In The News

Tough Question in Climate Change: Who Gets Saved?

Christopher Flavelle August 29, 2016
Governments preparing for climate change already assess which communities can be saved and which cannot. Christopher Flavelle compares Newtok and other remote communities in Alaska with Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana, all trying to escape rising waters. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development ran a National Disaster Resilience Competition intended to raise awareness about climate...

World Risk Index: The Human Factor in Natural Disasters

Axel Bojanowski August 26, 2016
Natural disasters strike without warning, but government preparation and regulations on infrastructure contribute to saving lives, suggests the World Risk Index from United Nations University researchers and development organizations. Shallow earthquakes struck Haiti and New Zealand each in 2010, reports Axel Bojanowski. In Haiti, more than 100,000 lost their lives while New Zealand suffered...

Abenomics: What Japan’s Economic Experiment Can Teach the Rest of the World

August 16, 2016
Japan’s economy shifted from being the envy of the world in the 1980s to today's case study in stagnation. The country's nominal GDP for 2015 is mostly unchanged from levels in 1995 even as the US nominal GDP grew by more than 130 percent, reports the Economist. “To reflate Japan and reform it, Shinzo Abe, prime minister since December 2012, proposed the three ‘arrows’ of what has...

It’s Just a Stealth Reform

Nayan Chanda July 25, 2016
The Indian government is promoting textile and garment production to restore the country’s manufacturing prowess while also slipping in labor reforms. “By highlighting subsidies and higher wages for workers while increasing the hiring and firing power of employers the government has adopted the tactic of stealth reform,” writes Nayan Chanda, founding editor of YaleGlobal Online, in his column for...

Tax Can End Africa’s Aid Dependency

Benjamin Fox December 24, 2015
Companies seek to maximize profits by reducing tax payments, relocating if necessary. Tax avoidance and illegal financial flows cost Africa $50 billion per year, suggests one report. “Legislation in Europe and North America is now in force requiring extractive sector firms to publish country-by-country reports of all payments they make to governments, a system that is gradually being expanded to...

Crunchtime for Global Tax-Avoidance Push

Paul Hannon September 29, 2015
Multinational corporations earn revenues in wealthy markets but file income reports from off-shore financial hubs. The Organization of Economic Development and Cooperation is working with representatives of near 50 countries on a new set of rules to prevent multinational corporations from dodging tax payments. “If the rules work as planned, they will help ensure big companies pay tax on profits...

Why the World Is Becoming the Un-Sweden

John Feffer June 15, 2015
Fifty years ago, academics predicted that that the two ideological systems of the Cold War would converge to include the best features of capitalism and collectivism, or a Swedish type of social democracy. They expected modernization to force governments to evolve. Today, many countries demonstrated a convergence, but with versions that incorporate the worst of both – ruthless forms of capitalism...