In The News

Union Disrupts Plan to Send Ailing Workers to India for Cheaper Medical Care

Saritha Rai October 12, 2006
It is no secret to American companies that prohibitive costs of providing healthcare to their employees eat into their profit margin: the consulting firm McKinsey and Company estimates that by 2008, top U.S. companies will be spending as much on health care as they made in profits, forcing the scaling back or eliminating of benefits. In response, some firms have begun considering employees...

Managing Globalization: “You like tomato and I like tomahto”

Daniel Altman October 6, 2006
Agreement on standards allows people to understand or use a product in more locations. Standards – such as the shape of an electric plug or the height of a chair – are the “glue” that hold the global economy together, according to journalist Daniel Altman, and cover engineering, manufacturing, packaging and transportation. Because of standards, manufacturers know how to design a product and...

How to Fix the Global Economy

Joseph E. Stiglitz October 4, 2006
The world has many imbalances, including ballooning debt held by the US and China’s growing trade surplus. World leaders recognize the problems – but tend to place blame on policies from other countries. Economist Joseph Stiglitz suggests that the problems are interconnected in many ways, systemic in nature, and therefore require a global effort. He urges every country to examine its own...

Migrants Enrich Ever More Anxious Host

Stefan Wagstyl September 26, 2006
Economists argue that immigration is good for a country’s overall growth – even as some national leaders concede that controlling immigration is near impossible. But other analysts question the social costs of alienation of many Muslims or resentment from working-class Britons about high unemployment rates. Some anxiety also emerges about growth in and of itself, as populations swell and strain...

Globalization Requires the Greater Good to Be Put First

Stephen King September 20, 2006
In government, the public good is decided either by democratic choice or the coercive decision of rulers. In either case, some decisions made for the public good inevitably go against the wishes of certain segments of the population. In local government, one can oppose decisions by voting in elections or picking up and moving. Global citizens have fewer options: Assessing and enforcing the...

Give Globalization a Hand

Ernesto Zedillo September 19, 2006
Ongoing economic growth, as well as international trade and investment, continues to lift millions from poverty and make national economies more interdependent. Globalization not only provides economic opportunities, but increases global resilience against all manner of crises. Yet, despite globalization’s many benefits, political forces could curtail or even reverse the phenomenon. Every nation...

Rising Trade, Abundance Should Benefit All

David Crane September 12, 2006
Global competition provides the benefit of low-priced goods for the poorest citizens of the world and also has provided jobs that have lifted millions of people from poverty. But globalization has also meant lost jobs, benefits or security for other people. The challenge for policymakers throughout the world is to ensure that globalization’s benefits are widely shared, according to Ben Bernanke,...