In The News

The Great U-Turn

Patrick Barta, Joel Millman June 18, 2009
Over the past century, individuals seeking to better their lives have seen the US as the land of opportunity. But the recent economic recession has apparently changed this view, as some immigrants are deciding to return home, for good. But it is not just the US that faces this new trend. This year, many developed countries have seen double digit year-over-year drops in immigration rates from...

Declining Immigration Slows Asian, Hispanic Growth

Hope Yen, Thu May May 14, 2009
Prior estimates of when minorities would overtake majorities in the US have been altered thanks to changes in immigration trends. Policies enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks are part of the cause for the change, but analysts surmise that the economic meltdown has had an effect as well. The US may no longer appear to be the land of opportunity for immigrants. Yet, while the inflow of people has...

Two Views on the Cause of the Global Crisis – Part I

Branko Milanovic May 4, 2009
The global financial crisis that has devastated the world economy has spawned a growing literature on its causes. In part one of our two-part series, World Bank economist and Carnegie Endowment scholar Branko Milanovic argues that while analysts can quibble over the contributing factors to the financial meltdown, a deeper, more fundamental problem was the real cause: income inequality. Growing...

Japan Pays Foreign Workers to Go Home

Hiroko Tabuchi April 24, 2009
After allowing low-skilled laborers of Japanese descent from South America to work there for years, Japan is offering them pay packages and incentives to return to their home country with only one condition: don’t come back. The policy – meant to stem rising unemployment – is related to the slump in Japanese manufacturing that has been exacerbated by the global financial crisis. Many academics...

The EU Can Ignore Eastern Europe at Its Own Peril

Katinka Barysch April 17, 2009
At the G-20 meeting and subsequent media commentaries, focus has been on the travails of the European Union. But Eastern Europe is often lost sight of in the expression of cautious optimism about the EU economy weathering the storm. The former Soviet bloc countries, cautions analyst Katinka Barysch, are still at risk from the financial crisis with serious negative consequences for the West. Many...

The G-20 and the Future of Capitalism – Part III

Pranab Bardhan April 3, 2009
In the third part of our series on the G-20 and the Future of Capitalism, Berkeley economics professor Pranab Bardhan suggests perhaps much to the chagrin of its naysayers, capitalism is here to stay. But chastened by the crisis, it is likely to take on a much milder form. Financial asset growth will slow; producers rather than traders will resume precedence; and financial regulation will...

The G-20 and the Future of Capitalism – Part II

Jean-Pierre Lehmann April 1, 2009
At a time when the EU needs to present a united voice if not in policy, at least in speech, at the G-20 summit, the union is in chaos. In the second article of this three-part series on the G-20 Summit and the Future of Capitalism, professor of International Political Economy, Jean-Pierre Lehmann points to the unfortunate coincidence of Europe’s faltering unity at a time when it is needed the...