In The News

A Rampaging Market, but a Long Way from Global Power

Isabel Hilton November 13, 2004
Many observers in the West have in recent years greeted China's steamrolling economic growth with unabashed optimism and glee. Yet amidst predictions of imminent superpower-dom, China faces stark internal inequalities that threaten to derail its lofty aspirations. While much of its urban population enjoys the material advantages and growing freedoms of recent reforms, 900 million people...

Grassroots Versus Globalism

Janadas Devan November 12, 2004
When India's ruling party suffered a surprising defeat in April elections, a myth that had been woven through the nation came unraveled. Though the Indian government had beamed optimistically about its robust economic growth and burgeoning urban middle class, most Indians remained in rural areas mired in poverty. The losing BJP party had failed to reconcile the major paradox of globalization...

Spend $150 Billion Per Year to Cure World Poverty

Daphne Eviatar November 7, 2004
In 2000, the United Nations Millennium Summit laid out its ambitious plans for global development, pledging to drastically reduce poverty by 2015. Economist Jeffrey Sachs was one of the leading strategists behind these goals. A former champion of free-trade, Sachs has since adopted an agenda at odds with the economist orthodoxy. Instead of preaching the merits of busting into poor economies with...

Fueling a Crisis in Nigeria

Olly Owen October 25, 2004
Under a package of International Monetary Fund-endorsed reforms, the Nigerian government hopes to eliminate domestic fuel subsidies. Yet low gas prices are currently the only economic benefit for cash-strapped Nigerians, who see price increases as another kickback to local elites and foreign oil companies. The proposed reforms have caused domestic turbulence; unions launched a series of...

Trading in Pieties

October 22, 2004
A new European Commission proposal will give poor countries special access to EU markets if they agree to sign the Kyoto global warming protocol and other international environment and labor treaties. But manipulation of trade privileges is often thinly veiled protectionism, argues the Financial Times in this editorial. If trade negotiations do not focus on opening markets, the adoption of these...

Surgeries, Side Trips for "Medical Tourists"

John Lancaster October 21, 2004
As health care costs skyrocket, patients in the developed world are looking overseas for medical treatment. India is capitalizing on its low costs and highly trained doctors to appeal to these "medical tourists." Even with airfare, the cost of going to India for surgery can be markedly cheaper, and the quality of services is often better than that found in the United States and UK....

Why Most Arabs Ignore the US Presidential Election

Rami G. Khouri October 20, 2004
As the American public bears down for its presidential election, the frenzy of debate in the US is met with a general lack of interest in the Middle East. On the issues of concern, primarily the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the situation in Iraq, Middle Easterners see little difference between the two main candidates. The gap between American policies and Arab interests is widening, says The...