In The News

Globalization and the Markets – Part I

David Dapice January 22, 2008
Stock-market indexes have tumbled like dominos around the globe, exposing vulnerability of intricate economic connections. A crisis in one nation – and the panic – can quickly bounce from one country to the next. A major cause behind the stock-market plunges the world over are US financial instruments designed to spread and protect risk by including all manner of home mortgages, explains...

China Eyes Latin American Commodities

Georg Caspary January 18, 2008
Latin America is rich in natural resources, including oil, minerals and agricultural crops, all desired in the global markets. At the same time, China has become the world's largest importer of cotton, copper and soybeans as well as the second-largest oil importer. Latin America can secure lasting advantages from its commodities sales – including poverty reduction and sustainable development...

World Rides to Wall Street's Rescue

David Enrich January 17, 2008
Nations with hefty savings accounts, including Singapore and Saudi Arabia, are devoting billions to rescuing US banks in trouble, a result of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. “After flooding the world with capital that fed both economic growth and excess, battered U.S. financial institutions now are turning to countries and companies that not so long ago were suffering through their own disasters...

An Empowered Middle East – Part I

Pranay Gupte January 10, 2008
President George Bush’s trip to the Middle East comes at a time when Iraq is stabilizing and the oil-producing countries’ fortune is rising. Bush will visit Israel and Saudi Arabia, also making stops in Palestine, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirate and Egypt, perhaps even Iraq and Lebanon. Along the way he’ll witness results of US foreign policy – diplomacy, intervention and some neglect. A...

Canada's Aid Seeded China Dam

Ian Johnson January 2, 2008
Environmental and human-rights activists around the globe criticize the world’s largest hydroelectric dam, Three Gorges Dam in China, for its displacement of more than a million people and environmental devastation. Yet governments and companies of the West provided assistance that allowed the controversial project to proceed. “In the midst of a domestic political crisis, the Canadian government...

The “China Honeymoon” Is Over

David Shambaugh December 7, 2007
Foreign investors in any land are put off by any trade and investment practices that discriminate against them. Protectionist practices in China include a lack of respect for intellectual property and market barriers. Changes in political leadership and concern over outsourcing jobs throughout Europe combined with ongoing reports of human-rights violations in the Chinese workplace have strained...

A Queue in the Sand

Stanley Reed December 7, 2007
The Middle East is rich with oil money, ready to invest in all kinds of megadeals, reports BusinessWeek. For example, state-owned Abu Dhabi Investment Authority stepped forward to buy a $7.5 billion stake in Citigroup, a bank ailing from the US sub-prime mortgage crisis. Some borrowers purchased homes with loans that offered low rates for only a year or two; as the rates increase, the homeowners...