In The News

British Unions, Angry Over Use of Foreign Workers, Stage Walkouts

John F. Burns February 3, 2009
British labor unions have organized walkouts to protest skilled construction jobs going to workers from elsewhere in the European Union. “The disruption underscored rising fears of labor unrest across Europe – and renewed pressure from unions for a retreat from the European Union’s rules on open labor markets – as job losses across the Continent mounted into the hundreds of thousands with the...

US and China: Grappling Over Economic Rescue – Part II

Edward Gresser February 2, 2009
With the rest of the world looking for leadership in emerging from economic crisis, how to stimulate the growth in China and the US has become the most urgent task. Other nations expect the pair to coordinate policy and do what they can to unfreeze credit, restore stable growth and ease unbalances. Currency rates are one of the ways to moderate swings in global growth and trade flows, explains...

A Time of Troubles and Protest

January 30, 2009
More than 2.5 workers throughout France rallied behind a one-day strike, urging the government to protect jobs and wages. But as slumping sales and global recession have closed factories, policies and protests fail to address severe inequality that leaves some workers with secure jobs and benefits and many others, particularly among the young, without. In France, the government has focused on...

Financial Crisis Causes Iceland's Government to Collapse

David Blair January 30, 2009
With global recession in full force, governments are tested, and Iceland's government is the first in Europe to fail. "Mass demonstrations against the government have become daily events in Reykjavik," writes David Blair for the Telegraph. In 2007, Iceland's finance industry appeared robust; the island nation of 310,000, independent from Denmark since 1944, did not see much...

US and China: Grappling Over Economic Rescue – Part I

Xu Sitao January 30, 2009
Trade imbalances, fueled by overproduction and saving in Asia, too much consumption and debt in the West, have compounded the harsh global recession. Analysts in the US and elsewhere in the West floundering for a remedy have focused on China’s trillion-plus dollar surplus and suggest that an increase in Chinese domestic spending might ease the global pain. This two-part YaleGlobal series suggests...

Drug Making’s Move Abroad Stirs Concerns

Gardiner Harris January 28, 2009
Consumers want inexpensive medications and yet express concern about pharmaceutical firms relocating factories abroad, along with the loss of jobs and possible loss of quality control. “Like other manufacturing operations, drug plants have been moving to Asia because labor, construction, regulatory and environmental costs are lower there,” reports Gardiner Harris for the New York Times, adding...

"No Country, No Matter How Powerful…Can Control the Forces of Globalization on Its Own"

Kofi A. Annan January 27, 2009
Economic crisis will leave no part of the globe untouched, yet it also offers widespread opportunity for citizens to assess priorities. Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urges nations to select priorities that reshape and improve the world for the common good: "For the roots of this crisis go beyond an abject failure of financial governance and neglect of warnings of the risks being run...