In The News

Japan Pays Foreign Workers to Go Home

Hiroko Tabuchi April 24, 2009
After allowing low-skilled laborers of Japanese descent from South America to work there for years, Japan is offering them pay packages and incentives to return to their home country with only one condition: don’t come back. The policy – meant to stem rising unemployment – is related to the slump in Japanese manufacturing that has been exacerbated by the global financial crisis. Many academics...

China Steps Up to World Stage, Cautiously

François Godement April 24, 2009
Though commentators were expecting China to approach the G-20 as an Asian Goliath, what they got instead was the traditional cautious dragon. As Asia specialist François Godement argues, such reticence to playing a bigger part on the global stage should not come as a surprise. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t some unexpected events. President Hu Jintao meeting...

Fermenting a Taste for Kimchi

Lee Eun-joo April 23, 2009
The Korean government is trying to promote globally the taste for kimchi, a cabbage-based spicy side dish. Part of this promotion includes creating the International Kimchi Association, set to discuss the history, culture, and industry of kimchi as well as expediting distribution and sales of the food. Currently, close to 90 percent of exported kimchi goes to Japan. And although exports posted a...

Tainted Chinese Drywall Contaminating U.S. Homes

Charlotte Cuthbertson April 20, 2009
If the US housing market doesn’t have enough problems already, it now has an additional one from thousands of miles away. Drywall imported from China has been found to contain contaminants that can form corrosive sulfuric acid, creating a new worry for home-owners. Affected houses often smell like rotten eggs and home dwellers suffer a slew of health problems – from relatively benign runny noses...

Capitalism’s Future Lies in Networks and Cooperation

Farok Contractor April 20, 2009
In the past, adversarial competition and in-house design and production typified the climate and model for business success. Today, that climate has changed, according to management professor Farok Contractor. Cooperation and networks are the new tools for success in the global economy for a whole host of reasons. First, many projects are so large that one company cannot possibly shoulder the...

The EU Can Ignore Eastern Europe at Its Own Peril

Katinka Barysch April 17, 2009
At the G-20 meeting and subsequent media commentaries, focus has been on the travails of the European Union. But Eastern Europe is often lost sight of in the expression of cautious optimism about the EU economy weathering the storm. The former Soviet bloc countries, cautions analyst Katinka Barysch, are still at risk from the financial crisis with serious negative consequences for the West. Many...

Pipe Made in India Incenses Illinois Town

Louis Uchitelle April 16, 2009
A steel town whose factories are idled is not likely to welcome steel pipe from India in its backyard. And from the citizens’ initial reactions in an Illinois town, it’s not hard to see how a grassroots protectionist campaign could find strong support. But, as this article details, the issues are much more complex. First, the US has been importing 20 percent or more of its steel needs for the...