In The News

A Restriction on Trade and Security

Donald Weadon August 23, 2006
In response to increasing fears about China as an emerging world power, the commercial export-control agency for the US has proposed new restrictions. Since World War II, the US relied on a multilateral system that controlled military commercial technology. Yet the US Bureau of Industry and Security has shifted to a bilateral approach, restricting the “sale, re-export or transfer” of 47...

More Than Wal-Mart

Robert Kuttner August 23, 2006
Wal-Mart is a symbol of the struggling worker who faces little hope of advancement, both in the US and abroad. The world’s largest retailer offers low prices by paying millions of workers minimum wage and passing many health-care costs onto government programs for the poor. The US government supports the work ethic. Since 1970, the US government decreased employer regulation, eliminated pension...

Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship

August 10, 2006
Human Rights Watch has issued a report, titled “Race to the Bottom: Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship,” documenting how Western-based internet companies assist Chinese censorship. The report details how search engines such as Yahoo!, Microsoft, Google and Skype have taken measures to block results containing sensitive terms, censor blogs and text chats, and even released some...

Managing Globalization: A New Trade Bandwagon – Are Rich-Poor Pacts Fair?

Daniel Altman August 8, 2006
Following in the wake of the failed Doha Round trade talks, negotiators turn their energy to bilateral trade agreements, which usually pair rich and poor countries. The US is eager to participate in bilateral agreements, recently making deals with Chile, Jordan and Singapore. In addition to creating more employment opportunities, the agreements also increase exports from each country. Less...

Wal-Mart Finds That Its Formula Doesn’t Fit Every Culture

Mark Landler August 3, 2006
Wal-Mart executives eventually realized that requiring employees to smile at customers or participate in the “morning Wal-Mart chant” at its German stores did not mesh well with either the staid employees or customers. Differences in corporate and national culture, combined with competition from local discount vendors, hampered success of the giant US retailer, which left Germany after eight...

Is Globalization Succumbing to Glocalization?

July 26, 2006
When it comes to retail, globalization does not always work as planned. For example, in South Korea, shoppers disdain the American Wal-Mart, yet love E-Mart, a Korean-owned store with all the accoutrements of a sophisticated US store. “Glocalization” – the term that describes the combination of “global standards and local preferences” – is a tempting label to describe why Wal-Mart, the world’s...

Hoosier Honda

Douglas Brinkley July 25, 2006
As the largest US auto-makers cut jobs and close factories, foreign car companies expand production in the American heartland, and the expansion wins them friends in towns where not too long ago driving a Japanese car would have been anathema. Foreign firms steer clear of Detroit and head to communities that offer incentives for factories built in their towns; Indiana state officials, for example...