In The News

In France, Discrimination on Upswing as Violence Smolders

Katrin Bennhold December 10, 2007
About 10 percent of France’s population is Muslim. Yet Arabs, even those armed with education degrees and solid experience, struggle to find work in the country. Researchers have documented the discrimination by sending out resumes with identical experiences, from applicants with French and Arab names. The French names attract more job offers than Arab names by a ratio of 20 to one. The research...

Subsidies' Harvest of Misery

Jimmy Carter December 10, 2007
A US bill passed during the 1930s Great Depression – paying farmers for crops not grown – no longer makes sense. Instead, current US farm programs hurt the poorest people in the world and small farmers in the US, encouraging “excess production while channeling enormous government payments to the biggest producers,” argues former President Jimmy Carter in an opinion essay for the Washington Post...

Foreclosures Hit a Snag for Lenders

Gretchen Morgenson December 4, 2007
Homebuyers in the US borrowed money, some with adjustable-rate mortgages that offered low payments early in the loan’s term. Mortgage companies and banks packaged these loans into huge pools and resold the securities to global investors eager to cash in on the higher payments promised during the later years of the loans. With the loans secured by people’s homes, investors assumed the deals...

A New Search for Peace in the Middle East

Mark Matthews December 4, 2007
“A snake pit of recrimination and mistrust” is how longtime Middle East diplomatic correspondent Mark Matthews describes Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation, but he might as well include many other snakes in that metaphorical pit – the United States, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the European Union and the United Nations, to name a few entities that have a stake in the conflict. As the...

Bali Climate Change Conference: “We Have Very Little Time to Act”

Patrick McGroarty December 3, 2007
As evidence of climate change is increasingly accepted, the need to counter the phenomenon becomes more pressing. The Kyoto Protocol has been in effect since early 2005, and yet less than 800 million out of the world’s 6.6 billion people live in countries that have agreed to reduce emissions. Since then, carbon emissions continue to climb and deforestation has intensified. Without the support of...

American Special Forces in Pakistan: Back to the Future?

Paula R. Newberg November 21, 2007
The reaction to the news that the US Defense Department has decided to send Special Forces trainers to Pakistan’s unruly tribal areas has so far been muted. But the irony of the decision and its long-term implication for the Subcontinent is hard to miss. In the eighties, the US administration poured money and weapons in Pakistan to train the Mujahideen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. The...

An Exit Strategy for Crooks and Dictators

Victor Mallet November 16, 2007
Cruel dictators and corrupt politicians who lose favor of their constituents often cling to power to escape retribution. Sometimes deals, including pardons or exile, are made with leaders who follow. “In an ideal world, criminals would be punished for their crimes without regard for their status,” writes Victor Mallet for the Financial Times, noting that political expediency often dictates the...