In The News

India Tries Outsourcing Its Outsourcing

Anand Giridharadas September 26, 2007
India was an early leader in benefiting from the technology-driven globalization of the job market, but now positions such jobs all over the globe. A traditional recipient of outsourced labor, India has experienced rising worker wages and competition from other developing countries. As a result, writes journalist Anand Giridharadas, Indian firms have opened offices in countries such as Mexico,...

Climate-Change Challenge for the Poor – Part I

Chandrashekhar Dasgupta September 26, 2007
Although climate change has been brought about largely by development in industrialized rich nations, it will impose the most hardship on the poorest countries. In the first article of this two-part series, Ambassador Chandrashekhar Dasgupta of India argues that accelerated social and economic development may offer the only hope for poor nations who have a long way to go in adapting to climate...

Global Risk of US Credit Crisis – Part II

David Crane September 24, 2007
The globalization of finance has made vast amounts of capital available to many across the world, allowing select leading firms and individuals to become fabulously wealthy. But a lack of effective regulation and opaqueness of many financial instruments also exposed many firms and individuals to enormous risk. Globally connected financial markets and high-speed technology mean that one nation’s...

Globalization Was Good Then, Not Now

Mark Thirlwell September 17, 2007
Even as economists fret about sustaining global economic integration and politicians in the wealthiest nations make opposition to globalization a winning campaign theme, the phenomenon continues to connect the world. Such a dichotomy may not continue for long, warns economist Mark Thirlwell. Growing alarm in the developed nations stems from the emergence of powerful competitors in the developing...

US Must Reassert Global Leadership

Samuel R. Berger September 13, 2007
Intent on the war in Iraq, the US has reduced its involvement elsewhere in Asia, South America and Africa. Meanwhile, China and Russia have stepped into the vacuum, warn former Clinton administration officials, Samuel Berger and Eric Schwartz, writing for the Boston Globe. China has provided billions for roads, ports and other projects in nations like Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines, they...

The Great Leap Backward?

Elizabeth C. Economy September 7, 2007
China has become a leading polluter in the world, with its citizens suffering from air pollution, decreasing supplies of potable water and reckless development. Consumers around the world buy inexpensive goods from China, but do not pay the true costs. The country has environmental laws, but businesses and local leaders ignore them in order to increase jobs and profits. The nation is capable of...

Bee Decline Threatens Our Dinner and the Countryside

Jimmy Lee Shreeve August 30, 2007
Imagine a food market with fewer apples, nuts, soybeans, asparagus, squash, tomatoes, citrus fruit, strawberries or melons. People may not notice small insects in the course of daily life, but alarm would emerge if species of bees suddenly vanished. Wildflowers and many agricultural plants depend on bees for pollination and production of seed. “It's hard to believe that one small creature...