In The News

Many Small Firms Want to Join Exodus

Kim Sung-mi September 19, 2003
Fed up with their country's strict regulations and contentious labor market, many of South Korea's manufacturing firms are moving their operations overseas. China, with its cheap labor and rapidly expanding market, is the most popular destination for Korean firms on the move. Many manufacturers not looking to relocate say they are considering switching to the service sector, prompting...

US Economic Folly Should Worry Us All

Joseph Stiglitz September 17, 2003
US President Bush's recent request for global financial support to pay for the war in Iraq has met with little sympathy and more than a little gloating from countries who argue the US should never have entered Iraq. Compounding the world's amusement at Washington's financial problems are the Bush tax cuts that have decimated the budget surplus that existed when he came into office...

China Joins the Global Economy - Part Two

Deborah Davis September 17, 2003
In part one of this 2-part series, David Zweig explained the processes by which China joined the global economy. In part two, China scholar Deborah Davis discusses the prospects for China's continued economic growth. While incomes have improved and everyone's boat has risen, Davis says, so has the country's once-low income inequality. Increased differences in wealth, as well as...

China Protectionism Equals Votes

Christian Bourge September 15, 2003
US Treasury Secretary John Snow's failure to convince China to float its currency has been met with dismay by the Bush administration. As American unemployment grows in the manufacturing-heavy swing states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, Bush is looking to place blame elsewhere before he has to compete in the 2004 presidential election. China seemed like a good target – the US has a...

China Joins the Global Economy - Part One

David Zweig September 15, 2003
Just over two decades ago, China was a vast, poor country whose centrally-planned economy offered its citizenry little hope for an improved standard of living. After a series of market-oriented reforms, however, many Chinese now regularly enjoy luxuries that were once reserved for the elite. In part one of a 2-part series on China's entry into the world economy, China expert David Zweig...

Only a Miracle Can Save China

Moisés Naím September 14, 2003
China may be growing too strong too fast for its own good. Rapid urbanization, an upwardly mobile middle class, and strained utilities and resources make an economic or political "accident" within the next decade inevitable, argues Moisés Naím. No state thus far has managed to expand so quickly in so many different directions without experiencing some sort of collapse—and China's...

African Nations Press for an End to Cotton Subsidies in the West

Elizabeth Becker September 12, 2003
Agricultural subsidies continue to be the keyword for the current round of WTO talks in Cancun. Cotton has become the symbol of the debate, with four African nations who depend on the crop for 10% of their gross domestic products claim the combined 4 billion dollars worth of subsidies provided by the EU and the US to their cotton farmers keep prices below cost. Unsubsidized farmers can not...