In The News

Spend $150 Billion Per Year to Cure World Poverty

Daphne Eviatar November 7, 2004
In 2000, the United Nations Millennium Summit laid out its ambitious plans for global development, pledging to drastically reduce poverty by 2015. Economist Jeffrey Sachs was one of the leading strategists behind these goals. A former champion of free-trade, Sachs has since adopted an agenda at odds with the economist orthodoxy. Instead of preaching the merits of busting into poor economies with...

Globalization's Missing Middle

Geoffrey Garrett November 5, 2004
The World Bank classifies each country into one of three groupings: high income, middle income, and low income. The top 25 percent of all countries make up the first category, 30 percent fall into the bottom, and the remaining 45 percent – mostly comprised of Latin America, the former Soviet bloc, Asian tigers, and the Middle East – are "middle income" countries. Political science...

Fueling a Crisis in Nigeria

Olly Owen October 25, 2004
Under a package of International Monetary Fund-endorsed reforms, the Nigerian government hopes to eliminate domestic fuel subsidies. Yet low gas prices are currently the only economic benefit for cash-strapped Nigerians, who see price increases as another kickback to local elites and foreign oil companies. The proposed reforms have caused domestic turbulence; unions launched a series of...

Trading in Pieties

October 22, 2004
A new European Commission proposal will give poor countries special access to EU markets if they agree to sign the Kyoto global warming protocol and other international environment and labor treaties. But manipulation of trade privileges is often thinly veiled protectionism, argues the Financial Times in this editorial. If trade negotiations do not focus on opening markets, the adoption of these...

Strike Threatens Nigeria's Oil Production

Rory Carroll October 14, 2004
Oil production is at the center of current political controversy in Nigeria: The government has become rich from oil sales, while the majority of the population remains destitute. Trade unions imposed an oil workers' strike over the past three days, demanding that the government maintain domestic oil subsidies. Though oil production has continued during the strike, the major oil workers...

Making Globalization Work for All

Jeffrey D. Sachs October 2, 2004
When world leaders met at the UN’s Millennium Assembly four years ago, they laid out ambitious proposals to alleviate global poverty, hunger, disease, and illiteracy. Yet in spite of a rhetorical commitment to development, says economist Jeffrey Sachs, rich nations like the US have been unwilling to commit the necessary aid. Much of the developing world is experiencing rising poverty and needs...

Africa Must Be Heard in the Councils of the Rich

Kevin Watkins October 1, 2004
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have come under intense scrutiny, as the two international financial institutions prepare to meet in Washington this October. Though the agencies greatly influence the shape of the global economy, critics note that their decision-making mechanisms are profoundly undemocratic and favor the interests of rich nations. Wealthy countries maintain...