserve. Fed independence, she said, was tested more than at any time in 50 years, US tariffs went to a 90-year high, a global pandemic was the worst in 100 years, and inflation, she told a Washington audience, spiked to a 40-year high.
What’s happening with gold?
In 2025, the price of gold soared 63%, from roughly $2,600 per ounce to $4,300 by the end of the year. That return far exceeded the gains from almost all stock market indexes.
The Chinese renminbi is unlikely to become globally dominant
On 29 April, outgoing Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell warned that political interference put at risk the central bank’s ability to pursue independent monetary policy, which he labeled as one of the reasons “why the US economy is the envy of the world”.
The USA is going broke
In the novel The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway’s character Mike Campbell is asked how he went bankrupt. He famously replies, “Two ways, slowly and then suddenly.” The United States today is in the “slowly” phase.
Mounting risks of recession
Even with the current ceasefire, does the US and Israel war against Iran portend recession?
June 16, 1976 – What it was like in Soweto on the first day
Implausibly, on the morning of 16 June 1976, I first heard there was trouble in Soweto from London.
The threat to SA’s biggest industry
Could South Africa lose its motor industry, its biggest manufacturer, and half a million jobs? Could SA repeat the sad experience of Australia, which lost its car industry a decade ago?