In The News

A Global Credit Squeeze Is Felt Unevenly

Floyd Norris February 11, 2009
A “downside” to globalization struck when the US credit crisis had a global effect that neither Europe nor Asia could diminish or avoid. Many countries cannot borrow money to stimulate their economies as the US does and lack the savings of China, and some government leaders fear that the big economies will focus on domestic investments at the expense of poorer nations. Greater government...

US Recession: Spend Now, Save Later

Joergen Oerstroem Moeller February 11, 2009
To fend off an economic disaster, governments around the globe, from China to the US, lower interest rates, increase the money supply, enact stimulus packages and urge their citizens to shop to save jobs and fix the economy. All eyes are on the US, the worlds' biggest economy, where personal consumption makes up 70 percent of the gross national product. But US citizens are not buying into...

Another Fine Mess

February 3, 2009
As European banks receive another round of government assurances, the purpose of funding is to insure toxic assets and stimulate lending. Despite protests from some quarters of society, these bailout packages, by shifting default risk from the banks to the governments that back them, have kept fear of bank runs at bay, according to an article in the Economist. Still, not enough credit is flowing...

US and China: Grappling Over Economic Rescue – Part II

Edward Gresser February 2, 2009
With the rest of the world looking for leadership in emerging from economic crisis, how to stimulate the growth in China and the US has become the most urgent task. Other nations expect the pair to coordinate policy and do what they can to unfreeze credit, restore stable growth and ease unbalances. Currency rates are one of the ways to moderate swings in global growth and trade flows, explains...

A Time of Troubles and Protest

January 30, 2009
More than 2.5 workers throughout France rallied behind a one-day strike, urging the government to protect jobs and wages. But as slumping sales and global recession have closed factories, policies and protests fail to address severe inequality that leaves some workers with secure jobs and benefits and many others, particularly among the young, without. In France, the government has focused on...

US and China: Grappling Over Economic Rescue – Part I

Xu Sitao January 30, 2009
Trade imbalances, fueled by overproduction and saving in Asia, too much consumption and debt in the West, have compounded the harsh global recession. Analysts in the US and elsewhere in the West floundering for a remedy have focused on China’s trillion-plus dollar surplus and suggest that an increase in Chinese domestic spending might ease the global pain. This two-part YaleGlobal series suggests...

Financial Crisis Causes Iceland's Government to Collapse

David Blair January 30, 2009
With global recession in full force, governments are tested, and Iceland's government is the first in Europe to fail. "Mass demonstrations against the government have become daily events in Reykjavik," writes David Blair for the Telegraph. In 2007, Iceland's finance industry appeared robust; the island nation of 310,000, independent from Denmark since 1944, did not see much...