In The News

Revolutionary Tide Sees New Friends for China

Mei Xinyu February 22, 2011
As Middle East nations are shaken by uprisings, the governments – both those that survive and the emerging powers – will confront a set of new foreign-policy choices. The West’s decades-old alliances with dictators while cheering on democratic movements could make it an unreliable partner for either traditional Arab regimes or newcomers. Many Arab nations will diversify relationships, relying...

The Looming Food Crisis

David Dapice February 18, 2011
In wealthy nations as well as in poor ones, consumers express alarm about fast-rising food prices, and their governments are well aware that shortages can quickly translate into unrest and political crisis. Complaints today may be mild compared with those looming ahead unless governments take steps to curb policies that encourage speculation, warns economist David Dapice. Subsidies that divert...

What Somali Pirates Reveal About the Global Economy

Matthew Lynn February 18, 2011
Pirates off the coast of Somalia continue to target huge ships passing by the impoverished coast. Matthew Lynn, writing for the Financial Times, regards piracy as a metaphor for the global business economy – the pirates know their customers, reinvent careers, conduct research, and maintain employee loyalty by sharing profits. Somalian fishermen were left without livelihoods after foreign factory...

Huawei in Challenge to US

Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Kathrin Hille February 17, 2011
Social media sites – like LinkedIn or Facebook – make it easy for companies to find customers, employees, suppliers and more. But they also help regulators uncover troublesome connections. Such a case – with US regulators perusing LinkedIn and accidentally discovering that China’s telecom giant Huawei had purchased, without government review, interest in a California firm that makes cloud...

Brazilians Making an Economic Mark

Mimi Whitefield February 15, 2011
“Bem-vindo” – or welcome in Portuguese – is the new greeting for South Florida. The struggling state was hit hard by the property bubble collapse and the sub-prime crisis, so now its real estate, tourism and shopping centers are a bargain for neighbors to the south - Brazilians. Brazil, poised to become the world’s fifth largest economy, has a low unemployment rate, reports Mimi Whitefield for...

Germany Sells Vision for “Green Toys” to World

Melissa Eddy February 9, 2011
Germany leads the world in developing a range of renewable-energy products – and its toymakers are no exception. They are creating products to prepare children for a future requiring new energy sources. Designed to direct children’s focus on energy conservation and sustainability, the green toy “make up only a sliver of the nearly $84 billion international toy market, but their share is growing,...

Irish Pubs Close in Droves

Conor O’Clery February 4, 2011
Replicas of traditional Irish pubs are thriving around the world, but tourists could soon have trouble finding the real thing in Ireland. The original pubs, some centuries old, are putting out the last call and closing doors, as they confront a declining customer base. The culprits: rising unemployment, tied to the global recession, and declining disposable income for Irish citizens, whose taxes...