In The News

Stung by Soaring Transport Costs, Factories Bring Jobs Home Again

June 18, 2008
Rising energy costs are putting the brakes to rapid globalization – and in some cases even reversing gears. Manufacturers are rethinking any plans to open new factories in low-wage nations, and some even ponder returning factories to the US and Mexico from China, reports Timothy Aeppel for the Wall Street Journal. Transportation costs are now equal to a 9 percent tariff on US imports, notes one...

EU Enlargement: The Dark Side of Globalization

June 2, 2008
As the European Union opened trade and borders, foreign investors set up shop in communities throughout the former Soviet Republic. For example, Samsonite opened a factory in Samorin, Slovakia, in 1997. But the jobs and economic development were short-lived, with Samsonite moving its production line on to China a decade later. “Samorin is a witness to the way that globalisation is fragmenting as...

Resourcing Outsourcing

Tamer Hafez May 29, 2008
Rapid growth is anticipated in outsourcing of information-technology, particularly with the rise in energy prices. Infrastructure, low wages, an educated work force and language skills have contributed to Egypt moving up the list as one of the best destinations for outsourcing. “Yet even the seemingly organized IT and call center market is fragmented, spanning from brand-name supported regional...

Keep America Open to Trade

Carlos M. Gutierrez May 28, 2008
Like other countries, the US confronts rising energy, housing and food prices – but limiting immigration or reducing trade will not alleviate such economic problems. The US secretary of commerce and the governor of California urge that the US continue open policies on trade and immigration. In an opinion essay for the Wall Street Journal, Carlos Gutierrez and Arnold Schwarzenegger, both...

Workers of Our World, Legal or Not

Tim Rutten May 27, 2008
The protests and demands by immigrants in the US, both legal and not, have been subdued in 2008, even though this is a presidential election year. “Immigration is one of those campaign issues in which rhetoric and reality continue to move further apart,” writes Tim Rutten for the Los Angeles Times. The US is home for at least 12 million undocumented immigrants and such labor is essential for some...

Balance of Payments: What a Bash

Bruce Stokes May 16, 2008
Americans voters have soured on “free trade.” US politicians, however, have remained remarkably restrained in their criticism of one of their nation’s most high-profile trading partners – the People’s Republic of China. US presidential candidates have spared China the criticism that has otherwise been directed towards economic bogeymen like NAFTA, even as some segments of the US public, such as...

Is Larry Summers the Canary in the Mine?

Devesh Kapur May 14, 2008
One-time champions of free trade, economic liberalization and globalization – like Larry Summers, former treasury secretary with the Clinton administration – now unveil their doubts. Globalization presents competition, and perhaps potential threat for the US is how a trio of analysts summarizes Summers’ argument in an opinion essay for the Financial Times. His “apparently nationalist argument is...