In The News

Beijing’s Shadowy Fund for Buying Assets

Jamil Anderlini September 19, 2008
China’s government has an immense pool of savings, which has ballooned in value over the past eight years, and decisions about how to invest or spend that cash influences other nations and industries. One fund, Chinese Investment Corp., is more open than the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, which manages the world’s largest foreign-exchange reserves. The Chinese funds have gradually...

Paulson’s Moment of Truth

September 18, 2008
With major firms imperiled, the US government has had to up-end its economic policies by intervening and extending rescues to private investment banks, government-sponsored lenders and a major insurance firm. The bail-outs have added to US debt while deflating value of the US dollar. By refusing to bail out investment bank Lehman Brothers, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson signaled that...

Wall Street Dodges a Bullet, How About Next One?

David Dapice September 17, 2008
Low interest rates prompted many investors and homeowners to pour savings into real estate and homes. Investors, convinced that prices could not fall, purchased debt packages including mortgages based on ample credit with little down payments. Prices for homes and investments soared, with the total value of US housing going from about $12 trillion in 2000 to more than $20 trillion in 2006. Now,...

Is Mexico the New China?

Rafael Rivero, Sara Miller Llana September 17, 2008
With uncertainty in oil prices and rising labor costs in Asia, Mexico is luring manufacturing jobs away from China. US companies seek manufacturers close to US markets, an attempt to curb transport costs. Chinese workers also demand protections and higher wages. An emphasis on public and worker education also attracts jobs: Mexico has emphasized worker education, which complements value-added...

Globalization and Politics

Nayan Chanda September 17, 2008
Faced with a battered American economy and a five-year high unemployment rate, US presidential candidates tend to slip into anti-trade mode. Piling blame on foreigners is convenient and attracts votes. But the US has misidentified the source of its economic woes, suggests Nayan Chanda in his column for Businessworld. Outsourcing is just one side of the coin of globalization; on the flip side,...

China's Outsourcing Appeal Dimming

Ariana Eunjung Cha September 11, 2008
US manufacturers, who watch budgets and make products for consumers outside China, are less eager to outsource manufacturing operations work. “Soaring energy costs, the falling dollar and inflation are cutting into what U.S. manufacturers call the ‘China price’ – the 40 to 50 percent cost advantage once offered by Chinese producers,” reports Ariana Eunjung Cha for the Washington Post. Cha...

Why Obama Shouldn't Cave on Trade

Roger Bybee September 11, 2008
The Democratic Party in the United States is divided over the benefits of free trade, and support has shriveled in recent years even among working-class Republicans. While many pundits and politicians insist that open trade enriches all, other analysts suggest that inserting conditions into free-trade agreements could protect human rights and the environment as well as stem rising resentment that...