In The News

Experts Call for Stronger Guidance to Foreign Investment

August 3, 2004
Foreign capital continues to flow into China, but its distribution remains unequal, with the majority of investment going to China’s eastern areas while a mere trickle makes its way to central and western areas. Consequently, the economy of eastern China is characterized by a higher number of foreign-funded enterprises and higher numbers of workers employed by foreign-funded enterprises. The...

Germans Brace for Longer Workweek

Heidi Sylvester July 30, 2004
In June, German technology firm Siemens forced Germany’s powerful IG Metall trade Union into expanding work hours without compensation by threatening to move 2,000 jobs to Hungary. Since that time, Daimler Chrysler and Bosch have undertaken similar measures, and Volkswagen looks likely to do the same. German politicians have responded to changes in work schedules by calling for the increased...

Japanese-type Downturn

July 22, 2004
The governor of South Korea’s central bank publicly expressed on Tuesday what many have already been speculating: that Korea might be headed for a Japanese-style, decade-long slump. An aging population, a falling interest rate and consumer price index, and a switch from low wages and high profitability to high wages and low profitability have all alerted government officials to this possibility...

More Jobs, Worse Work

Stephen S. Roach July 22, 2004
Since the trough of the last recession in November 2001, private sector payrolls in the US have risen a mere 0.2 percent, well below the nearly 7.5 percent average increase in the 31-month period after each of the last six American economic recoveries. In this opinion article for the New York Times, Stephen S. Roach, chief economist for Morgan Stanley, writes that the reason for this anemic...

Germany a Gateway to Europe for Chinese Businesses

Mark-Werner Dreisörner July 16, 2004
For years German investors have taken advantage of China’s low wages and huge market potential to expand their operations, but a recent trends show investment flowing the other way: from China to Germany. Hamburg alone now hosts over 300 Chinese businesses, and growth in Chinese investment across the country is likely to continue since Germany is seen as a gateway to Europe. Wang Yan of...

Beyond Kyoto

John Browne July 8, 2004
Seven years after representatives from more than 180 nations gathered in Kyoto, Japan, the goals that were set up seem out of reach. America withdrew from the resultant agreement, and Canada, Japan, and the European Union have all fallen behind pollution reduction commitments. However, Lord Browne, Group Chief Executive of BP, optimistically re-evaluates the breakdown of the Kyoto Protocol as a...

Fags and Fiction

Alison Benjamin July 8, 2004
US tobacco company Phillip Morris is trying to be more socially responsible by decreasing the health risks of its product and discouraging underage smoking. Though the fact that much of Phillip Morris’ tobacco is grown in the Third World makes it a candidate for classification as a fair-trade good, the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation has no current plans to consider the market and is instead...