In The News

Monsanto to Quit Europe

Mark Oliver October 16, 2003
In the wake of hundreds of public meetings at which a majority of UK citizens said 'No' to genetically modified crops, the American pioneer of GM foods announced it is pulling out of the European cereal business. Monsanto, the largest GM seed company in the world, said it no longer sees "a good strategic fit" for the company’s hybrid seed research in Europe. Anti-GM...

Privatization vs. Democracy

Salah Hemeid October 13, 2003
The chief US Administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, recently announced that Iraq's state-owned industries will be sold off to private investors in an effort to boost the country's struggling economy. The new policy also allows for 100 percent foreign ownership of all industries except for oil, which will remain under government control for the time being. Iraqis view their oil reserves as...

Overseas Job Shift Affects Office Market

Terry Pristin October 8, 2003
The offshore outsourcing trend in the United States has claimed another victim: the market for commercial real estate. As firms transfer more back-office operations to low-wage countries, the already sluggish demand for office space in the US has slumped considerably more. "It's just going to take longer to get the numbers down to palatable percentages," said Dale Anne Reiss,...

Sportswear Boycott Over Burma Links

Vivek Chaudhary October 6, 2003
A British-based campaign for democracy in Burma urged soccer fans to boycott goods produced by Kappa, a popular sportswear supplier with stores all over Europe. The campaign claims that Kappa indirectly supports the brutal Burma military regime by continuing to stock its stores with products made in the country. Although Kappa says it has already severed its links to Burmese manufacturers, goods...

A Missing Statistic: U.S. Jobs That Went Overseas

Louis Uchitelle October 5, 2003
As US politicians blame each other for the country's high unemployment rate, a key question remains unanswered: how much of the recent job loss can be blamed on cheap overseas labor? Although estimates vary, most economists agree that of the 2.81 million jobs lost since the US economic slump began, at least fifteen percent have gone overseas. American companies can save as much as fifty...

Competition of Legal Systems

Joachim Jahn October 3, 2003
European Union businesses have a new kind of freedom to look forward to: they can choose their own legal forms. The European Court has ruled that new business owners in EU countries may choose which country’s legal forms they want, effectively allowing them much more freedom in terms of regulation. Critics say the decision will ensure lower regulation standards, since some EU countries have...

Asians Fear Rising US Protectionism

Michael Richardson October 3, 2003
On the eve of the annual summit of Asia-Pacific nations, many Asian countries are expressing worry over US trade policy, says Michael Richardson, a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of South East Asian Studies in Singapore. US President George W. Bush will be welcomed at the APEC (Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation) conference later this month in the midst of what will likely be...