In The News

Global Crisis: Bangladesh Bucks the Trend

Zafar Sobhan October 14, 2009
Conventional wisdom would expect export-dominated, monoculture economies like Bangladesh to suffer badly from the recent financial meltdown. But that has not happened. According to Daily Star opinion page editor and 2009 Yale World Fellow Zafar Sobhan, there are four reasons why Bangladesh escaped unscathed. First, the government kept its head by holding only safe US Treasuries when everyone was...

US, The New Saver

Nayan Chanda October 14, 2009
The recent bleak unemployment report for the US suggests that the economic recovery is likely to be W-, rather than, V-shaped. But the 9.8 percent unemployment rate is only part of the picture: when including the “underemployed”, the rate is roughly double. What this means is that the US isn’t going to be consuming that much during what is normally the biggest spending period of the year –...

China Rising: Have Cash, Buy Oil

Dilip Hiro October 9, 2009
While the global financial crisis has left much of the Western world in disarray, China’s position remains strong with a stockpile of cash ready to acquire cheap assets. In many cases, these assets are natural resources, especially hydrocarbons. According to author Dilip Hiro, Beijing’s acquisition strategy seeks to insulate itself from the vagaries of raw material price fluctuation while...

Free Trade Has Enriched the World with More than Diverse Goods

Daniel Griswold October 2, 2009
Amid the rise in unemployment across the globe, trade is the oft-cited cause for the current malaise. Hence, according to populists, restricting trade should be the cure. But, Director for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute Daniel Griswold says the populists have it wrong. If one really wants to help the poor, fostering trade is the key since it delivers the lowest cost staple goods that...

Tyre-some Efforts

Nayan Chanda September 29, 2009
Amid worries of protectionism, Obama’s tariff on China’s tires is almost insignificant in terms of size. Moreover, it is supported by the WTO agreement that allows countries to seek relief, albeit temporary, from the damage Chinese imports can cause to local industries. What most critics seem to be missing about the tariff is that even if is small and will not improve unemployment, it did provide...

The Virtues of Deglobalization

Walden Bello September 10, 2009
In the last two years, globalization has gone from panacea to scourge. And the many policy responses to the current crisis reveal this sentiment, as governments focus on national initiatives to strengthen financial regulations, revealing how policymakers are beholden to their own constituents and domestic markets. While many of globalization's champions bemoan the erosion of economic...

The Noodle Bowl

September 8, 2009
Large economies like China, Japan and India have signed free trade agreements (FTA) with the regional grouping ASEAN. But in the absence of a comprehensive, multi-lateral free trade agreement, Asian countries are settling for bi-lateral FTAs. But this trend is not necessarily in response to the stalled Doha round of trade talks. Bi-laterial FTAs have increased from six in 1991 to 166 by mid-year...