In The News

Protectionism Threatens Global Economic Recovery

Richard Baldwin and Simon Evenett March 13, 2009
A global economic recession increases the temptation for national governments, as happened in the past, to pursue protectionism, despite its proven record of harming the economy. What makes similar attempts now by governments more insidious is that they are more subtle and thus murkier to detect. As Richard Baldwin and Simon Evenett, editors of a new study note, measures are being taken “that...

China Reluctant to Lead

Orville Schell March 11, 2009
As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emphasized during her first trip overseas, the US has great expectations for China's leadership and help on fixing the economy, and reducing climate change. Following the model of Richard Nixon in the 1970s, who sought to make common cause against the Soviet threat, Clinton emphasized common challenges for the two nations, playing down any differences...

Rebalancing Sino-US Ties

Nayan Chanda March 9, 2009
Until recently, the global economy relied on production and savings in China and spending from the US. But the imbalanced structure was unsustainable, explains Nayan Chanda, YaleGlobal editor, in his column for Businessworld. US spending has come to a grinding halt, paralyzed by job losses and anxiety, and the government approved a massive stimulus package to encourage economic movement. But any...

The Multilateral Trading System: A Response to Its Challengers

Ernesto Zedillo March 9, 2009
Protectionism could derail all the efforts applied on the fiscal and monetary fronts to address the ongoing global crisis, suggests Ernesto Zedillo, director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. In an essay for a new ebook published by VoxEU he writes, “Despite the multitude of statements against protectionism made by leaders and their finance and trade ministers in recent months,...

A Faltering Solidarity? EU Resists Eastern Bailout Pleas

March 4, 2009
The word “bailout” is not the exclusive property of American officials – it has been buzzing on the lips of leaders around the world as the crisis develops. The European Union has found itself in an especially tight spot since its member countries have experienced very different levels of economic hardship. While it is working towards a common recovery plan, the pressure is revealing old fissures...

Why Skilled Immigrants Are Leaving the U.S.

Vivek Wadhwa March 3, 2009
One of the reasons for success of the US economy as the world’s engine of innovation and growth has been its ability to attract talents from abroad. But thanks to contentious changes in the US immigration policy, especially a temporary worker visa program known as H-1B, it is no longer the land of opportunity. There are indications that immigrants, unsuccessful at obtaining the right to stay and...

The Ties That Bind

Nayan Chanda February 26, 2009
Globalization has suffered two setbacks. First, skyrocketing prices for oil and the financial crisis which destroyed trillions of dollars of wealth and sent the whole world into a recession. Evoking World War I and the Great Depression, observers such as Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf suggested that the economic crisis will stoke protectionism and nationalism and therefore halt...