In The News

Riots, Language and Britain’s Globalized Underclass

Garry Robson December 22, 2011
Violent riots broke out in Britain in August, and researchers, searching for reasons, examined the messages relayed by rioters over social media. Many of the calls to don disguises and join the mayhem were in a dialect labeled Multicultural London English by sociolinguists and Jafaican by the media – a post-racial blend that emerged from the more than 300 languages and dialects spoken by youth...

Why Can't Europeans Get Along?

Pankaj Ghemawat December 9, 2011
Forging strong trade connections enriched the European economy, but administrative measures alone did not ensure economic or political integration, cautions management professor Pankaj Ghemawat in an essay for Fortune. While short-term intervention is needed, he argues, Europe must also strive for cultural and political cohesion and build greater trust among 27 nations. He contrasts the EU with...

US Falls Behind in Global Race for Talent

Bruce Stokes October 17, 2011
The US has long attracted the world’s top talent coming to its shores for study and work and benefited richly from their innovations. Advanced engineering, math and science programs of US universities depend on students from China, India and South Korea: More than a third of the US doctoral-level science and engineering workforce was born outside the United States, reports Bruce Stokes,...

So Many US Manufacturing Jobs, So Few Skilled Workers

Lucia Mutikani October 17, 2011
A disconnect hampers US economic recovery: Manufacturing plants based in the US struggle to fill jobs, even with 14 million Americans searching for work. American students prefer studies in the social sciences, arts and business. Math, engineering, technology and computer science degrees account for less than 10 percent of college diplomas. For jobs that don’t require degrees, vocational...

The Depression: If Only Things Were That Good

David Leonhardt October 14, 2011
In analyzing any economic period, one can focus on wages or employment levels – or delve deeper into a society’s potential, examining education and innovations. David Leonhardt takes the latter approach in comparing the current crisis with the Great Depression, when television, autos, aviation, nylon and other materials were under development. A lack of technological innovations that provide for...

America’s Labor Pains

Nayan Chanda October 10, 2011
Americans are frustrated by their inability to find jobs and the widening inequality that brings. Proposals from government and corporations so far rely on unworkable notions that failed in the past, including protectionist measures or subsidies that reinforce aging industries that are no longer competitive. The world economy has undergone structural transformation, explains Nayan Chanda in his...

The World Is Flatter

Nayan Chanda September 27, 2011
The United States seems to have a knack for ushering in changes, then failing to adapt to the challenges they bring. The failure of the US to adapt to the technology and finance-driven globalization it introduced to the world has prompted an alarming decline. In his regular column for Businessworld, YaleGlobal editor Nayan Chanda reviews “That Used to Be Us: How America fell behind in the world...