In The News

Mortgage Prospects Dim for Illegal Immigrants

Miriam Jordan October 27, 2008
Undocumented immigrants who work hard and save money can no longer easily invest in US businesses and real estate. The US Internal Revenue Service accepts the payment of taxes from undocumented workers who use tax identification numbers. Even as the US Department of Homeland Security attempted to deport undocumented workers, other government agencies encouraged their tax payments and investments...

Bail Out the Poor

Ramzy Baroud October 24, 2008
Reduced food supplies around the globe would seem to be a more immediate crisis than plummeting prices of homes and stocks in the wealthiest nations of the world, notes Ramzy Baroud, editor of the Palestine Chronicle, writing for Al-Ahram Weekly. Baroud questions why governments cannot act in coordinated and speedy ways to avert huge global disasters including climate change, population growth in...

Egypt: Will the Dam Burst?

September 15, 2008
Poverty and bitterness seethe in Egypt: “The fact is that most of Egypt’s 75m people struggle to get by, their ambitions thwarted by rising prices, appalling state schools, capricious judges, a plodding and corrupt bureaucracy and a cronyist regime that pretends democracy but in fact crushes all challengers and excludes all participation,” the Economist reports. Pent-up frustration contributes to...

Why the Discomfort Over Free Trade

Kevin Casas-Zamora September 12, 2008
Many benefits flow from free trade, and attempts to “protect” economies from competition are doomed. Yet free trade has fallen into disrepute, as more workers, voters and politicians express skepticism, questioning why most rewards flow to a few. Costa Rica’s former vice-president, Kevin Casas-Zamora, insists that advocates for free trade, and he counts himself as one, must examine the problems...

Why Obama Shouldn't Cave on Trade

Roger Bybee September 11, 2008
The Democratic Party in the United States is divided over the benefits of free trade, and support has shriveled in recent years even among working-class Republicans. While many pundits and politicians insist that open trade enriches all, other analysts suggest that inserting conditions into free-trade agreements could protect human rights and the environment as well as stem rising resentment that...

Nobel Laureates Say Globalization's Winners Should Aid Poor

Joellen Perry August 27, 2008
Some citizens accrue more benefits from open and free markets than other citizens, and growing income inequality has become a major issue in elections around the globe. Wealth among nations is evening out. Yet within some nations and communities, those that don’t use taxes or government programs to guarantee widespread distribution of benefits and opportunity, the lopsided effects of trade and...

A Door Opens for Reform in Pakistan – Part I

Paula R. Newberg August 21, 2008
With President Pervez Musharraf finally gone, Pakistan has been celebrating amidst political chaos not unusual for a reborn democracy. Major powers and neighbors who have an interest in Pakistan’s success cannot afford a “wait and see” attitude, suggests Paula Newberg in the first article of a two-part series. The current government must work to restore citizens’ faith in institutions that are...