In The News

An Outsourcing Giant Fights Back

Saritha Rai March 21, 2004
Azim Premji, the founder of one of India’s leading technology giant Wipro, has found himself on the defensive of late. Premji's business is one of the leading outsourcing concerns in the world, with a net worth of $8 billion and clients from the top layer of their industries. As the domestic debates in America over job loss and outsourcing grow, . Premji has come to symbolize exactly...

AFL-CIO Asks Penalties Against China

Stephen Franklin March 17, 2004
In the latest attack in the outsourcing debate, the AFL-CIO – America's largest and politically strongest union – seeks sanctions against China for allegedly having an "abusive, low-pay system that has cost thousands of American jobs". Using a trade law that has thus far only been used to protect American exports, the AFL-CIO is asking the government to cut trade with China in...

Making Business Work for the Poor

Ernesto Zedillo March 17, 2004
As the debate on how to best alleviate poverty in developing countries continue to rage, Ernesto Zedillo, the director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and the former president of Mexico, suggests one commonsense solution – facilitating private entrepreneurship to help people pull themselves out of the informal economy and into the larger formal marketplace. Current difficulties...

Where Are the Jobs? The Harsh Truth about Outsourcing

Paul Craig Roberts March 15, 2004
As the US struggles to deal with the political and economic fallout from the outsourcing of high-tech and manufacturing jobs overseas, many analysts have come down on all sides of the debate. Will America benefit in the end? Does the theory of "comparative advantage" hold true? Can the US find a niche that will allow it to replace the jobs lost and reverse wage declines? The answer,...

Bush Administration Should Stop Turning Refugees Away

Cheryl Little March 9, 2004
With Haiti's political system in turmoil after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's departure, the US is experiencing a rise in Haitian refugees attempting to leave their home. Despite the legitimate fears of violence many of these people face, say two immigrant advocates, the US has turned a cold shoulder – and turned Haitians back from US shores. For over two years now, the Bush...

Lingering Job Insecurity of Silicon Valley

Steve Lohr March 9, 2004
Despite the recent upsurge in business activity, skilled technology workers remain in weak demand in the US. Experienced and well-educated computer scientists and software engineers - many of whom boast PhDs - are falling victim to broad market forces that, until recently, have affected primarily blue-collar workers. "You have multiple effects going on: automation, outsourcing and business...

Expat Perks Drying Up - Even for S'poreans Abroad

Chuang Peck Ming March 9, 2004
Singaporeans are losing their 'edge' as professionals in a globalized world, but they still demand high expat salaries, reports this article. In China, employers of large companies favor Singaporeans for managerial positions because they speak English and Chinese fluently, and being Asians with working experience in western multinational companies, they "provide a good balance of...