In The News

Real Message Is Clear

Jennifer Hewett April 30, 2008
China’s boom has filled its coffers with lots of cash. Some nations, including Australia, want to slow the fast pace of China’s foreign investment – taking time to assess consequences. The most recent takeover target is West Australian iron-ore producer Midwest by China's Sinosteel, and the latter could be on the hunt for other iron-ore producers, reports Jennifer Hewett for the Australian...

Globalization’s Aftershocks

Temma Ehrenfeld April 29, 2008
The new world order born out of the fall of the Soviet Union triggered fundamental changes in the global economy, many out of the reach of government regulation. Italian economist and author Loretta Napoleoni, in an interview with Newsweek, defines this trend of trade in unregulated markets as the rise of “rogue economics” – including black market sales, poaching of fish or rare species, as well...

Games Tensions on Slippery Track

Jason Dean April 28, 2008
Criticism of China’s human-rights record and Tibet policy has provoked an active defense among Chinese people. Without government direction, a strong wave of nationalist sentiment has driven boycotts of Western multinational corporations whose shareholders support the Free Tibet movement, as well as protests outside media outlets deemed to have reported on the issue with bias. In a year that the...

Globalization Pushes More Women Into Informal Economy

Ama Achiaa Amankwah April 28, 2008
Gender inequalities have long left African women outside the formal economy, forced to fend for themselves in informal trade while their brothers and husbands secured employment in the civil sector and state-owned enterprises. Yet the liberalization of African state economies and the elimination of many government-supplied jobs have pushed men out of the formal economy to compete with women....

Deadly Greed: The Role of Speculators in the Global Food Crisis

Beat Balzli April 25, 2008
Investors, sensing opportunity in climbing food prices, made record profits in the commodities markets, including wheat, corn, rice and palm oil. “Commodity speculation spread long ago from standard products like oil and gold to anything edible and available for trade on the Chicago Futures Exchange,” write Beat Balzli and Frank Hornig for Spiegel Online. The futures market allowed farmers to...

Irrational Exuberance to Bust: Financial Bubbles Demand Regulation

Kemal Dervis April 23, 2008
As the financial sector has gained dominance in the world economy, some investors have become accustomed to steady growth and double-digit profits. While the financial industry rewards efficiency and innovation among competing firms, the relentless quest for profits and a short-term mentality in some finance circles have contributed to a series of asset bubbles: the Asian-Russia financial crisis...

Battleground Over Globalization

Robert McMahom April 22, 2008
The presidential candidates repeatedly describe some voters as “real Americans” and “the lifeblood of this country.” Even for those voters, American” issues are international issues. Debates over NAFTA take center stage in industrial hotspots like Pennsylvania and Ohio, where steelworkers and other blue-collar communities harbor justifiable fears over how the trade deal has affected the US...