In The News

Three Faces of Globalization

Franklin L. Lavin April 30, 2003
US President Bush and Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong met in Washington to sign a bilateral free trade agreement between the two countries. This will contribute to the opening up of barriers to economic globalization and, as Franklin Lavin, US ambassador to Singapore, points out, improve existing cross-border cooperation in the construction of barriers to two other facets of globalization...

Global Finance Firms Plan Huge Jobs Reshuffle

Catherine Ong April 29, 2003
The worldwide improvement in telecommunications that has occurred in the last several years has opened the doors for new business opportunities with significant consequences for the global economic community. Now, with more and more countries offering multinational corporations a prosperous haven by promising cheap and reliable infrastructure and technical support, the largest firms have begun...

If Nike Defends Itself, Is That a Commercial?

Linda Feldmann April 23, 2003
Nike Inc. is the world's largest athletic footwear company. Nike, with its 900 factories in 51 countries and more than 600,000 employees, is currently embroiled in a Supreme Court case in the US. This case stems from a 1998 lawsuit, in which San Francisco activist Marc Kasky charged that Nike had made false statements about sweatshop conditions in its Asian factories. Mr. Kasky asserted...

Black Money Flowing Back to India

V. K. Raghunathan April 16, 2003
Since September 11 the US has cracked down on bank accounts that might be funding terrorists. It has even asked countries with secrecy laws to disclose information about account holders to help in its fight. An unintended consequence of this policy is that many Indians who have illegally stashed money outside of the country now fear discovery and prosecution, and have begun to bring their money...

US retailers back import ban on Burma

Edward Alden April 15, 2003
International agencies such as the International Labor Organization have long advocated sanctions against Burma to protest its record of human rights violations and "disregard for democracy." In spite of a United States government ban on US investments in Burma, the US remains one of the country’s largest trading partners. However, US clothing manufacturers and retailers recently...

Iraq War Ends, Not Europe's Acrimony with the US

Shada Islam April 15, 2003
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spain's Jose Maria Aznar have joined France and Germany in demanding that the United Nations play the central role in administering and rebuilding post-Saddam Iraq. Not only does the UN have the experience and the expertise to handle Iraq's reconstruction, it is the only body with a legal mandate to do so. UN oversight, EU leaders argue, will be...

Sony Leads Charge to Cash in on Iraq

Julia Day April 10, 2003
Sony has registered the phrase “shock and awe,” used to describe US military tactics at the beginning of the war in Iraq, for a possible computer game. However, the game may not be sold in Britain and Europe if the scenario is set in Iraq owing to the European criticism of the war. Sony registered the name on March 21 one day after the war began. Other companies have also sought to capture patent...