In The News

February 12, 2007
Although there have been some costs, Britain has gained overall from the globalization of the last decade. Perhaps because of its colonial past, “The Economist” argues, Great Britain has embraced the economic shift in the developed world from manufacturing to services brought on by globalization. The country has seen a decade of solid economic growth and per-capita GDP levels surpassing those of...
Daniel Altman February 7, 2007
With citizenship comes certain rights – and some workers try to accumulate more rights be acquiring citizenship in more nations. Nations tinker with citizenship laws to attract talent, and individuals examine citizenship laws to broaden a job search. For example, people with grandparents of European heritage, would-be soldiers willing to fight for the US in Iraq and pregnant women who travel to...
Donald K. Emmerson February 5, 2007
Global exchange of all sorts is a prerequisite for the future, and parents should prepare their children. An international education – attending public school with ordinary children, not cloistered away with children of the elite – can be the best preparation for a global career and an antidote for racism, xenophobia or other forms of social tension. Isolationists in the US try to stoke fear of...
Pranab Bardhan January 30, 2007
Not only democracies but dictators and authoritarian governments pursue the benefits of economic freedom. The recent passing of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and the Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman provokes economist Pranab Bardhan to reflect on the connections that these two individuals represented: political control and economic freedom. Friedman and other economists have long...
Steven Rea January 29, 2007
Though it may not win Best Picture, the film most emblematic of the Academy Awards in March will be “Babel,” which examines the modern tension between instant communications and persistent language barriers. This year, films like “Babel,” with six languages, and “Letters from Iwo Jima,” mostly in Japanese, are honored in the Best Picture category, rather than confined to Foreign Film nominations...
Ramkishen S. Rajan January 29, 2007
The rapid emergence of China and India dramatically transformed the global economy during the last decade. But the two countries have pursued contrasting strategies: China’s industrialization has been fueled by public-sector investments and large-scale foreign direct investment (FDI) in manufacturing; India’s has been driven largely by domestic companies and entrepreneurs. More recently, however...
Peter Finn January 25, 2007
Authorities sometimes regard activism as extremism, especially when groups criticize government policy. Russian authorities put a stop to the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, after the group reprinted statements by Chechen separatists, linked to the mass school killing in 2004. The group is funded by organizations based in the West, and Russia has passed laws prohibiting anyone convicted of...