In The News

Nayan Chanda December 13, 2010
Technology has boosted industrial efficiency. Industrial growth, full employment and economic recovery require engineers, mechanics and a host of other highly skilled workers. Millions of jobs go unfilled in China, the US, Germany, India and other nations because managers in health-care, biomedical, aeronautical, energy, communication and other industries can’t find workers skilled in math,...
Annys Shin December 7, 2010
It’s an old debate: Should planners of symbolic projects rely on local workers or stretch funds by hiring immigrant labor? The latest project under scrutiny is construction of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial in Washington, DC. Debt crisis in Greece delayed granite delivery, and critics slammed the Chinese sculptor’s original design. The foundation organizing the $120 million project...
James Boxell November 25, 2010
The rich are different, as noted by more than one literary figure. To assist a struggling economy and keep pace with Canada, the US and other nations, Great Britain will relax some immigration rules to entice wealthy families and entrepreneurs from emerging economies like China, India and the Middle East, reports the Financial Times. The price for fast-track permits is £10 million, reducing the...
Farok J. Contractor October 27, 2010
Manufacturing and IT firms slice their work into parts, much like the chop shops that collect old cars, breaking them down into parts for resale and higher profits. Mangers divide tasks, sending work to points of the globe where costs and skills are most efficient for each task at hand. Farok J. Contractor, professor of management and global business, analyzes trends underway in the once-...
Rachel Donadio September 16, 2010
An influx of Chinese to Prato transformed the Italian city into a center of low-end garment manufacturing. Trading in on the cachet of “Made in Italy,” Chinese firms increasingly connect to global production chains, quickly and cheaply meeting changing tastes, creating the “fast fashion” now so popular in Europe. Throughout Prato, new signs and specialty stores cater to the immigrants. Organized...
Javier Blas, Leslie Hook September 13, 2010
A hostile bid for the world’s largest listed fertilizer company highlights the role of food production in a world experiencing population growth. For decades, an illusion of overabundance prevailed. But the global fertilizer sector has been a focus of merger-and-acquisition activity this year, as alarms over food scarcity, punctuated by short-term price hikes, renew interest in food production....
Peter Whoriskey September 10, 2010
The original light bulb has a long history with many nations and patents – starting with an English chemist in 1809 and perfected over the years by Scottish, German, American and Russian scientists – before Thomas Edison purchased some patents and devised the long-lasting filaments in 1879 and 1880. His name is associated forever with light bulbs. The last major GE factory making traditional...