In The News

Obama Risks Flap on “Buy American”

Neil King Jr. February 9, 2009
Anyone who has read recent reports on the global economic crisis should understand that protectionism is dangerous and that protectionist legislation prolonged the Great Depression during the 1930s. Despite modern agreements that regulate open trade, some US workers and politicians can’t help but be tempted to direct public spending to domestic firms and workers. In preparing a multibillion...

Made in America

Nayan Chanda February 6, 2009
As jobs vanish by the hundreds of thousands, the desire to intervene from politicians is only natural, an attempt to restore economic order and prevent social unrest. In capitals throughout Europe, workers protest and vow to remove politicians who fail to provide immediate economic relief. The US is no different, as the president and Congress race to save jobs with a stimulus package now valued...

Is Protectionism Unavoidable?

Jeffrey E. Garten February 6, 2009
The warnings on protectionism are dire. Economists and historians repeatedly remind us about the danger of sliding into protectionism embodied in the notorious Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. By raising import tariffs on thousands of goods, inviting retaliation, causing collapse of international trade, the act transformed a US recession into a Great Depression. Deepening anxiety about vanishing...

India's Diamonds Lose Their Luster

Neeta Lal February 5, 2009
Hit by gloomy news of global recession, consumers sharply curtailed purchases of luxury goods, putting millions of jobs in jeopardy. It took India four decades to position itself as a world leader in processing diamonds, reports Neeta Lal for the Asia Sentinel, but recession in the US reduced demand by 60 percent."The industry had been witnessing exponential growth for over two decades,...

Financial Crisis Causes Iceland's Government to Collapse

David Blair January 30, 2009
With global recession in full force, governments are tested, and Iceland's government is the first in Europe to fail. "Mass demonstrations against the government have become daily events in Reykjavik," writes David Blair for the Telegraph. In 2007, Iceland's finance industry appeared robust; the island nation of 310,000, independent from Denmark since 1944, did not see much...

US and China: Grappling Over Economic Rescue – Part I

Xu Sitao January 30, 2009
Trade imbalances, fueled by overproduction and saving in Asia, too much consumption and debt in the West, have compounded the harsh global recession. Analysts in the US and elsewhere in the West floundering for a remedy have focused on China’s trillion-plus dollar surplus and suggest that an increase in Chinese domestic spending might ease the global pain. This two-part YaleGlobal series suggests...

A Time of Troubles and Protest

January 30, 2009
More than 2.5 workers throughout France rallied behind a one-day strike, urging the government to protect jobs and wages. But as slumping sales and global recession have closed factories, policies and protests fail to address severe inequality that leaves some workers with secure jobs and benefits and many others, particularly among the young, without. In France, the government has focused on...