In The News

Globalization “A Blessing” for West Europe

Chris Giles February 29, 2008
Globalization – by way of trade and off-shoring jobs – can eliminate inefficiency and add to the total number of jobs, reports the European Economic Advisory Group, an academic research group organized by the Ifo Institute in Munich. “Although the gains from trade have the side-effect of increasing inequality, the group recommends that governments avoid policies that try to preserve employment...

Promise of US Jobs Lures Migrants Who Vowed to Stay in Mexico

Alfredo Corchado February 25, 2008
Immigrants who resent harsh treatment in the US, particularly those who lack documentation, often return to Mexico. But the Mexican economy offers little in the way of jobs, wages or benefits available in the US. Individuals long to work and hometowns rely on remittances sent from the north. The Mexicans may return home and vow to stay, but many cannot resist pleas from friends in Texas and...

Best US Factory Jobs in Rising Jeopardy

Mark Trumbull February 20, 2008
Facing increasing competition and productivity from workers in low-wage nations, US manufacturers slash jobs and costs. One method in use by US car manufacturers is incentives to convince older workers to quit and replace them with less expensive younger workers who also receive fewer benefits. Analysts expect cost-cutting measures from the large foreign manufacturers like Honda or Toyota as well...

Clinton and Obama Emphasize Economic Themes

John M. Broder February 18, 2008
Candidates for US president Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are neck in neck, battling to win the Democratic nomination. To attract votes, both have adopted a populist stance and make plenty of economic promises to workers. Many border on assistance, including programs to help homeowners facing foreclosure or workers pay for health care. Growing income disparity tempts voters and candidates to...

Natural Resources, Often a Curse, Can Also Serve the Public

Susan Ariel Aaronson February 8, 2008
The Indian company Tata recently announced production of the Nano, the world’s cheapest car at $2,500. This development extends affordable transportation – and thus access to education, health care and new jobs – to a larger population. But more people driving cars also spikes demand for oil, exacerbating pollution and global warming. On the other side of the ledger, increased demand for oil...

Workers’ Paradise?

Kenneth Rogoff January 17, 2008
The expansion of global trade eroded the status of national and local unions. Yet as many workers in the world’s wealthiest nations worry about the status of their jobs, politicians who want to win and stay in office increasingly respond to the anxiety by pandering to unions. “After decades of vilification by economists for raising unemployment and strangling growth, the union movement is now...

Europe Takes Africa’s Fish, and Boatloads of Migrants Follow

Sharon LaFraniere January 15, 2008
Huge industrial trawlers, most from Europe, push through waters off the African coast, efficiently scraping sea beds clean of fish. Such nonselective industrial fishing has devastated fish populations and habitat, destroying a livelihood and encouraging more African fishermen to use their boats to assist fellow Africans in fleeing their homelands for work in Europe. Governments throughout Africa...