In The News

Designing Fair Shares Prosperity in Asia

Chandran Nair May 31, 2012
Societies aiming for social progress have a few mechanisms: Governments can tax wealth and fund programs or NGOs; mandate a level of investment in beneficial programs, while giving companies and investors the benefit of choice; or impose few restrictions, hoping that companies and investors choose to strengthen communities on their own. Social investments can be piecemeal or far-reaching. With...

What’s Next for Europe?

Alistair Burnett May 23, 2012
Politicians in power since the 2008 financial collapse, regardless of their political stripes, find themselves in peril. Analysis of the recent French and Greek elections followed three lines of thought – that voters soundly rejected strict austerity measures, blamed incumbents, and abandoned mainstream political parties for more extremist leadership, both right and left. The three...

A Global Economy in Danger

Manu Bhaskaran May 21, 2012
The week’s global consultations are in order – a G20 Labor and Employment Ministerial Meeting convened in Mexico on employment policies; the G8 reached consensus on eurozone reforms at Camp David; NATO meets in Chicago to prepare for withdrawal from Afghanistan. The globe’s major economies are interconnected in so many ways, and the separate set of difficulties of each threatens ability to...

France Says “Non!” to Austerity

Jonathan Fenby May 7, 2012
Global markets are seized with new uncertainty as French voters rejected austerity measures, electing François Hollande, the Socialist candidate, as president. The win, if backed by French legislative elections in June, could send the European Union back to the drawing board for plans on rescuing debt-strapped Greece and resolving the eurozone crisis, reports author Jonathan Fenby. Election...

Global Power Shift – Part II

Richard Weitz March 23, 2012
With the US shifting its security focus toward Asia, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been forced to review its strategic posture. This two-part YaleGlobal series examines the impact of the US pivot toward Asia on both the US and NATO against the backdrop of their shrinking budgets and the need to reduce debt. While the US is concerned about China’s rising power, along with NATO, it...

In Europe, North Battles South

Joergen Oerstroem Moeller March 16, 2012
European economies can be divided into two categories – one that’s more competitive and flexible; the other more rigid, struggling to repay debts. With a few exceptions, countries of northern Europe are generally more competitive than the countries along the Mediterranean, explains researcher Joergen Oerstroem Moeller. He urges that the European Union cooperate in enacting structural changes and...

Elites Loot Africa While Foreign Debt Mounts

James K. Boyce, Léonce Ndikumana February 27, 2012
Too often, borrowed monies are salted away from Africa’s most impoverished nations to offshore banks through inflated contracts or kickbacks. The complexities and bank-secrecy laws of the international finance system, combined with a lack of enforcement, assist such transfers, contend James K. Boyce and Léonce Ndikumana, authors of Africa’s Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled...