In The News

In France, an Economic Bullet Goes Unbitten

Floyd Norris April 11, 2006
Most European politicians recognize the grim truth – that economic reform is necessary for global competition and that youth cannot expect the many benefits now enjoyed by elders. Generous retirement and other social benefits correlate with high unemployment among youth. Corporate executives have suggested that politicians must make the difficult decisions that lead to economic reform, likely...

US Plans Strike to Topple Iran Regime - Report

Julian Borger April 10, 2006
An investigative article in the US magazine “The New Yorker” reports that President George Bush is seriously considering military strikes against Iran – strikes aimed not only at preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but also at achieving “regime change.” The White House assumes that Iran will retain its nuclear weapons program as long as it retains its current government, writes...

Businesses Make a Push for High-Skilled Foreign Workers

June Kronholz April 7, 2006
In the immigration bill currently taking up the US Senate's attention, the fate of millions of low-skilled illegal immigrant workers dominates the discourse. The proposal would allow immigrants who arrived in the US before April 2001 to pursue a bureaucratic, but specific 11-year road to citizenship. Immigrants who arrived after the date would have limited options. The US Congress remains...

Climate Change Sparks Scrap for Arctic Resources

Philip Bethge April 7, 2006
A bewildering dispute between Canada and Denmark over the ownership of Hans Island, a configuration of barren rock, could be the beginning of many struggles over territory within the Arctic Circle. Scientists warn of profound environmental changes to come with global warming - melting icecaps, rising floodwaters, species extinction and damage to traditional cultures. The massive Arctic ice sheet...

India Nuclear Deal May Face Hard Sell

Glenn Kessler April 6, 2006
The Bush administration’s surprise deal in 2005 with India, which would recognize the nation’s status as a nuclear power, was motivated by both a desire to reward a democratic future superpower and to counter the rise of China. But the deal, largely constructed through US State Department backchannels and secret negotiations, may suffer because Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her staff...

Globalization’s New Left

Nathan Gardels April 6, 2006
Policies meant to promote globalization – cutting public budgets, deregulating markets and liberalizing trade – have created new wealth, especially in Asia. Beneath the veneer of the growing global middleclass, however, is another story – that of the billion people worldwide who have been disenfranchised as their countries make the “structural adjustments” necessary to compete globally. In...

Xenophobia’s Threat to Prosperity

Charles Prince April 5, 2006
In the wake of the abortive acquisition of terminal operations at US ports by Dubai Ports World, Congress is considering more than thirty proposals to tighten the rules governing foreign investment in the US. Some of these proposals, writes Charles Prince, CEO of Citigroup, Inc., would spell disaster for the US economy – choking off the foreign investment that now fuels American economic growth...