In The News

Bail Out the Poor

Ramzy Baroud October 24, 2008
Reduced food supplies around the globe would seem to be a more immediate crisis than plummeting prices of homes and stocks in the wealthiest nations of the world, notes Ramzy Baroud, editor of the Palestine Chronicle, writing for Al-Ahram Weekly. Baroud questions why governments cannot act in coordinated and speedy ways to avert huge global disasters including climate change, population growth in...

Do You Really Want This Job?

David Dapice October 24, 2008
An era of the US living beyond its means has come to an abrupt end, with a flailing stock market and credit freeze, mounting job losses, wages that do not keep pace with climbing housing prices, and the world’s costliest health care system that fails to cover all citizens. The next US president, to be decided in the November 4 election, will inherit a battered economy that restrains any US role...

How the US Financial Crisis Might Affect Kenya

Ochieng Rapuro October 20, 2008
The fallout of the US financial crisis has already spread to Europe's banks, and developing countries like Kenya also speculate on how the crisis could affect their welfare. Reporting for Kenya's Business Daily, Ochieng Rapuro and Jenny Luesby note that the nation’s banking sector is mostly insulated from foreign finance. In Kenya, concern centers on the increasingly likely chance that...

Chronicle of a Disaster Foretold

Ernesto Zedillo October 15, 2008
Low interest rates and plenty of credit in recent years created a housing bubble with the attendant risk. Investment banks divided the loans into complex financial packages, many labeled as safe and even insured. But the investments were safe only as long as housing prices continued to climb. “Once again the markets forget that financial innovations are likely to be underpriced and therefore...

Icelandic Shoppers Splurge as Currency Woes Reduce Food Imports

Chad Thomas October 14, 2008
Three major Icelandic banks have collapsed, raising uncertainty about Iceland’s currency and ability to repay loans. Inventories of goods, including food and clothing, are shrinking. The island nation must import most food and other products, while the “government has asked banks to prioritize foreign currency transactions for essentials such as food, drugs and oil,” explains Chad Thomas,...

Global Crisis: How Far to Go? Part III

Scott B. MacDonald October 13, 2008
As profits surge, financial players eschew government intervention, but crave rescue as problems emerge. Public confidence in banks around the globe could make a cautious comeback, after the UK-led massive semi-nationalization of banks with "equity injection." This YaleGlobal series explores the global financial crisis, detailing how US troubles over mortgage-backed securities and the...

Globalizing the Crisis Response

C. Fred Bergsten October 13, 2008
Regulation of finance has long been a responsibility for nations, but with the current global crisis, governments quickly learned they cannot escape a global credit freeze. Banks struggle to survive, some nations are already in recession and developing countries can anticipate reduced exports and problems ahead. The global nature of the crisis calls out for a global response, argue C. Fred...