In The News

Look Beyond the Street

Nayan Chanda October 24, 2011
To avoid a day of reckoning, governments should heed, not mock, the complaints emerging from movements that have gained rapid global momentum, contends Nayan Chanda in his regular column for Businessworld. In 2003, protests in 60 nations opposed the impending US invasion of Iraq. The protests did not prevent the costly war, but exposed the war’s flawed rationales. This year, protesters in more...

Haiti: Tailor-Made for South-South Cooperation

Jonathan Glennie October 20, 2011
With a history of colonization, debt, US trade boycotts and domestic corruption, Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. Recent natural disasters, including hurricanes, storms and the 2010 earthquake compounded the challenges. Writing for the Guardian, Jonathan Glennie recommends that Haiti explore South-South cooperation, adding that “no amount of aid from the west can make up for...

The Depression: If Only Things Were That Good

David Leonhardt October 14, 2011
In analyzing any economic period, one can focus on wages or employment levels – or delve deeper into a society’s potential, examining education and innovations. David Leonhardt takes the latter approach in comparing the current crisis with the Great Depression, when television, autos, aviation, nylon and other materials were under development. A lack of technological innovations that provide for...

Why China Can't and Won't Save the World

Emily Kaiser October 11, 2011
Struggling economies often eye China and its $3.2 trillion in reserves for their rescue, and that’s unrealistic, argues Emily Kaiser, Asian economics correspondent in analysis for Reuters. China would have to triple its current rate of growth to offset a 3 percent drop in US and European growth, explains one economist. Increased stimulus spending could exacerbate inflation, inefficient spending,...

Attention Buffetts 'Round the World

Mark Bloomfield October 11, 2011
After US billionaire Warren Buffet wrote in an opinion piece that the wealthy should pay higher taxes to boost the US economy, the suggestion triggered a global domino effect, explains economic policy expert Mark Bloomfield in an essay for Politico. Wealthy counterparts in France and Germany joined the chorus, but Bloomfield cautions against generating more funds for flawed systems: “The U.S. has...

America’s Labor Pains

Nayan Chanda October 10, 2011
Americans are frustrated by their inability to find jobs and the widening inequality that brings. Proposals from government and corporations so far rely on unworkable notions that failed in the past, including protectionist measures or subsidies that reinforce aging industries that are no longer competitive. The world economy has undergone structural transformation, explains Nayan Chanda in his...

Revolution Is Happening in the USA

Ismail Salami October 4, 2011
The Occupy Wall Street movement is hardly a revolution, and rather, the protest movement aims at influencing democratic leaders. Started by small groups of college students, protesters express concern about the dangers of high student debt, excessive corporate profits, family struggles with home foreclosures, widening inequality, environmental degradation all combined with a disturbing lack of...