Taiwan Markets Beat the World With Tech-Driven Halo
Anyone wondering why, contrary to the popular narrative, the “beautiful island” is a bastion of prosperity need only acknowledge semiconductors.
Taiwan’s economy and markets are rising high.
Photographer: I-Hwa Cheng/AFP via Getty Images
A day doesn’t pass when Taiwan isn’t on the brink of some natural or man-made disaster, bracing for the latest typhoon while struggling to maintain relations with a diminishing circle of diplomatic friends, according to the prevailing media narrative.
The same Republic of China, on the contrary, is a bastion of prosperity exuding the opposite of vulnerability. Lost in the perennial geopolitical fog is the island Portuguese sailors called Formosa (Ilha Formosa means beautiful island) now beating the world with the best-performing stock market, record exports, the most-stable currency after the Singapore dollar, one of the lowest and least volatile inflation rates since 2008, rising wages creating unprecedented real earnings, booming real estate and the lowest bond yields after Japan and Switzerland.
