In The News

Elite Ponder Threats to Globalization

D. Ravi Kanth February 1, 2007
World leaders meeting for the World Economic Forum have identified plenty of problems, but few solutions for global challenges. Risks to globalization include global warming, sharp inequality and increasing conflict. Yet the consensus on the list of challenges has failed to push leaders into action. A poll revealed that more than half of chief executive officers for major corporations express...

The False Promise of Financial Liberalization

Dani Rodrik January 22, 2007
Free capital flow over the past 15 years was supposed to help developing nations, writes Dani Rodrik, political economy professor with Harvard University, with excess funds moving from wealthy nations to worthy projects around the world, smoothing out boom-and-bust cycles and decreasing corruption. However, Rodrik points out that the developing nations with the most successful economies – China,...

Opening Up the Transatlantic Market

Daniel S. Hamilton January 15, 2007
Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany and president of the G-8, urges a transatlantic free-trade agreement. Except for a few high-profile squabbles, trade barriers between the two continents are already low and the US Senate has already given its approval of such an agreement, note transatlantic analysts Daniel Hamilton and Joseph Quinlan. The authors point out that a US state like Illinois has...

ASEAN Pursues EU-Style Regional Integration

Carlos H. Conde January 15, 2007
Once a good idea is out in the open, the benefits visible to all, others will rush to copy. The European Union organized a group of nations with different currencies and languages – and profits followed. Now the Association of South-East Nations (ASEAN) explores if its members can’t try the same integration. First ASEAN must draft a charter, but in the past, the organization has resisted...

Belarus Cuts Off Russian Oil to Europe

Fred Weir January 9, 2007
After Russia increased the price for oil flowing into Belarus, the former Soviet republic responded by imposing a tax on Russian oil shipped through a pipeline passing between its borders, destined for Europe. When Russia refused to pay the tax, Belarus siphoned off some oil for some compensation. Russia has since closed the pipeline, and nations like Germany and Poland face reduced oil supplies...

US-South Korean Free-Trade Agreement: The Cost of Failure

Bruce Stokes January 9, 2007
Trade has not been a priority for the Bush administration, and negotiations have stalled over a free-trade agreement between the US and South Korea. Meanwhile, South Korea has lots of leverage and plenty of alternative markets, including China. The inability of the US to reach such a major trade agreement signals that Europe could set standards in global trade. For example, trade agreements that...

Mongolia Is Roiled by Miner's Huge Plans

Patrick Barta January 4, 2007
As demand for commodities increase worldwide, Mongolians are in no hurry to approve plans for a massive mine, which according to some analysts could double the nation's gross domestic product. Looking at history, citizens of developing nations have good reason to suspect that such projects only produce troubles, with the bulk of sudden wealth going to foreign investors, all the while...