In The News

Protecting Ideas is Crucial for U.S. Business

Alan Murray November 10, 2005
Regulating copycat products and services internationally may become the capitalist struggle of the 21th century. Brands, patents, and copyrights fuel a large portion of the international economy. Intellectual property in the United States has become a $5 trillion industry. As access to information and products becomes simpler and ever more rapid, idea theft has become a costly proposition. The...

In Vino Vilitas

Barbara Supp November 9, 2005
Once the rarefied realm of connoisseurs, the wine industry now must bend to the forces of the market and not the tastes of the palate. Europe, the birthplace of wine, can no longer rely on its continental sophistication and experience to control the wine market. Experts estimate that 2005 will be the first year in which wine imports into Europe will outnumber wine exports. Fearing the loss of...

Globalization Rocks, but African Leaders Fail to Understand It

Franklin Cudjoe November 8, 2005
African leaders often describe globalization as an exploitative force keeping Africans in poverty. But in fact, it is the inept and corrupt governments of African countries which are robbing their citizens of the economic freedom to compete in the world market. Many leaders subvert their countries’ constitutions entirely in order to retain power and continue to feather their own nests with...

There Are Too Many Losers in Globalization

Larry Elliot November 7, 2005
The years since the end of the Cold War have brought great ironies those Western capitalists who triumphed over Soviet communism. Chief among these is the extent to which the triumph of capitalist globalization risks creating a new and powerful threat to that globalization’s success. For years, even politicians like Reagan and Thatcher were restrained in their ability to push free-market...

The Doha Round and Globalization’s Missing Middle

Barry Desker November 2, 2005
The Doha Round meeting of the WTO is still weeks away but observers are already writing its epitaph. A former senior trade official of Singapore envisages an unsatisfactory conclusion to the trade negotiations in Hong Kong this December, mainly because of its likely failure to reach agreements on agricultural and services liberalization. But there may not be any clear cut “villain” responsible...

Romancing the Globe

Ibsen Martinez November 1, 2005
Approximately 2 billion people around the world tune in on a regular basis to watch Latin American soap operas known as “telenovelas.” While Hollywood and the US television industry are often seen as the defining forces of cultural globalization, the success of telenovelas is a global phenomenon that is being celebrated as “reverse cultural imperialism.” The plotlines of telenovelas usually...

Painful Truth of the Call Centre Cyber Coolies

Amelia Gentleman October 31, 2005
Over the recent years, India’s ability to earn contracts from Western companies looking to outsource services has been seen as a globalization success story. Call centers, where Indian employees handle questions and offer support to Western consumers have become a major new industry in India, and have been portrayed as providing “good salaries and new career opportunities in the developing world...