In The News

Globalization in Every Loaf

Alexei Barrionuevo June 18, 2007
Ingredients for any processed food product, from bread to vitamins, can come from all over the world. “The lowering of trade barriers more than a decade ago has pushed food companies to scour the globe for more exotic – or the cheapest – ingredients to compete in a more global marketplace, not unlike automakers shipping in parts from all over,” writes Alexei Barrionuevo for the New York Times. A...

Survey: Increasing Internet Censorship

June 18, 2007
Government censorship is growing in sophistication, according to a survey of internet filtering practices in 41 nations. Such censorship is “becoming more pervasive and more subtle over time, often disguised as network errors,” warns Jonathan Zittrain, professor of internet governance and regulation at Oxford University, according to a release from the MacArthur Foundation. The foundation funded...

Massacres and Paramilitary Land Seizures Behind the Biofuel Revolution

Oliver Balch June 13, 2007
As oil prices increase and the world’s demand for alternative fuel sources grow, Colombian farmers struggle to control their own land. Collaborating with some palm-oil corporate interests, right-wing paramilitary groups drive farmers from their homes at gunpoint and take over the land for plantations. Palm oil, used for biofuel production, is a lucrative business, and unlike another source of...

Should We Globalize Labor Too?

Jason DeParle June 13, 2007
Witnessing the quiet desperation of the poor, willing to work hard but lacking resources, often ignites anger and ideas. Neither trade nor traditional occupations such as goat-herding can provide enough subsistence for the rural poor, such as those who live in Nepal. Economist Lant Pritchett proposes “a giant guest-worker program that would put millions of the world’s poorest people to work in...

Seething Anger in a Broken Middle East

Fawaz A. Gerges June 12, 2007
Early in 2003, New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman applied a rule common in retail pottery stores, “You break it, you own it,” to the then-impending invasion in Iraq. The succinct analogy warned that the US and other invading nations would bear responsibility for rebuilding Iraq. More than four years later, political and social institutions throughout the Middle East are in ruins, with...

The Last 'Competitive Advantage': Letter From China

Jehangir S. Pocha June 12, 2007
Workers of the West resent the transfer of manufacturing jobs to China, as companies pursue cost advantages and low wages. With good jobs hard to come by, the Chinese have little choice but to work long days for low wages. Some employers withhold wages altogether. Allowing competition to take its course and viewing jobs of any sort as the best way to alleviate poverty, the Chinese government has...

$12 Trillion Monster Threatens Globalization

William Pesek June 12, 2007
Some countries control great pools of wealth, building funds from oil or other natural-resource revenue, according to William Pesek, Bloomberg news columnist. But with funds growing by leaps and bounds, their owners look to make good use of these savings – and in the process could transform global financial markets. The funds together, many based in Asia, could outgrow the entire US economy by...