In The News

China Targets Greenland for Mining

Will Hickey April 18, 2013
Tight profit margins in the mining industry – along with consolidation among large multinationals, huge capital investments, high-tech automation and rigid equipment maintenance contracts – have reduced job creation for nations with natural resources. Greenland, with 57,000 citizens, mostly indigenous, has vast deposits of minerals. A logical move would be for Greenlanders to rely on Danish...

What's in the Business-Labor Deal on Immigration?

Matthew Yglesias April 5, 2013
In the 2012 US presidential election, Latino voters threw their growing weight behind democrats and President Barack Obama. Chastened Republicans have now joined a new bipartisan push for immigration reform. US legislators, once polarized over immigration, must satisfy numerous groups: Americans who worry about competition for jobs; farmers, ranchers and managers in need of workers; and...

Experimenting on Good Governance in Latin America

Humphrey Hawksley April 3, 2013
Association Agreements are trade agreements between the EU and non-EU countries on bilateral relations, progressive trade liberalization, political and economic cooperation, while emphasizing human rights and democratic principles. A region-to-region agreement between the EU and Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama was signed in 2012. Putting the eurozone crisis...

College Grads May Be Stuck in Low-Skill Jobs

Ben Casselman March 27, 2013
The US economy could be in a long-term structural bind, failing to provide enough work for its educated young adults. Many economists had suggested that underemployment would be a temporary problem. But research by a team of Canadian economists suggests that a high-tech economy has reduced need for workers over the long term. Other economists suggest the findings are speculation, reports Ben...

Pakistan’s Army of Overseas Workers Keeps Economy Afloat

Khurrum Anis March 26, 2013
Inequality among nations encourages workers in poor nations to hunt for jobs abroad – and send funds home to families. Writing for Bloomberg, Khurrum Anis describes a young man dropping out of school and selling the family’s two buffalo to purchase a visa to work in Dubai so his family can build a new home and brothers can marry. “Almost 10 million Pakistanis work overseas and the sum they’ve...

The Choice: More Immigrants or Fewer Citizens?

Joseph Chamie March 4, 2013
Low fertility rates among countries lead to population decline and higher proportions of older citizens. So the countries with such demographics face a choice: allowing more immigrants, along with the revenue, services and cultural influences they bring or accepting the population decline and economic contraction. “Currently, about 76 countries, including Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Iran, Sweden...

A Report Card for Global Food Giants

Stephanie Strom March 1, 2013
NGO Oxfam has developed a scoring mechanism to evaluate multinational food companies and their effects on the environment, labor and health, reports a New York Times blog. “The goal of the scorecard, called ‘Behind the Brands,’ is to motivate consumers to pressure companies like Nestlé, Kellogg and Mars to improve their policies on land and water use and the treatment of small farmers, among...