In The News

France: Waiting for Reform

Patrick Sabatier May 8, 2007
French voters have increasingly become aware that their country is at economic odds with the rest of the world: high unemployment rates, high levels of debt and massive social benefits reserved for a shrinking majority. Most candidates vying for president, and most of their supporters, recognize deep inside that such a system cannot be sustained amid intense global competition. So the French...

Dangers in Bangladesh: On the Front Lines of Climate Change

Matthias Gebauer May 7, 2007
With low-lying land nestled among a network of rivers, subject to the heavy storms and the floods of monsoon season, Bangladesh is most vulnerable to climate change. A centimeter rise in the sea level, considered inevitable by climate scientists, will wipe out the Char Bangla island of farmer Shahidul Mullah, writes Matthias Gebauer in “Der Spiegel.” Amid emerging reports that the pace of...

Who's Your Big Brother? NAFTA, the EU, and International Trade and Development

May 7, 2007
Economic integration schemes have a powerful impact on growth in developing nations, reports Gerald McDermott, Lazlo Bruszt and Vanesa Sanchez in a paper “International Integration Regimes as Development Programs: A Comparison of EU and NAFTA Accession Processes” for Knowledge@Wharton, an online business publication of the University of Pennsylvania. Economic indicators suggest that European...

Sources: New Law to Jolt Outsourcing

Shen Jianyuan May 4, 2007
China is drafting policy to bestow preferential tax treatment for its firms that focus on information-technology (IT) or business-process outsourcing. “Industry insiders regard this as an effort to overtake India in the outsourcing industry,” writes Shen Jianyuan for “The Economic Observer Online,” adding that the new policies will define and boost an industry now described as “disorganized.” The...

Unions for a Global Economy

Harold Meyerson May 3, 2007
Workers are following the footsteps of business executives, expanding and gaining global influence by merging with counterparts in other sectors and around the world. “As unions begin their inevitable transformation into global entities, globalization's cheerleaders must define themselves more clearly, urges “Washington Post” columnist Harold Meyerson. “In other words, are they really for...

EU-US Summit: Hands Across the Ocean

José Manuel Barroso April 27, 2007
Despite persistent fears in the West about emerging competition from developing economies, a more immediate concern for Americans and Europeans is their own trade relationship. While the people of the European Union and the US together make up barely 10 percent of the world's population, bilateral business between the two accounts for fully 40 percent of all international trade. That is why...

From Old World to Real World

Steven Pearlstein April 26, 2007
Advocates of globalization, free trade and outsourcing admit that jobs shift to low-wage developing nations, but promise eventual benefits for the developed world. Producing goods at a lower cost abroad reduces prices, translating into more money for Western consumers to purchase more products. A common strategy for keeping jobs in the developed world is to provide high levels of education and...