In The News

Does Globalization Help or Hurt the World’s Poor?

Pranab Bardhan March 31, 2006
As debates over economic globalization rage, one writer ponders whether “expansion of foreign trade and investment” influences the world’s poor. Author Pranab Bardhan notes that the answer is neither a simple yes or no. By certain measures, the level of extreme poverty has lessened worldwide, but that doesn’t necessarily correlate with globalization and could be the result of some domestic...

We Need Alexander Hamilton

Ernest C. Hollings March 30, 2006
Ernest Hollings, former senator of South Carolina, relies on early American history to compare the government and corporate approaches to trade. The second bill to pass through US Congress, in 1789, was a 50 percent tariff on all trade, which according to Hollings, allowed the US to develop its manufacturing and reduce dependence on Europe. Other presidents managed trade to nurture specific...

Capitalism Under Fire

William Pfaff March 30, 2006
Mass demonstrations in France over a relatively minor change in employment policy reflect a deeper and unrealized anxiety about changes occurring over several generations in the international model of capitalism. A recent international opinion poll reports that 74% of Chinese believe the free-enterprise, free-market system is the outstanding option among economic models, while only 36% of French...

Latin Blues

Ernesto Zedillo March 27, 2006
Some analysts anticipate that successful populist campaigns, with irresponsible campaign promises and unrealistic goals, could plunge Latin America into economic disaster and thus reverse democratic gains from the past 20 years. Yet former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, now director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, notes that every Latin American politician recognizes the...

Protectionism Threatens Emerging Engine of Growth

Fred Kempe March 24, 2006
Despite inflation, debt, energy prices and terrorism, global economic growth has flourished with the help of emerging markets. Consumers in developing nations like China are increasingly spending more, approaching the levels of US consumers, and contributing to keeping economies worldwide running smoothly. But protectionist forces in the US and EU could halt the new source of growth. Worried...

Is Globalization Stealing EU Jobs?

March 23, 2006
Increasingly, Europe finds itself struggling to answer the question of how it can simultaneously endorse free trade and preserve traditional industries and the jobs associated with them. In an age of inexpensive Asian imports, outsourcing, and bids for corporate takeovers from foreign entities, Europe is understandably worried about the effects of globalization on its job base. Europe’s...

The New Globalization Guru?

Eric Hobsbawm March 23, 2006
“The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, and establish connections everywhere…. Modern Industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist.” Philosopher Karl Marx made some uncanny predictions,...