In The News

Shale Industry Faces Global Reality Check

Richard Anderson April 8, 2014
New technologies in shale oil and gas recovery have reduced energy costs in the United States, and governments around the globe consider fracking for energy security. Richard Anderson of BBC News questions if the US trends can be replicated in Europe and elsewhere. Companies tried drilling in Poland with little luck because of geology challenges. Also in Poland, “A punitive tax regime and an...

Fresh Corporate Default Tests China’s Resolve

Lucy Hornby and Jamil Anderlini March 14, 2014
Defaults, like profits, are a part of doing business, warns China’s premier, after Haixin Steel and Chaori Solar failed to make payments on debt. “Li Keqiang told reporters that China was likely to see a series of defaults as the government accelerates financial deregulation but said his government would take steps to ensure they do not pose a threat to the wider financial system,” reports the...

US FDA Chief: If You Want Our Market, Meet Our Standards

March 4, 2014
US regulators seek cooperation on quality control from its supplier of foods and medicines. "If Indian pharmaceutical companies want to sell in the US, they need to comply with our standards, practices and expectations,” said Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, according to a report in the Times of India. She offered the comments during a trip to India and...

The Omnipresent Craft: Graft

Nayan Chanda February 4, 2014
The “opening up of a country to trade and investment has created opportunities for bribery and corruption on a scale greater than at any other time in the past,” writes Nayan Chanda, YaleGlobal’s editor, in his column for Businessworld. But the internet rallies citizens to protest corruption, too. Corruption in politics or business – including bribes and kickbacks, abuse of power, nepotism,...

How to Avert Another Debt-Ceiling Crisis

James Leitner, Ian Shapiro November 15, 2013
The United States borrows 46 cents for every dollar it spends, and despite congressional approval of the expenditures, a few members cling to a self-imposed debt ceiling, insisting that partial default may bring new discipline and spending priorities. “Had the debt ceiling been breached, the damage to the U.S. and world economies could have been measured in trillions of dollars,” write James...

US Health Care Reform Is Only Getting Started

Elizabeth H. Bradley, Lauren A. Taylor November 5, 2013
In Scandinavia, health care is a social good, and for the United States, it is a business. The differences on costs and outcomes are glaring. The US invests $8604 per capita on its system, compared with $5674 for Norway, $4564 for Denmark and $3870 for Sweden, according to the World Health Organization. Elizabeth H. Bradley, professor of public health at Yale University, and Lauren A. Taylor of...

NHS “Can Save £500m” on Foreign Care

Nick Triggle November 1, 2013
A survey by BritishFuture.org suggests that more than 70 percent of respondents consider the National Health Service a symbol of “what is great” about Great Britain. But health care is costly, and British officials contemplate being more proactive in recouping treatment costs from foreigners. “Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he did not want to ‘turn GPs into border guards’ and no-one would be...