In The News

Green Energy Is Not a Middle-Class Conceit, More the Only Way Forward

Geoffrey Lean October 22, 2008
Despite a global credit crisis, environmental protection and development of alternative energy sources by no means should be pushed to the back burner, argues Geoffrey Lean for the Independent. The current financial crisis could be quite mild compared with future crises, as supplies of natural energy decline and climate change causes raging storms, rising seas and fluctuating temperatures. The...

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...

Outrage Over Offshoring Goes Off-Target

Ann All October 17, 2008
Offshoring work overseas by US companies is a handy populist issue during a US presidential campaigns. The issue distinguishes the two candidates: Republican John McCain staunchly supports free trade and low taxes; Democrat Barack Obama supports free-trade agreements, but urges tax incentives for companies that keep jobs inside the US. Many US workers bitterly blame the loss of high-skilled...

The Death of the Washington Consensus?

Kevin Gallagher October 15, 2008
US officials over the past two decades insisted that free trade without limits tend to provide more benefits than costs for American and other consumers. Princeton economist Paul Krugman won the Nobel prize for economics, not for his columns for the New York Times, but for his study of international trade and his stance against trade without limits. Krugman has long insisted that government...

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...

Global Crisis: How Far to Go? Part II

Manu Bhaskaran October 10, 2008
Speed of transportation and communication that characterize today’s global supply chain requires trust and flow of credit along the many steps: But now consumers worry about the future of their jobs, retailers and manufacturers worry about sales, suppliers worry about orders and lenders clutch to their reserves of cash. In the second article of the YaleGlobal series addressing the repercussions...

Development Doesn't Require Big Government

William Easterly October 9, 2008
Pain from the US financial crisis is spreading globally, with leadership in developing countries often blaming free-market failures. The free market is under attack worldwide: Honduras’s president deems its laws "demonic" and the Brazilian head of state suggests its speculation causes the "anguish of entire peoples." Economist and author William Easterly traces this strong...