In The News

Global trade is tightly interconnected, so tariffs imposed by China and the United States “hit firms in their own countries almost as much as the ones they were aiming at,” reports Phil Thornton for the Independent. Researchers in Switzerland and China studied stock market responses to tariffs announced since 2018 and “found that while the trade war tariffs of the US and China directly hurt...

The European Union labeles some palm oil as unsustainable, responsible for high rates of deforestation. Indonesia has filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization over EU renewable energy policy. The European Union plans to phase out use of biofuels by 2030, and Indonesia officials express concern that EU policy could “tarnish the image of palm oil products in global trade.” The EU insists...

Workplace schedules establish cultural patterns for nations, and governments often must step in to end grueling routines. For example, in the United States, Congress mandated an eight-hour workday in 1916 and the five-day workweek emerged a decade later. A pattern has emerged in the world’s most populous developing nations with low labor costs: Parents leave rural communities for work in...