In The News

Good News – The World Is Getting Richer

Robert J. Shiller November 14, 2006
Among 82 nations with data from 2004, the per capita gross domestic product increased, indicating a rising standard of living throughout the world, according to the Penn World Table, from the Center for International Comparisons of Production, Income and Prices, based at the University of Pennsylvania. However, the data also show a widening gap between rich and poor countries. The average real...

A Bigger Economy Doesn't Always Buy Happiness

Eric Weiner November 14, 2006
Economists rely on the size and growth of a nation’s gross domestic product to determine the health of any economy. But the GDP covers the sale of weapons, mindless video games, excessive packaging that ends up in landfills, prescription drugs that treat anxiety or depression, and expenditures for war. Robert Kennedy once said that GDP doesn’t measure "the beauty of our poetry or the...

Bad Trade-Off

Stuart Anderson November 10, 2006
Analysts anticipate that a US Congress controlled by Democrats will scrutinize and even stall free-trade agreements. Under Democrats, Congress will probably not extend the Republican president’s fast-track authority for approving trade agreements, which expires in July 2007. Democrats criticized the Bush administration for allowing manufacturing firms to invest in overseas plants, particularly...

Spy Agencies Now Share the Wikipedia Way

Greg Miller November 2, 2006
Typically, the US intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense invent gadgets that often find their way into daily American life. But aiming for better teamwork, US spies have turned to open-source software as invented by Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia where anyone can propose, write or edit entries. US Intellipedia, not open to the public, will allow staff of 16 intelligence agencies...

Google Defiant Over Censorship in China

David Smith November 1, 2006
Defenders of free speech reject any controls over the internet. This issue and others were debated by more than 90 countries attending the first Internet Governance Forum in Athens. Companies like Google do business in China despite some censorship, and Google maintains that simply providing a connection is a major first step to creating an open society. To deny access to restrictive regimes only...

As Jobs Leave America's Shores... The New Face of Class War

Paul Craig Roberts October 30, 2006
A series of US presidents ignored the implications of corporations relocating jobs and factories to developing nations with low labor costs. Such off-shoring has enriched a small and select group while gradually destroying US industries, occupations and communities. “No country benefits from trading its professional jobs, such as engineering, for domestic service jobs,” claims journalist Paul...

Vietnam’s Roaring Economy Is Set for the World Stage

Keith Bradsher October 30, 2006
Vietnam’s renunciation of statist economics in favor of capitalism in the early 1990s was a surprising development for the global markets. Along with China’s embrace of the market, Vietnam’s success story has raised the living standards of its citizens, drawn a large contingent of high-skilled émigrés back to the country and created a strong base for future development. Multinational...