In The News

The Voice of Labor

July 23, 2008
Organized labor looks to be well-organized for politics in advance of November’s US presidential election. Backed by vast war chests and armies of volunteers, unions address workers’ concerns over soaring prices at home and growing competition overseas. Given labor’s strength in key Midwestern swing states and amongst blue-collar whites in general, these efforts to cast the election as a...

Fundamental Failures

Merle Lipton July 23, 2008
South Africa confronts many struggles: Unemployment is high, crime has increased dramatically, and the government fails to provide even the most basic security for its citizens. In terms of infrastructure, power failures are common and supply problems are foreseen in other critical areas such as water. Such problems have impacts on the entire region. For example, the African National Congress...

China’s Rumble With Globalization – Part I

Xu Sitao July 22, 2008
Conventional wisdom suggests that a booming economy can protect China from all economic woes. But this two-part series argues otherwise. China’s resistance to rising prices – despite the global pressure raising costs for food and fuel – has distorted economic policies and only delays the reckoning, argues economist Xu Sitao in the first article. “For a large developing economy with a unique...

What If the Candidates Pandered to Economists?

N. Gregory Mankiw July 21, 2008
Economists make up a tiny portion of the voting bloc and politicians rarely pander to them, perhaps because economists rarely speak with a single voice regarding any issue. However, economists do reach consensus on a few issues. For example, most economists support free trade, and argue that laws preventing free trade are nothing more than laws protecting special-interest groups from competition...

We Either Lead, Or We Get Left

Gordon Smith July 18, 2008
The G8 meetings may soon be in flux as new countries enter the talks or some are excluded. There are many possible options for future G8 meetings. Certain countries can be dropped to make room for others. Another possibility is that membership will be expanded to include the Outreach 5 countries- Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. Either way, Canada, as a leader in building...

More Pressure on Global Fish Stocks as Scientists Warn of Underreporting of Catches

Tim Radford July 17, 2008
Scientists have long known that global fish stocks were in trouble. Countries overfish and deplete stocks without thought to long-term consequences and population collapses. Researchers from the Sea Around Us, an international research group based at the University of British Columbia, visited 20 locations, talked to locals and estimated the amount of fish that were caught. They reached the...

What Should the White House Do About Globalization

William Holstein July 17, 2008
Businesses juggle the challenges and rewards of globalization every day – but the process of interaction remains largely a mystery. During the Cold War, globalization had ideological connotations, as it was often viewed as just westernization. Now the term is source of anger and confusion as its consequences are more uncertain. The next US president must define globalization for US citizens and...