In The News

Safe Passage

Geoff Brumfiel September 11, 2006
After the 9/11 attacks five years ago, the US was paranoid about attacks from any direction, including foreign scientists. Congress passed legislation requiring face-to-face interviews with every visa applicant and background checks were particularly onerous for the likes of physicists, engineers and chemists. It was not uncommon for scientists, even those renown in their fields, to undergo...

Managing Globalization: Reducing Inequality – It's Not So Simple

Daniel Altman September 7, 2006
It’s only because of inequalities of wealth or skills that people, products and ideas shift around the globe. Such shifts influence individual communities with increases or decreases in jobs, crime or education – either reducing or exacerbating the inequality. Economists suggest that increased trade should reduce inequality at all income levels. But instead, author Daniel Altman argues, the major...

To Give Children an Edge, Au Pairs From China

Gina Bellafante September 7, 2006
Until 2004, the 20-year old agency called Au Pair in America had received zero requests for Chinese nannies. Since then, it has received 1,400 requests. The increased demand for Mandarin-speaking au pairs is partially attributed to the significant number of US parents who have adopted baby girls from China. The largest driving factor, however, is the assumption that the growing influence of...

At France Télécom, Battle to Cut Jobs Breeds Odd Tactics

Leila Abboud August 23, 2006
A winery and scuba-diving shop, a magician and an opera singer – such are the small businesses and careers subsidized by France Télécom, the national telecommunications company. While preparing to list the company on the Paris stock exchange in the mid-1990s, executives recognized that its workforce was bloated. After nearly a decade of attempting to induce early retirement by offering generous...

Apple Finds No Forced Labor at iPod Factory in South China

John Markoff August 19, 2006
A team of investigators sent by Apple Computer to review practices at a factory in the Chinese city of Longhua found no evidence of child or forced labor. The group conducted 100 interviews with randomly selected workers, combed through thousands of documents and investigated the factory site run by Foxconn, a Taiwan-based company. The Apple report did, however, identify several violations of...

Skills Outweigh Natural Resources – In Attracting Foreign Investment, Says Afeti

Bennnett Akuaku August 17, 2006
Africa is rich with oil, minerals and wildlife, but with adult literacy and child labor rates at just over 50 percent, the continent remains impoverished. By coincidence or not, Africa’s share of worldwide foreign direct investment in 2005 was about 3 percent, and the same percentage of the African population possesses higher education. Globalization places a premium on skills, suggests higher-...

Economic Patriotism – Blind Alley in a Globalized World?

Patricia Wruuck August 8, 2006
The successful takeover of Europe’s biggest steel company, Arcelor, by Mittal Steel, whose owner was born in India, is a setback for economic nationalists and protectionists. Shareholders, who saw monetary and strategic worth in the Mittal-Arcelor merger, bucked a board of directors that resented any hint of foreign control. Such resistance is not limited to non-European partners. Cross-border...