In The News

US Sours on Globalization

Nayan Chanda May 25, 2011
One concern trumps all others for Americans: a lack of jobs. Resentment is high about the high unemployment rate, ongoing layoffs, declining wages and rising costs even as multinational corporations earn record profits and hire low-cost labor in emerging markets. More US job openings are in retail and the service sector than manufacturing. Americans target their ire at globalization and market...

Peter Thiel: We’re in a Bubble and It’s Not the Internet – It’s Higher Education

Sarah Lacy April 25, 2011
Analysts prowl for the next bubble, and venture capitalist Peter Thiel argues that higher education is a likely candidate. In an article for TechCrunch by Sarah Lacy, Thiel compares higher-education costs with US housing prices: Both are touted as investments, promising long-term financial security; highly exclusive homes and educations can convey what Thiel calls “an unhealthy sense of...

The Politics of Globalization

Peter Mandelson April 8, 2011
The politics of globalization can be improved, argues Peter Mandelson, former European commissioner for trade in an essay based on a March 2011 keynote speech on the future of globalization. Governments have the capability to tame what seems to be a senseless race to devour resources and amass profits. Collective action is the only way to control dangerous competition, prevent unreasonable...

India Graduates Millions, But Too Few Are Fit to Hire

Geeta Anand April 8, 2011
According to statistics, Indian strength is its youthful population and an increasing number are graduates. But corporations report that it’s challenging, sometimes impossible, to recruit qualified applicants for an expanding workforce. Analysts pin the blame on an outdated education system, which unlike the economy, did not enact reforms in the early 1990s. Schools endure corruption, prize rote...

In a Borderless World, Innovation Reigns Supreme

Ashok Bardhan April 4, 2011
Economists and policymakers recognize that investment in research and development – by government or industry – contributes to innovation, employment and higher living standards. In pursuit of bigger markets and lower costs US firms started the trend of relocating manufacturing and services overseas, and now R&D activities follow, explains economist Ashok Bardhan. The transfers raise...

Now Feeling Free, But Still Without Work, Tunisians Look Toward Europe

Scott Sayare March 28, 2011
Zarzis and other cities of Tunisia celebrate new openness and freedoms since the 14 January departure of longtime dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. But jobs and economic promise have been slow to materialize. The revolution and fears of violence even exacerbated economic challenges, including a slowdown in tourism and investment, reports Scott Sayare for the New York Times. Sayare adds that youth...

Jasmine, Mideast and Beyond

Nayan Chanda March 22, 2011
Brutal crackdowns on demonstrators in Libya, Yemen and Bahrain may temporarily quiet the protests, but the anger and yearning for rights have not vanished, contends Nayan Chanda, editor of YaleGlobal Online in an essay for the Times of India. He warns, “the mix of combustibles that fuelled the Middle East fire are still smoldering.” Decades of repressive rule, widening income inequality and high...