In The News

A Misreading in India

Amelia Gentleman August 24, 2006
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo executives were confident that they could handle allegations, made by the Center for Science and the Environment, that products sold in India contained pesticides. But executives did not anticipate how quickly the news would spread through India, how local politicians would seize the opportunity to denounce the multinational corporations, and how explosive the issue could...

Iran’s Lebanon Card

George Perkovich August 24, 2006
The growing success of Islamic extremists throughout the Middle East has emboldened Iran. The country flouts demands from the international community and ignores UN Security Council resolutions. As problems mount in the Middle East, Iran can negotiate on several fronts – for example, the country could promise not to interfere in Lebanon or Afghanistan, if it can proceed with nuclear enrichment....

China Puts Price on Head of Rare Animals

Jonathan Watts August 24, 2006
The economic law of supply and demand makes no exception for endangered species: Price goes up as the population declines. The Chinese government is selling permits to foreign tourists, giving them the right to hunt yak, wolves and argali in five of the nation’s poorest provinces. Chinese are not eligible for the permits. The government suggests that the expensive hunts will aid conservation...

More Than Wal-Mart

Robert Kuttner August 23, 2006
Wal-Mart is a symbol of the struggling worker who faces little hope of advancement, both in the US and abroad. The world’s largest retailer offers low prices by paying millions of workers minimum wage and passing many health-care costs onto government programs for the poor. The US government supports the work ethic. Since 1970, the US government decreased employer regulation, eliminated pension...

At France Télécom, Battle to Cut Jobs Breeds Odd Tactics

Leila Abboud August 23, 2006
A winery and scuba-diving shop, a magician and an opera singer – such are the small businesses and careers subsidized by France Télécom, the national telecommunications company. While preparing to list the company on the Paris stock exchange in the mid-1990s, executives recognized that its workforce was bloated. After nearly a decade of attempting to induce early retirement by offering generous...

Water, Water Everywhere?

August 22, 2006
One third of the world’s population is already short of water, according to a UN report to be released in November 2006. A main culprit behind the increasing scarcity is agriculture – it requires about 3000 liters of water to grow enough food for a person to eat one day. With an increasing global population, agriculture’s demand for water will double by 2050. World water supplies could be...

Natural Resources Are Fueling a New Cold War

Erich Follath August 22, 2006
The modern world depends on oil and other natural resources for survival – and the most powerful countries travel the globe, searching for supplies. China, surpassed only by the US in oil-consumption levels, has blocked UN sanctions against Sudan to secure oil shipments and increasingly becomes friendly with Iran. When it come to oil, the US and China have policy differences, leading some...