Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio.

I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Something's gone a bit funny in developed economies recently.

Interest rates just keep slipping, even going negative.

Investors are paying banks to keep their money.

New research suggests that that slide isn't new.

It's been going on for centuries.

And we take a look at some revealing insights on scientific papers by female authors,

who often have a harder time with reviewers and whose research is cited less than that of their male counterparts.

It seems that men are simply puffing up their results more.

But first... Taiwan has re-elected its incumbent president, Tsai Ying Wen, by a landslide.

Saturday's vote pitted Ms. Tsai of the Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, against Hong Guo Yu of the

Guomintang, a party that is markedly more cozy with the government of mainland China.

The island is of enormous strategic importance. Its location, economy, and security are all

essential to American interests. But China claims Taiwan as its own territory,

a claim it's been asserting more and more aggressively.

Fuller dominion over it would make China a far greater power in the Pacific,

able to choke off oil bound for Japan or South Korea.

In her victory speech, President Sai said, when our sovereignty and democracy

are threatened, the Taiwanese people will shout our determination even more loudly back.

There are implications not just for the Taiwan Strait and for an island brimming with fans of democracy.

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