In The News

Is the Bayer-Monsanto Merger Too Big To Succeed?

David Francis September 19, 2016
Bayer, a major pharmaceutical and chemical multinational based in Germany, seeks to expand reach in agriculture and crop science. Its proposed acquisition of Monsanto is “the largest all-cash transaction in history” and a crescendo of “a string of combinations in the industry,” explains David Francis for Foreign Policy. This consolidated corporation would sell approximately one quarter of the...

Apple Must Pay Billions for Tax Breaks in Ireland, EU Orders

James Kanter and Mark Scott August 30, 2016
Countries go to great lengths to attract jobs to their shores, and companies do the same to avoid taxes. The European Commission has ordered Apple, the world’s largest company in terms of market value, to pay €13 billion in back taxes and argues that Ireland’s tax incentives extend an unfair advantage. Apple assigned profits of Irish subsidiaries to a “head office” to reduce taxes, report James...

Mars May Be Banned From Selling M&M’s in Sweden

Oliver Nieburg June 10, 2016
Trademarks, the exclusive right to names and logos, signal consistency for consumers and markets. “A word or a combination of words, letters, and numerals can perfectly constitute a trademark,” explains the World Intellectual Property Organization. “But trademarks may also consist of drawings, symbols, three-dimensional features such as the shape and packaging of goods, non-visible signs such as...

Corporations’ Flight to Low-Tax Countries Angers US

Farok J. Contractor April 12, 2016
US presidential candidates are responding to voters' ire over a complex tax code that shields the wealthiest from tax payments. Reports of corporate inversions – US firms relocating headquarters to take advantage of lower tax rates in countries like Ireland – highlight the negative consequences of globalization for voters already angry about entrenched income inequality, outsourcing and job...

Globalization Is More About Data and Less About Stuff

Susan Lund, James Manyika and Jacques Bughin March 18, 2016
Recent trends in globalization emphasize cross-border data and digital flows, argues a team from McKinsey Global Institute, an argument that coincides with YaleGlobal’s definition of globalization as the interconnectedness of the world in every area including trade and communications. “Today growth in global trade has flattened, and it looks unlikely to regain its previous peak relative to world...

The Future of Work: The Risks of Industrial Globalization

Evangelina Argueta September 23, 2015
Ongoing investments by multinational corporations in various industries standardize labor practices. With technology contributing to increased productivity and reducing the number of jobs, less priority is assigned to labor rights or training workers to adapt. “Commercial agreements and free trade treaties between developed countries and undeveloped countries are deficient in the protection of...

The New South and the Economics of Taking Down the Confederate Flag

Micheline Maynard June 29, 2015
The Confederate flag was flown in battle by a general for the losing side during the US Civil War, the nation’s bloodiest war, with more than 620,000 deaths. Many throughout the American South have defiantly raised the flag, long regarded as a symbol for states’ rights including slavery, over official and unofficial venues since the war’s end in 1865. After the murder of nine black people at a...