In The News

Sweating in the Park or in the Factory: Beyoncé’s New Sports Wear Company and Respect for Human Rights

Aleydis Nissen July 6, 2016
Critics are harsh on celebrities that launch clothing lines sourced from factories with sweatshop conditions and underpaid workers. Beyoncé launched a sports clothing brand in a joint venture with Topshop. Media reports soon followed with interviews of workers in Sri Lanka complaining about long hours and low pay. “Whether the accusations are true or untrue, it may be argued that a major...

The Rise of Manufacturing Marks the Fall of Globalization

Rebecca Keller June 10, 2016
The many parts of complex machinery are sourced for now from multiple countries. “Over the past century, finished products made in a single country have become increasingly hard to find as globalization – weighted a term as it is – has stretched supply chains to the ends of the Earth,” writes Rebecca Keller for Stratfor. She points out that automation, robotics and computerization will gradually...

India’s Education Deficit

Nayan Chanda May 30, 2016
Education, acquiring an ability to combine and apply knowledge and skills, is a driving economic force for the 21st century, suggests India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The country must do more to prepare and employ its citizens, with more than half under the age of 30. “To employ its emerging young population, the country needs to create nearly a million jobs a month,” writes Nayan Chanda,...

An Alternative to Boycotts or Divestment for Israel

Ian Shapiro and Nicholas Strong May 26, 2016
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault invited international leaders to Paris on May 30 to make plans for reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Peace and economic security go hand in hand. Israel is thriving despite boycotts by some European countries while the economic outlook is dismal for Gaza and the West Bank. “There is little evidence that boycotting Israel will have a...

Out of Africa

Thomas L. Friedman April 14, 2016
Thousands of migrants travel the deserts of North Africa, fleeing poverty and conflict, determined to reach Libya and eventually Europe. Many Africans with large families can no longer find work as drought and high temperatures devastate the agriculture industry, explains Thomas Friedman for the New York Times. Smugglers collect migrants from Senegal, Nigeria Chad and other countries, cramming...

Nafta May Have Saved Many Autoworkers’ Jobs

Eduardo Porter March 30, 2016
The North American Free Trade Agreement, in effect for more than two decades, likely saved the US auto industry. “Even in the narrowest sense – to protect jobs in car assembly plants – a wall of tariffs against America’s southern neighbor would probably do more harm than good,” suggests Eduardo Porter for the New York Times based on research by Gordon Hanson, an economist at the University of...

Stay Just a Little Bit Longer

Elizabeth Redden March 14, 2016
Studies in science and math contribute to innovations and jobs. As of May 10, the United States will extend the time that international students enrolled in select degree programs in science, technology, engineer and math can remain in the country after graduation. “The new rule addresses a program known as optional practical training, or OPT, which permits international students to work in the U...