In The News

Outlook: Outsourcing America's Future

Jodie Allen March 8, 2004
Most economists - including American ones - argue that in the long run, outsourcing makes sense both for business and society. In this online discussion, Jodie Allen, Managing Editor of US News & World Report, challenges this long held economic assumption. While recognizing some of the positive aspects of outsourcing (e.g., cheaper consumer goods), she points to a recent US Labor Department...

Hungary Eager and Uneasy Over New Status

Mark Landler March 5, 2004
Poised to join the European Union (EU) in May, Hungary anticipates a larger share of the global trade pie. During the 1990's Hungary served as a "backdoor to Europe" for U.S companies, and now it hopes to market this role to Chinese companies that wish to sell to Europe – they could avoid costly import duties by producing all or a large part of their products within the expanded...

Six 'Green' Mercs Heading Here for Test

Christopher Tan March 4, 2004
Singapore will soon host six of 60 environmentally friendly Mercedes-Benz cars built by DaimlerChrysler. The cars, which run on fuel cells powered by hydrogen, will be tested by a number of different firms, including BP Singapore, Michelin, and Lufthansa. Once complete, the tests will help to develop future models. While the estimated price of each vehicle – some say close to $1.8 million –...

Small and Smaller

Thomas L. Friedman March 4, 2004
Falling transportation and telecommunications costs have taken the world from a "size large" to a "size small," according to New York Times Foreign Affairs Columnist Thomas Friedman. But the most recent globalization phenomenon, he argues, has shrunk the world to a "size tiny." The worldwide proliferation of personal computers and the bandwidth and common software...

Aussies Too Fire Broadside at Outsourcing

Kalinga Seneviratne March 1, 2004
For the last several weeks, US politics have been dominated by discussions about the shift of information-technology (IT) jobs to lower-wage nations. Now, Australians are joining in to register their protest. A new deal between American company IBM and Australian telecom giant Telstra threatens to move 450 Australian jobs to India, where IBM has said it will base the conglomerate's IT...

Outsourcing Debate - Part III

David Dapice March 1, 2004
Despite the political debates over outsourcing that are emerging in this US presidential election year, the economic story is quite simple. In the final installment of a three-part series on outsourcing, economist David Dapice says that outsourcing allows hundreds of thousands of people in developing countries like Vietnam the chance to earn wages, pull themselves out of poverty, and - in turn...

Making Profits Cannot Be an End in Itself

Lim Boon Heng February 27, 2004
In this Straits Times article, Singapore's union chief Lim Boon Heng reflects on the current crisis in the global corporate sector, and ponders about an alternative to the prevalent model of cut-throat capitalism. Instead of attacking the basic tenet of capitalism - profit making - he acknowledges that profit is important to society because “Without businesses, there will be no commerce,...