In The News

Colliding Forces

James Crabtree October 25, 2011
Widening inequality, easy proximity between poor nations and rich, exacerbate the many temptations of undocumented immigration. Angst is building in immigration hotspots – the Italian island of Lampedusa or along Mexican borders, both north and south – because citizens recognize that immigration pressures will only expand, explains James Crabtree for the Financial Times. He explains that citizens...

Floods Threaten Global Trade Hub

Pavin Chachavalpongpun October 24, 2011
Monsoon rains and typhoons have contributed to record flooding that saturates Thailand. Bangkok is under threat even as authorities try to relieve pressure by reinforcing levees, draining fields and releasing floodwaters into the sea. Most of Thailand is affected with rice fields submerged, food prices climbing, and supply-chain operations of multinational firms like Western Digital and Toyota...

Look Beyond the Street

Nayan Chanda October 24, 2011
To avoid a day of reckoning, governments should heed, not mock, the complaints emerging from movements that have gained rapid global momentum, contends Nayan Chanda in his regular column for Businessworld. In 2003, protests in 60 nations opposed the impending US invasion of Iraq. The protests did not prevent the costly war, but exposed the war’s flawed rationales. This year, protesters in more...

Imagined in America

Thomas L. Friedman October 24, 2011
China and the US are enmeshed in an unsustainable trade relationship with no quick fixes. Often on the losing side, the US considers protectionist measures, such as a bill just approved by the US Senate allowing targeted tariffs if China balks at revaluing its currency. “China is spending tons of money manipulating its currency downward and, in the process, creating domestic inflation and a real...

Foreigners' Sweetener: Buy House, Get a Visa

Nick Timiraos October 21, 2011
"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.” So goes the silent call from the Statue of Liberty, symbol of US immigration, in the 1883 poem by Emma Lazarus. But the modern plea is for wealthy immigrants willing to bail the US out of its teeming troubles, including a housing market in decline. Two Senators, including...

Mongolia Opens Doors for Foreign Investment

Steven Borowiec October 21, 2011
Foreign investment in Mongolia’s mining sector – coal, copper, gold and more – is fueling rapid growth. Like other developing nations, Mongolia wrestles with how to control the development and spread wealth throughout a dispersed population of 2.7 million in sustainable ways rather than passing it on to a handful of elites or creating a welfare state, explains journalist Steven Borowiec. He...

Haiti: Tailor-Made for South-South Cooperation

Jonathan Glennie October 20, 2011
With a history of colonization, debt, US trade boycotts and domestic corruption, Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. Recent natural disasters, including hurricanes, storms and the 2010 earthquake compounded the challenges. Writing for the Guardian, Jonathan Glennie recommends that Haiti explore South-South cooperation, adding that “no amount of aid from the west can make up for...