In The News

The Basis for Iran's Belligerence

Shlomo Ben-Ami September 8, 2006
Without doubt, Israel has some dangerous foes. Attempts to remove those foes by military means and regime change, without efforts at diplomacy, have only strengthened old enemies and created new ones. Israel has good reason to worry about Iran, as the country develops nuclear capability and the president calls for Israel’s destruction. Israel cannot really depend on the US, which now struggles...

Making Globalization Work

Joseph Stiglitz September 8, 2006
Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize for economics in 2001, complains about unfair trade, excessive debt and poverty, yet still argues that globalization offers enormous potential if managed properly by nations. He compares complaints about globalization to complaints about unemployment during the Great Depression of the 1930s: If governments had ignored economist John Maynard Keynes’ call...

Don't Be Fooled by This Reform: The IMF Is Still the Rich World's Viceroy

George Monbiot September 7, 2006
The IMF has proposed giving a greater voting percentage to China, Turkey, Mexico and South Korea – all strong and emerging economies. Yet the body of 184 members would remain in control of its strongest members: The US controls 17 percent of the vote; Japan, Germany, the UK and France control 22 percent; while the 80 poorest countries control 10 percent. IMF decisions, most of which require an...

Chávez-China Oil Deal May Produce Unsuspected Winners

Trevor Houser September 7, 2006
The Venezuelan president announced plans to increase oil exports to China tenfold over the next five years, with the expectation that China will invest in the nation’s oil infrastructure, particularly in developing the reserves of the Orinoco Belt. The heavy tar-like reserves, which require special technology to extract, amount to about 20 percent of the global oil supply. But any agreement...

Managing Globalization: Reducing Inequality – It's Not So Simple

Daniel Altman September 7, 2006
It’s only because of inequalities of wealth or skills that people, products and ideas shift around the globe. Such shifts influence individual communities with increases or decreases in jobs, crime or education – either reducing or exacerbating the inequality. Economists suggest that increased trade should reduce inequality at all income levels. But instead, author Daniel Altman argues, the major...

China's Revolutionary Myth

Gwynne Dyer September 5, 2006
Communism offered little in contributing to China’s status as a rising economic power. Chinese communists won the civil war in 1949, after which leaders experimented with a series of disastrous social policies, including the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward. Under Deng Xiao-ping in the 1980s, China tried its hand at some capitalism ventures, gradually intermingling with foreign...

Globalization Tames the Left in Brazil

Thomas I. Palley September 5, 2006
Brazil elected a progressive president, yet failed to tackle a long legacy of economic injustice. Instead, President Lula da Silva, a trade union activist born into poverty, was timid with economic policies: Playing it safe, Brazil embraced its traditional role of exporting resources abroad and allowing other countries to manufacture and innovate. For example, the nation’s trade patterns with...