In The News

Canada's Aid Seeded China Dam

Ian Johnson January 2, 2008
Environmental and human-rights activists around the globe criticize the world’s largest hydroelectric dam, Three Gorges Dam in China, for its displacement of more than a million people and environmental devastation. Yet governments and companies of the West provided assistance that allowed the controversial project to proceed. “In the midst of a domestic political crisis, the Canadian government...

A Young Tinkerer Builds a Windmill, Electrifying a Nation

Sarah Childress December 31, 2007
Forced to drop out of school at age 14 because his family could no longer afford tuition, William Kamkwamba of Malawi set out to study energy and build windmills on his own. “Energy poverty” limits development, economies and jobs in the world’s poorest nations, explains Sarah Childress for the Wall Street Journal. Kamkwamba, now 20, built his windmill, by lashing blue-gum tree trunks together for...

2008: Year of Reckoning?

Ernesto Zedillo December 21, 2007
Economists debate whether huge global imbalances are dangerous or matter of course. But a specific financial tool as simple as home loans in the US has revealed the intricate ties linking global financial markets, resulting in “the credit-crunch drama,” explains Ernesto Zedillo, director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. Recklessness in the sub-prime mortgage market has also...

Don’t Bet Against the Dollar

Thomas Palley December 18, 2007
The global economy depends on the US dollar, and talk about its demise is premature. The US does confront real problems of persistent trade deficits and a high debt load, writes Thomas Palley for Foreign Policy, with increased borrowing merely creating jobs offshore. Two thirds of reserves held by world’s central banks are in dollars, and decline in the dollar’s value would hurt many around the...

The Global Money Machine

David Roche December 17, 2007
The sub-prime mortgage crisis – the big stack of US home loans that went to people who could not afford payments – has led to a global credit crunch. Record low interest rates created a huge supply of credit, which in turn led to higher prices for homes and other assets. An appetite for risk, rather than actual asset values or funds backing the loans, drove the supply of credit and the price for...

The End of Globalization?

Gabor Steingart December 12, 2007
Doubts expressed out loud can spur major movements. Such doubts about globalization are emerging in the US presidential campaign, as candidates question whether free trade is a source of the nation’s wealth or economic woes. Since World War II, US presidents supported a philosophy of free trade for spreading wealth and other benefits. “America's enormous trade deficit – and that in a country...

Common Currency Caveat

Eckart Woertz December 12, 2007
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was established in 1981 by Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE, with all agreeing to some common objectives based on their Islamic beliefs in trade, security, agriculture and investment. Plans include uniting around a common market in 2008, which will “move beyond the free movement of goods and services that has been agreed upon in the GCC customs...