In The News

Vietnam’s Economy Needs Reoriented Foreign Policy

David Brown February 20, 2013
After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the country’s Communist Party embraced a Soviet-style economic model. By the mid-1980s, the country’s elites could not help but compare results of Soviet and Chinese economic models and undertook Chinese-style reforms to enjoy globalization’s benefits. The surge of foreign investment capital since has led to reckless credit expansion and inflation. Businesses...

In Egypt, The Kids Are Not All Right

David Ignatius February 19, 2013
Protests for representative government and human rights in Egypt have given way to thuggery and lawlessness, suggests David Ignatius in an opinion essay for the Washington Post. He compares “soccer thugs” roaming Egypt’s streets, defying authority, to the aggressive youth gangs in the 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. “They seem to disrespect their fathers’ generation for having...

Romanian Abattoir Defends Horsemeat Trade

Neil Buckley February 14, 2013
The most astute and health-conscious consumers will scrutinize ingredients, wary about substitutes that reduce costs and quality. A labeling mix-up or lack of transparency ingredients can reduce trust among trading partners and customers alike. Reports that horsemeat was included in processed lasagna meals sold in France, Britain and other countries in Europe have outraged consumers. For many in...

In China, Vast Chasm Between the Rich and the Rest

Sim Chi Yin February 11, 2013
Resentment is building online and in daily interactions among Chinese over rising income inequality, which is particularly pronounced between urban and rural communities. Sim Chi Yin explores the divisions with photographs of young graduate student who cannot find good jobs; retired laborers about to be evicted from small homes to make way for skyscrapers; street cleaners outside luxury stores...

Match-Fixing: Gambling Is Destroying Sport

Declan Hill February 8, 2013
Corruption enriches a few, but poisons organizations. Europol announced nearly 700 fixed football matches after an investigation of thousands of emails in 30 nations. More than 400 have been arrested. “Sports corruption goes back at least 2,800 years and some type of corruption will be with us for as long we continue to hold competitive sports,” notes journalist Declan Hill for BBC News. “It is...

What Does It Mean to Be Comfortable?

Maggie Koerth-Baker February 7, 2013
Cultural expectations influence individual perceptions of comfort, but these expectations are evolving as globalization introduces new work schedules and styles. Still, there’s no universal ideas on a “right” temperature as people prefer what’s customary for them, explains Maggie Koerth-Baker for the NewYork Times Magazine. Norwegians’ aspire to make their homes comfortable for visitors and keep...

The US Focuses on Its Homefront

Bruce Stokes February 6, 2013
So far, President Barack Obama is signaling that he’ll focus most attention on improving the economy during his last four years in office. That’s in line with priorities listed in a Pew Research Center survey: More than 80 percent list the economy as a “top priority”; more than 70 percent list jobs, the budget deficit, education, Social Security protection each as a “top priority.” The survey was...