In The News

The Breaking Point

Peter Maass August 22, 2005
As world oil prices continue to surge past $US60 per barrel, and as Chinese companies aggressively pursue acquisition of energy assets, anxiety is growing in many quarters about global energy security. Focusing his inquiry on the world's largest exporter, Saudi Arabia, Peter Maass uncovers some unsettling realities about the global oil supply. Maass reports on the difficulties in...

Why "Made in China" Is Good News for the US

Andrew Leonard August 5, 2005
US trade with and investment in China continue to rise, along with the American trade deficit. One of the few areas in which the US still enjoys a trade surplus with China is the microchip industry – traditionally a Silicon Valley specialty. However, China, intent on catching up, is training engineers and providing incentives to foreign investors in hopes of developing a strong microchip industry...

To Soothe Anger Over Subsidies, US Cotton Tries Wooing Africa

Scott Kilman August 5, 2005
Jim Butler, deputy undersecretary at the US Department of Agriculture, was greeted with fanfare when he visited Mali, pledging US support to help increase the productivity of cotton farming there. The United States has recently taken an interest in "helping" West African cotton farmers produce more effectively, but the motivation may be more just benevolence. As developing nations...

A New Vocabulary for Trade

Jagdish Bhagwati August 4, 2005
Globalization is a complex phenomenon, which New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has famously explained with the metaphor of a "flat world." According to fellow globalization expert Jagdish Bhagwati, however, "The notion of a flat world is as wrong metaphorically now as it was when Copernicus showed it to be literally wrong." Bhagwati charges that Friedman's word...

Free Trade and Poverty

Joachim Bamrud August 3, 2005
Despite years of market reforms, many Latin American countries remain poor. Latin Business Chronicle editor Joachim Bamrud traces the region's poverty and sluggish growth to the continuing protectionism of many countries. President George W. Bush's signing of CAFTA provides Latin America with a new opportunity to abandon import tariffs, which actually hinder domestic growth and the...

The Descent of Man

Dennis Lim August 3, 2005
Darwin's Nightmare, Hubert Sauper's new documentary released in the United States this week, chronicles an evolutionary and globalization-related predicament. Decades ago, the Nile perch was introduced to the waters of Lake Victoria in Tanzania, with the aim of replenishing over-fished waters. In the years since, the six-foot fish have proved a lucrative export for Tanzania, but a...

Chinese Company Ends Unocal Bid, Citing Political Hurdles

David Barboza August 2, 2005
The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has withdrawn its takeover bid for America's Unocal, discouraged by political opposition that complicated the deal. CNOOC's offer was the largest takeover bid ever attempted by a Chinese company, and considerably larger than Chevron's competing bid, but it faced strident opposition in Washington. Set on the backdrop of a rapidly...