In The News

Germans Brace for Longer Workweek

Heidi Sylvester July 30, 2004
In June, German technology firm Siemens forced Germany’s powerful IG Metall trade Union into expanding work hours without compensation by threatening to move 2,000 jobs to Hungary. Since that time, Daimler Chrysler and Bosch have undertaken similar measures, and Volkswagen looks likely to do the same. German politicians have responded to changes in work schedules by calling for the increased...

Domestics Dump Sponsors while on Holiday in London

Sanaa Maadad July 23, 2004
During the hot summer months, wealthy residents of the United Arab Emirates often go on holiday to cooler destinations, such as England. Recently, however, some have found that the foreign domestic workers they take with them when they travel 'run away' in hopes of pursuing a life in Europe. Many of these maids and servants are Sri Lankans, Filipinos, Indonesians, Ethiopians, or...

More Jobs, Worse Work

Stephen S. Roach July 22, 2004
Since the trough of the last recession in November 2001, private sector payrolls in the US have risen a mere 0.2 percent, well below the nearly 7.5 percent average increase in the 31-month period after each of the last six American economic recoveries. In this opinion article for the New York Times, Stephen S. Roach, chief economist for Morgan Stanley, writes that the reason for this anemic...

Japanese-type Downturn

July 22, 2004
The governor of South Korea’s central bank publicly expressed on Tuesday what many have already been speculating: that Korea might be headed for a Japanese-style, decade-long slump. An aging population, a falling interest rate and consumer price index, and a switch from low wages and high profitability to high wages and low profitability have all alerted government officials to this possibility...

EU Faces Rise in Welfare Migration

Hans-Werner Sinn July 12, 2004
Traditionally Western Europe has faced both “good” and “bad” immigration, the former being the result of international income differentials and a healthy economy, and the latter being the result of immigrants seeking to take advantage of the welfare state. Hans-Werner Sinn, an economist at Munich University, contends that the adoption of the EU’s new directive on freedom of movement will result...

Asian Music, Accompanied by the A Train

Yilu Zhao July 6, 2004
In China, traditional musicians face the two-fold threat of florescent pop music and a gradual drying of government funding, both of which have led to a decrease in demand for their craft. "While most pop music groups take in extra income by playing at clubs and parties," writes Yilu Zhao, "some traditional music ensembles… sit idle for months on end." As a result, many...

Immigration is Changing the Face of Suburban America

William G. Holt, III July 6, 2004
New immigrants to the US are settling in some surprising places. In the past, most newcomers to the US found comfort and kin in the urban centers of cities like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. But increasingly, says sociologist William Holt, immigrants are settling in the suburbs of 'second-city' destinations like Atlanta and reversing a trend set by the earlier period of...