In The News

Long-Term Answer to Border Crises: Empower Women

Marisol Ruiz August 19, 2014
Policy proposals to end the flow of children streaming across the southern border of the United States too often focus on enforcement, including increased military presence along the border or warehouse-like detention centers in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras – the three nations that so many try to flee. Such proposals miss the major challenge behind many border crises, that is, minimal...

How America’s Police Became an Army: The 1033 Program

Taylor Wofford August 15, 2014
The US devotes 23 percent of its budget to defense purposes and veterans benefits – more than the next 13 countries combined. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost $4 trillion alone. Even before the country pulled back from wars, the Department of Defense has distributed surplus equipment to willing takers, including allies and local police at home, many untrained: The weapons can fall into...

Brutality and “the Beast”: Why Child Migration to US Is Slowing Down

Gabriel Stargardter August 13, 2014
The numbers of children detained after crossing the US southern border is slowing. A Reuters team points to tighter enforcement at the border and for cargo trains moving northward, including increasing the speed of trains; road checkpoints; anecdotal tales about crime and drug gangs; high profile arrests and a US advertising campaign on the dangers associated with the journey. “The sight of...

The Tale of Two Middle Classes

Branko Milanovic July 31, 2014
Thanks to globalization and trade, middle-class incomes have more than doubled in countries like China and Indonesia, but still remain a fraction of those earned by the middle class in Europe or the United States . Meanwhile, in Europe, the United States and Japan, incomes for the middle class have stagnated even as their richest citizens accrue more wealth, profiting by investing in...

Theorist Eric Maskin: Globalization Is Increasing Inequality

July 15, 2014
Waves of trade and globalization can lift average incomes and reduce inequality, but that requires intervention to prevent rewards landing in only a few hands. Nobel Laureate Eric Maskin of Harvard University points to two types of inequality for World Bank News: In the more tolerable case, only select industries and their workers benefit from increased demand, and “In the ‘worse’ version, the...

Protesters Turn Back Busloads of Immigrants in California

Ricardo Cano July 2, 2014
An ugly welcome was waiting for detained immigrants as about 100 protesters, waving US flags, blocked three buses from entering a California processing center, reports Ricardo Cano for the Desert Sun. The United States confronts a humanitarian and immigration crisis as thousands of unaccompanied children from Central America cross the border, crowding detention centers and straining government...

South Africa’s World Cup Advice to Brazil

Andrew Harding July 2, 2014
Ahead of the 2010 World Cup, FIFA made enticing promises to the locals in South Africa. Four years later, many locals found the $2 billion dollars in infrastructure investment did not benefit South Africans. Construction was accelerated on the Gautrain train¬ – a high speed railway connecting Johannesburg and Pretoria – but its prices are out of reach for most South Africans. “Following the...