In The News

A Global Retreat as Economies Dry Up

Anthony Faiola March 18, 2009
The countries and ports that benefited most from a rapid rise in global trade now feel the most pain from an economic slowdown. In an article for the Washington Post, Anthony Faiola emphasizes the speed of the economic reversal: Freighters and containers of unwanted goods wait in ports, and workers, including educated financiers and poor immigrants, return to home countries to rethink future...

Globalization Disrupted

Nayan Chanda March 17, 2009
Throughout history, global crises have disrupted trade, immigration and other activities that connect far corners of the world and promote wealth. Modern-day governments in wealthy, developed countries had assumed that their institutions, regulations, stockpiles and systems would secure against problems emerging elsewhere in the world. “The acceleration of transport and communication, and reduced...

World Hunger, The Crisis Inside the Economic Crisis

Sonni Efron March 16, 2009
The global economic crisis and its reduction of wealth overshadow the plight of those hit hardest: “This is a disaster for the bottom billion, the one out of six humans living on less than $2 a day,” writes Sonni Efron for the Los Angeles Times. Wealthy governments have donated to UN food programs, but long-term causes of food shortages – hoarding, speculation, war, export controls, population...

Protectionism Threatens Global Economic Recovery

Richard Baldwin and Simon Evenett March 13, 2009
A global economic recession increases the temptation for national governments, as happened in the past, to pursue protectionism, despite its proven record of harming the economy. What makes similar attempts now by governments more insidious is that they are more subtle and thus murkier to detect. As Richard Baldwin and Simon Evenett, editors of a new study note, measures are being taken “that...

Workers Without Borders

Jennifer Gordon March 12, 2009
Laws on immigration are weak obstacles against the companies tempted by cheap labor or workers desperate for a better life. Attempting strict limits, imposing a fear of deportation and an unwillingness to report unfair conditions, the US system depresses wages and work conditions for all workers – citizens and legal and illegal immigrants alike – argues law professor Jennifer Gordon in an opinion...

China Reluctant to Lead

Orville Schell March 11, 2009
As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emphasized during her first trip overseas, the US has great expectations for China's leadership and help on fixing the economy, and reducing climate change. Following the model of Richard Nixon in the 1970s, who sought to make common cause against the Soviet threat, Clinton emphasized common challenges for the two nations, playing down any differences...

A Textile Capital of China Is Hobbled by a Downturn Gone Global

David Barboza March 10, 2009
The world’s largest economy that once thrived on consumption took a sudden turn to thriftiness. But a global slowdown in spending has hurt factory towns in China that once packed US closets at low prices. Thousands of workers have lost jobs and two out of every three textile and apparel factories in China could go out of business, reports David Barboza for the New York Times. “Experts say that...