In The News

Retailers Pay More to Get Cargo (No Guarantee)

Stephanie Clifford August 6, 2010
Shoppers may not find fully decked shelves in upcoming holiday seasons. Retailers in the US and Europe struggle with shipping schedules, competing for limited space for products made overseas. Emerging economies have also increased demand of containers for shipping. To receive shipments in a timely manner, retailers pay up to triple the prices from a year ago. With the global recession, retailers...

Hot Political Summer as China Throttles Rare Metal Supply and Claims South China Sea

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard August 5, 2010
China holds a monopoly on processed rare-earth minerals, a group of 17 metals with names like thulium and cerium, essential for modern technology. A report from the US General Accounting Service notes that, with businesses lulled by low prices, China has taken the lead in processing the minerals. Writing for the Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard links the lock over rare-earth minerals to new...

Companies Brace for End of Cheap Made-in-China Era

Elaine Kurtenbach July 9, 2010
An array of low-cost goods in stores of the West is possible because of ample Chinese workers willing to work for a few dollars a day. But the days of low-cost bounty could be ending, as more Chinese are willing to unionize and go on strike for better wages and benefits. Higher shipping costs and pressure from the West for China to increase the value of its currency add to an uncertain business...

Influence Industry: US Honey Industry Asks FDA for National Purity Standard

Dan Eggen July 9, 2010
Competition with Chinese imports unnerves the maker of any product. The US honey industry, already suffering from a declining bee population, seeks government help in preventing honey laundering or counterfeiting. The US honey industry accuses some Chinese makers of diluting products or transporting goods to third countries to avoid anti-dumping duties, reports Dan Eggen for the Washington Post....

Smaller Dragon Takes Global Strides

Jean-Pierre Lehmann July 8, 2010
For two decades, US leaders regarded communist North Vietnam as a threat to freedom and American generals vowed to bomb the regime into submission, before abandoning the fight in 1975. The US pursued an isolation policy, and Vietnam unified, yet wallowed in economic stagnation as it confiscated private property, re-educated opponents and allied with the Soviet Union. As the Soviet Union crumbled...

Forget India, Outsource to Arkansas

Jennifer Alsever July 8, 2010
With a national unemployment rate approaching 10 percent, relatively high for the US, biotech and IT technology firms eye low-cost labor rural communities in states like Arkansas, Missouri and Minnesota. Dubbed “rural outsourcing” by this CNN Money article, the work entails providing IT support or customizing software code. “For some companies, the thought of outsourcing work to countries with...

Global Brands Contend With Appreciation for the Local

Bryant Simon July 6, 2010
Fear of global brands is a powerful, universally recognized phenomenon. Just as powerful and less noticed is the consumer pushback against global brands and search for unique, local products, notes Bryant Simon, author and American Studies professor. “The spread of these branded symbols of globalization raises the value of the local,” he maintains, explaining how Starbucks deliberately set out...