In The News

To Cope With Oil Shock, Emulate Japan

Dilip Hiro June 3, 2008
The world has become too dependent on oil for security and comfort. Conflicts leading to disruptions in oil supply were behind past price shocks, but the most recent shock has been largely spurred by tightening supply and rising demand from emerging economies, explains historian and journalist Dilip Hiro. Plenty of buyers, armed with cash, eye diminishing natural resources. With no short-term...

Supply Chinks

Nayan Chanda June 3, 2008
Even though the global supply chain has grown tremendously, the quality of products produced in other parts of the world has diminished. In fact, labels have become more misleading. A label stating that the product is “Made in China” is not necessarily true. According to Nayan Chanda, it is actually "made in the world." And the origin of some products or ingredients is never truly...

Climate Change After Kyoto – A Blueprint for a Realistic Approach

Peter J. Wilcoxen May 28, 2008
Leaders of developed nations have long attempted to push the US into action on climate change – and public support has been building in the US itself for such action. As a result, the candidates competing for US president are in agreement that climate change is a problem and that the US government should take action. One obstacle, though, to strong, quick action is the reliance of US citizens on...

A Strategy to Promote Healthy Globalization

Lawrence Summers May 14, 2008
US workers and voters are impatient with globalization – and the highly skilled, productive workers in the West do not want any competition to dent their top wages. “[Workers’] effort is complemented by capital, broadly defined to include equipment, managerial expertise, corporate culture, infrastructure and the capacity for innovation,” writes Lawrence Summers, Harvard professor and former...

Is Larry Summers the Canary in the Mine?

Devesh Kapur May 14, 2008
One-time champions of free trade, economic liberalization and globalization – like Larry Summers, former treasury secretary with the Clinton administration – now unveil their doubts. Globalization presents competition, and perhaps potential threat for the US is how a trio of analysts summarizes Summers’ argument in an opinion essay for the Financial Times. His “apparently nationalist argument is...

Superclass and the Inequity of Globalization

David Rothkopf May 14, 2008
The free-market principles that drive global trade of goods, services and ideas often run counter to notions of institutional regulation. According to David Rothkopf, author and visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, this void in global governance has facilitated the rise of a “superclass” of elites, numbering about 6,000, whose actions impact millions of lives. The...

In Hungry World, Japan's Farmers Are Stuck With High-Priced Rice

Blaine Harden May 13, 2008
Japan’s rice market is subjected to intense manipulation. Even as rice consumption is on the decline, farms remain small and protected, the country grows more than it needs and prices are high. Shortages of rice and other foods abound in poor countries, but Japanese rice is unaffordable, with prices more than double those in international markets. Per-capita annual consumption of rice has been...