In The News

China Establishes New Internet Regulator

Michael Wines May 5, 2011
In China, a new agency will police that nation’s internet, punish abusers and oversee telecommunication firms that provide online access. “The mushrooming growth of China’s Internet business has spawned a sort of land rush for regulatory turf by government agencies that see in it a chance to gain more authority or more money, or both,” reports Michael Wines for the New York Times. China already...

Ai Weiwei's Incarceration Stumps German Culture Vultures

Aya Bach May 2, 2011
As Ai Weiwei prepared to open a Berlin show of his work, Chinese authorities detained the celebrated artist in a bid to limit damage his criticism might cause abroad. The censorship immediately triggered international censures and debate about effective methods – gentle education or intense pressure – for achieving human rights in China, explains Aya Bach for Deutsche Welle. Ironically, Ai was...

Advanced Economies: Minutes to Midnight? Part I

David Dapice April 28, 2011
Advanced economies face momentous decisions to sustain their prosperity and lifestyles. In a two-part series, YaleGlobal reviews the challenges faced by the US and the Eurozone. In 1917 the US Congress passed statutory limits, unusual by world standards, for issuing bonds, to avoid separate approval on every issue. The ceiling has been raised many times since to the current limit, $14.294...

What the Guantanamo Leaks Won't Reveal

Darryl Li April 27, 2011
WikiLeaks has begun publishing 779 US secret military files on Guantánamo Bay prisoners. Dated 2002 to 2008, the assessments detail US intelligence and rationales for indefinite detention of prisoners or transfer to other governments. The raw documents require context, suggests Darryl Li, who has worked on the legal defense of Guantánamo detainees, in an opinion essay for Al Jazeera. The threat...

A Tahrir Square Moment in India

Sadanand Dhume April 18, 2011
Government corruption reinforces income inequality, wastes scarce resources and destroys the public trust. After a series of high-profile corruption scandals in India – padded contracts associated with the Commonwealth Games, telecom spectrum distributed to favored bidders at a loss of $40 billion for taxpayers, and investments in plush apartments on land set aside for war widows – outrage ensued...

Italy Seeks to Pass Problem on to EU Partners

Hans-Jürgen Schlamp April 11, 2011
As protests rage throughout northern Africa, young men crowd onto small vessels to cross the Mediterranean for Italy. For 23,000 Tunisian immigrants, Italy’s interior minister negotiated a deal with Tunisia to grant six-month residence permits. Criminals or those with a record of deportation, as well as those who arrived after the initial wave or are not from Tunisia, will be turned away,...

Fighting Imported Corruption

Devesh Kapur, Arvind Subramanian April 5, 2011
Indians are furious and astounded about recent corruption cases, where large ill-gotten funds have vanished. In an essay for Business Standard, Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian blame the ease in cross-border transfer of funds. The pair contends that as money is concentrated in fewer hands, it’s secretly transferred to tax-free domains beyond national borders and then returned as valued foreign...