In The News

"No Country, No Matter How Powerful…Can Control the Forces of Globalization on Its Own"

Kofi A. Annan January 27, 2009
Economic crisis will leave no part of the globe untouched, yet it also offers widespread opportunity for citizens to assess priorities. Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urges nations to select priorities that reshape and improve the world for the common good: "For the roots of this crisis go beyond an abject failure of financial governance and neglect of warnings of the risks being run...

Europe Fears Civil Unrest

Peter O'Neil January 26, 2009
Angry street protests in Bulgaria, Lithuania, Iceland and other nations, combined with economic recession, have unnerved European leaders, who met to talk about how to handle civil unrest. An abrupt drop in living standards, high unemployment rates, loss of homes, vanishing savings could spur protests far more disruptive than those that shut down capitals in 1968. “A more apt comparison for...

Global Downturn Dooms Prestige Construction Projects

Uwe Klußmann January 20, 2009
Architecture reflects a society’s values and aspirations for how governments, businesses and families might make use of space. With the 21st century emerged a desire around the globe to display wealth and power quickly, explains an article prepared by staff of Spiegel Online, and “Yearnings for pomp and prestige were transformed into architecture.” But the global credit crisis and recession, as...

American Power Is on the Wane

Paul Kennedy January 16, 2009
The US has the most to lose in the current economic crisis, with growing debt, as Washington continues to churn out so-called stimulus packages. Yale historian Paul Kennedy warns that, in addition to the risk of wasting these fiscal packages on aging industries and dubious lobbyist causes, there is little chance that domestic investors can afford to cover the debt. The stimulus packages rely on...

Chinese Exports and Imports Continue to Shrink

Keith Bradsher January 14, 2009
China’s exports and imports continue to decline, setting up a scenario for more job losses and possible social unrest, reports Keith Bradsher for the New York Times. The sharp decline follows reduced consumer spending in the US and the West, down even for the holiday month of December. The global credit crunch also contributes to the decline: “Chinese suppliers have become more wary of shipping...

Democrats Push Obama for Smaller Tax Cut in Stimulus Package

Peter Nicholas January 10, 2009
President Barack Obama faces pressure from his own party to adjust a government economic stimulus plan of $775 billion, reducing tax cuts and spending more on road, bridge and infrastructure construction. The US politicians anticipate that some combination of spending and tax cuts could increase US confidence and improve the overall economy. But tax cuts and spending will also add to the US debt...

US and China Must Tame Imbalances Together

Michael Pettis January 6, 2009
With surging liquidity and massive trade imbalances, no one should have been surprised by the global economic crisis, because as finance professor of Peking University Michael Pettis explains, this has been the historical pattern. Pettis details the history of the crisis, starting in 1980s, when US policy encouraged securitization of mortgages, converting illiquid assets into highly liquid...