In The News

Best US Factory Jobs in Rising Jeopardy

Mark Trumbull February 20, 2008
Facing increasing competition and productivity from workers in low-wage nations, US manufacturers slash jobs and costs. One method in use by US car manufacturers is incentives to convince older workers to quit and replace them with less expensive younger workers who also receive fewer benefits. Analysts expect cost-cutting measures from the large foreign manufacturers like Honda or Toyota as well...

Europe Takes Africa’s Fish, and Boatloads of Migrants Follow

Sharon LaFraniere January 15, 2008
Huge industrial trawlers, most from Europe, push through waters off the African coast, efficiently scraping sea beds clean of fish. Such nonselective industrial fishing has devastated fish populations and habitat, destroying a livelihood and encouraging more African fishermen to use their boats to assist fellow Africans in fleeing their homelands for work in Europe. Governments throughout Africa...

Stop the World (and Avoid Reality)

Alan S. Blinder January 14, 2008
The US was long the most open and competitive economy in the world. But candidates for US president, both Democrats and Republicans, respond to voters’ desire for a time out from international engagement, a mood labeled “Stop the World Syndrome,” by economist Alan Blinder in an opinion essay for the New York Times. The attitude stems from frustration over the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as...

Can the Midwest Regain Its Economic Clout?

Richard C. Longworth January 9, 2008
Achieving economic stability requires a strategy that does not neglect global markets or trends. In the US, the Midwest region has been devastated by companies shifting manufacturing operations first to southern states, paralyzing debt among farmers, followed by globalization with its shift of factories and jobs to low-wage countries. “Of course, an economic revolution as disruptive as...

The Ink Fades on a Profession as India Modernizes

Anand Giridharadas January 7, 2008
As the conduit connecting service providers and consumers grows transparent, middlemen lose jobs. Illiteracy once guaranteed business for letter writers, but a growing economy that provides the resources for education, and affordable cell phone services has left letter writers jobless. This development appears to harm middlemen, but the jobs that technological advances generate more than...

In France, Discrimination on Upswing as Violence Smolders

Katrin Bennhold December 10, 2007
About 10 percent of France’s population is Muslim. Yet Arabs, even those armed with education degrees and solid experience, struggle to find work in the country. Researchers have documented the discrimination by sending out resumes with identical experiences, from applicants with French and Arab names. The French names attract more job offers than Arab names by a ratio of 20 to one. The research...

Why We Trade

Russell Roberts November 19, 2007
Debates featuring US presidential hopefuls feature complaints about trade deficits, outsourcing and the competitive threat of China. Author and professor Russell Roberts, though, offers the reminder that promoting foreign open markets and a protected one at home is no better than mercantilism. All countries are wary about such a strategy and won’t stand for it. On the other hand, free trade...