In The News

A Global Consensus to Rise and Occupy

Laurence Brahm December 15, 2011
The year 2011 has given rise to a wave of peaceful protests around the globe. In Tunisia, Egypt, Europe, the United States and now even Russia, citizens organize via social media, convene in public spaces and protest policies that fail to protect the public interest. Alarm is building about governments and corporations that mismanage diminishing resources, argues Laurence Brahm, attorney and...

Denying Imbalances, G20 Risks Chaos – Part III

Jonathan Fenby November 9, 2011
Mounds of unsustainable debt in wealthy nations threaten the global economy, and many of these nations must keep borrowing in demanding global markets for daily operations. The G20 summit in France, a meeting of the world’s most powerful economies, failed to develop a strategy to ease spending, protect bondholders and lift confidence among consumers and investors. The G20’s failure will have...

The Globalization of Protest

Joseph E. Stiglitz November 8, 2011
A protest movement against corporate power, inequality and governments that do not serve citizens has gone global. From the Arab Spring protests that began in Tunisia to the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York, protesters question if the interests of a few trump the overall common good, explains Joseph E. Stiglitz in an essay for Project Syndicate. Stiglitz notes that “around the world,...

Haiti: Tailor-Made for South-South Cooperation

Jonathan Glennie October 20, 2011
With a history of colonization, debt, US trade boycotts and domestic corruption, Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. Recent natural disasters, including hurricanes, storms and the 2010 earthquake compounded the challenges. Writing for the Guardian, Jonathan Glennie recommends that Haiti explore South-South cooperation, adding that “no amount of aid from the west can make up for...

The New Geopolitics of Food

Lester R. Brown October 18, 2011
“Prices [of food] are climbing, but the impact is not at all being felt equally,” argues Lester Brown in Foreign Policy. Temperature increases, drying wells, mismanagement of soils, and ever-increasing population growth, with an additional 80 million of people to feed per year, are behind the price hikes. As a result, the gap between food supply and demand is widening, carrying political...

With Growing Confidence, India Pursues Mergers Abroad

Vikas Bajaj October 6, 2011
With India removing protectionist shackles, its businesses are no longer content with large market shares in the country and now seek a global reach, reports Vikas Bajaj in a blog for the New York Times. In the last year and a half, Indian companies have spent more money on outbound mergers and acquisitions than foreign companies have spent on Indian deals, according to one accounting firm....

The World Is Flatter

Nayan Chanda September 27, 2011
The United States seems to have a knack for ushering in changes, then failing to adapt to the challenges they bring. The failure of the US to adapt to the technology and finance-driven globalization it introduced to the world has prompted an alarming decline. In his regular column for Businessworld, YaleGlobal editor Nayan Chanda reviews “That Used to Be Us: How America fell behind in the world...