In The News

We Are Getting Richer, But More Insecure and Cynical About Politicians. What Can Be Done?

Hamish McRae July 8, 2007
On the surface, the British economy is doing well. It is the richest EU country in terms of national net income per head, and has a reputation for attracting global talent. Yet citizens express little trust in their government and report a feeling of insecurity. Worrying economic signs include rising levels of debt and dissatisfaction about public services. Low morale presents a challenge for...

Fake Lipton Tea, Nescafe Leak Into EU, Hurting Unilever, Nestlé

Stephanie Bodoni June 19, 2007
Low costs in shipping and packaging allow counterfeiters to apply their skills beyond luxury goods to ordinary products, including tea, shampoo or soap. Some counterfeit toothpaste contained chemicals found in anti-freeze, and imitation teabags include sawdust or dyed wood chips. One factory in Pakistan with 20 people made a ton of counterfeit tea each day. With the internet easing ways to find...

Chinese Auto Parts Enter the Global Market

Keith Bradsher June 8, 2007
Auto parts are one of China’s fastest growing industrial exports, and more than half go to the US, the world’s largest market for automobiles. The rise in these exports are part of a larger trend, as China moves away from exporting basic items such as textiles and shoes toward more valued industrial goods. Such production means higher wages for Chinese workers, but also puts the nation in...

Brazil to Break Merck AIDS Drug Patent to Lower Price

Katia Cortes May 17, 2007
Brazil’s president signed an order to override the patent of Merck and Company’s signature AIDS drug, thereby opening the field to lower-cost producers to sell generic versions of the drug. Citing a 2001 World Trade Organization ruling permitting countries to overrule drug patents in cases of national health emergencies, Brazil rejected Merck’s offer to reduce the price of Efavirenz, part of an...

Investing: French Elections Test Attitudes Toward Globalization

Conrad de Aenlle May 8, 2007
Nicolas Sarkozy won election as president of France. Before the final vote, financial analysts pondered which candidate would produce the best financial climate for France. During the campaign, both candidates, socialist Ségolène Royal and conservative Sarkozy, had taken a firm anti-globalization stance – though globalization has enriched the French. French labor policies don’t wear well in a...

Multinationals: Globalization's Offspring

April 10, 2007
Scrappy new multinational firms are emerging all over the world: Hindalco and Tata from India, Lenovo and PetroChina from China. “Just as Toyota and Samsung eventually obliged western multinationals to rethink how to make cars and consumer electronics, so today's young thrusters threaten the veterans wherever they are complacent,” notes this article in “The Economist.” The new firms are...

India’s Edge Goes Beyond Outsourcing

Anand Giridharadas April 5, 2007
Developments in transportation and communications technology enable greater globalization of more segments of the labor market. For several decades, manufacturing jobs gradually moved from developed countries to areas with low-cost workers. Now workers in the developing world take on more complex tasks in engineering, finance and pharmacology. Boeing, for instance, relies on Indian-developed...