In The News

The Gated Globe

Greg Ip October 17, 2013
After the 2008 global economic crisis, leaders vowed to avoid protectionism, but they also took steps to avoid globalization’s negatives. “After two decades in which people, capital and goods were moving ever more freely across borders, walls have been going up, albeit ones with gates,” writes Greg Ip in a series for the Economist. “Governments increasingly pick and choose whom they trade with,...

Foreign Policy Goes Local

Rodrigo Tavares October 11, 2013
Cities and states no longer wait for national leaders to forge foreign partnerships, and diplomacy moves swiftly with less formality at the subnational level. “Today, many private intelligence firms, think tanks, and NGOs have better access to quality sources than experienced diplomats do,” suggests Rodrigo Tavares, head of the São Paulo State Government’s Office of Foreign Affairs. “And the...

Don’t Cry For Me, Motown

Nayan Chanda August 19, 2013
Detroit was a US auto manufacturing center a few decades ago, but now its population of 700,000, down from 2 million, cannot afford to pay off $18 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities. The city has filed for bankruptcy. “Outsourcing, automation and suburbanisation have drained its population” and “the bankruptcy of what used to be the country’s fourth-largest city does indeed signal the...

Countries Globalized But Education Lagging

Dominic Sachsenmaier June 18, 2013
Schools at all levels, particularly universities, could do more to prepare students for a global society by adding globalization to curricula – not just facts about other parts of the globe, but languages, analysis and connections. The framework of entire disciplines has not kept pace with a fast-changing global economy and culture, contends Dominic Sachsenmaier, history professor and author....

Half of Investments Channeled Through Tax Havens

Steve Anderson May 24, 2013
Each year many of the world’s developing nations lose out on billions of dollars through corporations’ use of tax havens, notes a report from ActionAid. Companies increasingly focus on tax reduction. According to the report, nearly half the money invested in some nations goes through tax havens, a move that ultimately costs the developing nations a sum triple the amount of annual aid. Developed...

India Outsourcing Under Scanner After $45-mn Global ATM Heist

PTI May 10, 2013
Outsourcing by financial institutions is under new scrutiny in the wake of two massive bank heists spanning at least 24 countries. The thieves targeted two payment processing companies, one in India and the other in the United States, hacking computer systems that process MasterCard debit cards issued by two UAE banks, reports the PTI news agency in India. In two separate attacks, the organizers...

Canada Must Face Globalization Head On

Rod Szasz April 25, 2013
Information technology, a global marketplace, wage differentials, plenty of skilled labor and a quest for profits have made outsourcing inevitable for banking and many other businesses. Workers lose jobs as consumers consistently choose low-cost electronics, apparel, news or banking services. “No country is unaffected by these changes,” writes Rod Szasz, trader and founder of an industrial...