In The News

Sugar Powers a Revolution on Brazil’s Roads

Tom Phillips November 23, 2005
Brazil has found an alternative to oil that it is touting as the future of fuel. “Alcohol,” a bio-ethanol fuel made from sugar cane, is increasingly powering Brazilian automobiles, and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks of an “energy revolution,” led by his country. Biodiesel, a renewable fuel, is seen as a way to make Brazil,and indeed the world, less dependent on oil. Its manufacture...

The Dragon and the Eagle Try to Get Along

November 21, 2005
The current relationship between the US and China is that of the world’s only superpower to a rapidly emerging rival. President Bush’s visit to Beijing this weekend revealed a cross section of potentially contentious issues and areas of possible cooperation. The major issues at play between the two countries can be classified as either security issues or issues of economic relationship. China’...

Why American Free Trade Area Runs Aground Again?

Wu Hongying November 16, 2005
Viewed from Beijing, the failure of the Free Trade Area of the Americas reflects a rift between the US and the whole of Latin America. Wu Hongying writes that George Bush (following in his father's footsteps) sees the FTAA as a way of consolidating Washington's economy hegemony in the Americas, and says that the rest of the hemisphere will not stand for it. In particular, Wu argues...

Other Nations Hope to Loosen U.S. Grip on Internet

Victoria Shannon November 15, 2005
In countless contexts and from every corner of the world, the internet is hailed as a revolutionary force, breaking down traditional barriers of class and nation with an inexorable flow of information. As its accessibility increases, the internet becomes more and more a tool of democracy and international cooperation. But this leveling playing field cannot smooth over an underlying reality: the...

Greenspan Says Globalization Driving U.S. Current Account Gap

Craig Torres November 14, 2005
The US current account deficit has skyrocketed in recent years, reaching an unprecedented 6.3 percent of Gross Domestic Product. Outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan attempted to explain the widening of that gap yesterday, arguing that the gap reflects “a pronounced new phase of globalization.” Globalization, says Greenspan, has weakened “home bias”—the tendency to invest in one’s...

Anti-Capitalist A-Team

Bridget Johnson November 11, 2005
A columnist takes on the anti-globalization protestors and points to their self-defeating tactics. At the recent Summit of the Americas they were out in full force, uniting anti-globalization and anti-Bush sentiment in one potent combination and creating chaos. Their premise, that free trade is “pro-corporation,” and hurts “mom-and-pop businesses,” is belied by their tactics, which target...

Dark Clouds over Doha

November 11, 2005
It has been four difficult years since the Doha Round of free trade talks began in 2001. The proponents of free trade now find themselves in retreat across the world. The Bush Administration has stuck to its free-trade guns, but finds itself increasingly unable to deal with a protectionist electorate and hamstrung by the President's lack of "fast track" trade negotiation...