In The News

Globalization Has Role in This Double Whammy

Simon Nixon August 12, 2011
Globalization of communication, trade and financial networks highlights the potential of both prosperity and imbalances. “The creation of a rules-based multi-lateral trading system has been one of the greatest triumphs of the past 65 years,” writes Sam Nixon for the Wall Street Journal. Yet he also credits globalization with speculative bubbles, unrealistic expectations and uneven distribution of...

Beyond Debt Woes, A Wider Crisis of Globalization?

Peter Apps August 8, 2011
In recent decades, the world economy thrived on globally-driven growth and tightening interconnections among nations. In the process, nation states have lost control of the internet, financial markets, exploitation of natural resources and other global forces. “In the short term, that leaves policymakers looking impotent in the face of fast-moving markets and other uncontrolled and perhaps...

Cambodia Seeks to Rein in the NGOs

July 26, 2011
Cambodia struggles to recover from US bombing during the 1960s and the genocide and destruction of the Pol Pot regime. “The Khmer Rouge wrecked virtually all of the social institutions in the country and substituted nothing in their place,” explains the Asia Sentinel. Hundreds of local and international NGOs, funded by international donations, have the goal of restoring a viable social...

Middle-Class Uprising Poses a Global Threat

John Paul Rathbone July 22, 2011
The world’s greatest source of instability might not be terrorism but a middle class angered by vanishing prosperity, the loss of a lifestyle with many comforts and protections, argues John Paul Rathbone for the Financial Times. He points to an observation of journalist Moisés Naím, that most recent conflicts are within rather than between civilizations. In developed and developing countries...

Growing Economies, Rising Problems – Part II

Uri Dadush, William Shaw June 23, 2011
The global economy is expected to triple in size by the year 2050, and much of the growth will come from emerging economies, which were viewed not long ago as impoverished and backward. This YaleGlobal series examines the consequences of the changing global economic order. While developing nations accrue more economic power, thanks to their large populations, they’ll remain relatively poor, note...

China's “Wealth Drain” – New Signs That Rich Chinese Are Set on Emigrating

Xin Haiguang June 20, 2011
More than half of wealthy Chinese, those with assets of more than 10 million yuan, hope to emigrate, according to a 2011 Private Wealth Report on China, published by China Merchants Bank and the consulting firm Bain & Company, as reported by Worldcrunch. In another survey, 12 percent of Chinese described themselves as “thriving” and 71 percent as “struggling.” Underlying goals of wealthy...

Women's Rights in Afghanistan Lose Steam

Tom A. Peter March 9, 2011
As the world observed International Women's Day, news of the the fate of women in Afghanistan is discouraging. Since the US overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan a decade ago, women in urban communities gained basic human rights, including education, voting and the ability to step out onto public streets. But cultural resistance to equality in Afghanistan remains strong, reports Tom A....