In The News

The Opening of Libya

Stanley Reed March 9, 2007
As Libya gradually emerges from 20 years of economic isolation, international energy firms rush to grab a piece of the North African nation’s extensive untapped oil reserves. Libya has organized an intensely competitive bidding process for exploration rights, pitting companies from the US, Europe and Asia against one another in a race to secure new sources of energy. Such investment will have...

Managing Globalization: How Fast China Grows Will Affect Everyone

Daniel Altman March 8, 2007
Since the end of its civil war, China has achieved staggeringly high rates of growth. Except during crisis periods like the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, the Chinese economy has increased its size by between 8 and 10 percent a year. Today’s economists are divided over the question of whether China’s extraordinary growth will continue. Some, like James Trippon of “The China Stock...

Hershey's Outsourcing

Herb Field March 7, 2007
Entire towns often grow up around a company. For example, Hershey, Pennsylvania, was nicknamed “the sweetest place on earth,” after Milton S. Hershey built what was then the world’s largest chocolate factory in 1903. Hershey constructed not only a factory that provided a luxury product to the middle class, but a community with comfortable homes and services for his employees. More than 100 years...

While You're at It, Why Not Generate a Little Electricity

Jane Spencer March 6, 2007
People who perform hard workouts in a gym enjoy monitoring their efforts. Now gym managers can provide a new way to measure progress, by supplying batteries that store the energy released on exercise equipment. For now, the cost of capturing the energy far exceeds any savings – a gym in Hong Kong invested $15,000 in the battery equipment and wiring that generates less than $200 worth of...

Member of the Axis of Evil No More

Gavan McCormack March 5, 2007
Crisis can and seems to have opened new opportunity in the Korean peninsula. Having gone to the precipice of a nuclear confrontation, the parties in Northeast Asia have woken up to the need for a realistic approach. China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, the US and North Korea reached an agreement to dismantle the latter's nuclear-weapon program in exchange for fuel aid, opening the door to...

Who Should Foot the Bill on Climate Change?

Scott Barrett March 2, 2007
While the historic responsibility for the current state of atmospheric greenhouse gases lies with the now-developed countries, the fastest growing emitters are currently in the developing world. Scott Barrett, director of the International Policy Program at Johns Hopkins University, argues that it is in everyone’s interest to pursue the most efficient policy rather than the apparently populist...

The Perilous Fantasy of Pursuing Energy Independence

A.F. Al Hajj February 27, 2007
Advance public announcements on research plans can lead to market manipulation. Leaders of developed nations – weary of instability in nations that supply oil and high prices – openly seek energy alternatives. But oil markets respond to the chatter about alternative energy in two ways: Some producers might reduce investment in infrastructure or additional capacity, and others might increase...