In The News

OECD Sounds Fresh Warning on Japan

Ben McLannahan April 23, 2013
Controlling debt should be a top challenge for Japan, the world’s third largest economy, suggests the OECD. Stimulus spending offers potential for economic growth but “should be accompanied by a detailed ‘blueprint’ to put the country’s finances on a more stable footing,” reports Ben McLannahan for the Financial Times. Japan’s debt is predicted to be well more than double its gross domestic...

Is Tourism the Most Destructive Enterprise?

Elizabeth Becker April 23, 2013
Travel has grown exponentially since the 1960s, and tourism employs more people than any other industry. As political developments have opened borders, as new technologies in aviation and communications provide new access, few destinations go unexplored, suggests Elizabeth Becker, author of Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism. She explains that any human endeavor can be...

China Targets Greenland for Mining

Will Hickey April 18, 2013
Tight profit margins in the mining industry – along with consolidation among large multinationals, huge capital investments, high-tech automation and rigid equipment maintenance contracts – have reduced job creation for nations with natural resources. Greenland, with 57,000 citizens, mostly indigenous, has vast deposits of minerals. A logical move would be for Greenlanders to rely on Danish...

How Globalization Went Pop, What It Means for Workers

Charles Davi April 16, 2013
Concepts of entropy may assist in understanding globalization’s ways and its rate of speed, suggests attorney Charles Davi in the Atlantic. Entropy, as law of physics, suggests that nature and energy are in flux – orderly concentrations spread into disorder. Information entropy is a method for measuring diffusion. By analyzing global GDP among nations in 1990 – and nations’ specific contributions...

Abenomics and the Japanese Economy

Beina Xu April 9, 2013
While Japan prospered throughout the 1980s, it’s since become mired in deflation, with weak consumer spending and low growth. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to implement new economic policies and jolt his recession-riddled country out of the deflationary malaise. Beina Xu of the Council on Foreign Relations analyzes the history of Japan’s economy and examines Abe’s grand Keynesian-...

Kuroda Plans Bond Binge for Bank of Japan

Jun Hongo April 8, 2013
Incremental measures have not been enough to lift a stagnant Japanese economy. The central bank announced plans for ending Japan’s deflation – adding to the money supply by expanding purchases of government bonds and allowing purchase of riskier assets, reports Jun Hongo for the Japan Times. The strategy could double Japan’s monetary base and “will target longer-term debt, including JGBs with...

Coffee Rust Plagues Farmers in Mexico

Frédéric Saliba April 2, 2013
Fungal diseases are a major challenge in farming, and coffee growers in Latin America must contend with coffee rust – a disease caused by the Hemileia vastatrix, an orange dust that causes the leaves on coffee bushes to fall away, reports Frédéric Saliba for Guardian Weekly. “The crisis seems particularly serious in Central America, with a state of emergency already in force in Honduras, Costa...