In The News

Lou Dobbs Fuels American Immigration Paranoia

Evelyn Shih April 18, 2005
As the dollar continues its steady fall, many Americans have begun to fear a permanent downward spiral of the entire economy. According to this Yale Herald opinion, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs blames outsourcing and illegal immigration for this trend. For over a year, Dobbs has dedicated a permanent segment on his daily news show to those two subjects, speaking to a willing audience of middle-class...

China's Strategy Gives it the Edge in the Battle of Two Sock Capitals

Don Lee April 12, 2005
At first glance, the Robin-Lynn Mills sock factory in Fort Payne, Alabama, seems impressive – with some the world's most advanced knitting machines, costing over US$25,000 each, a single sock is spun in 75 seconds. The Three Star factory in the Chinese city of Datang, on the other hand, stands in stark contrast: Its machines only cost US$1000 and take much longer to complete a sock....

Crouching Tiger, Swimming Dragon

Nayan Chanda April 11, 2005
Nearly six hundred years after Chinese ships visited the Persian Gulf, the ground is being laid again for a permanent Chinese presence in the area through which some 40 percent of the world's oil resources travel. As Nayan Chanda writes, Chinese diplomatic visit to Pakistan last week resulted in an agreement to expand a Chinese-built port there, leaving US, Japanese, and Indian governments...

China Can Gain from Unshackling its Currency

Rob Trudel April 8, 2005
A significant lobby in Washington is pressuring Beijing to revalue its currency relative to the US dollar, claiming that the artificially low renminbi gives China an unfair competitive advantage. To be sure, Chinese resent the pressure and worry that an appreciation of the renminbi relative to the dollar would raise the price of Chinese goods and curb its dominance of the export market. But in...

Sudan: Helping the Exiles Return

Ramiro Lopes da Silva March 31, 2005
As civil unrest in southern Sudan settles down, exiles from the region have begun to return in droves. Despite better living conditions in developed countries in Europe and the Americas, these immigrants are surprisingly willing to move back to their country of origin. "Given the choice, people will almost always return to their homes," writes Ramiro Lopes da Silva. This voluntary...

Curry in Hot Garlic Sauce

Simon Long March 31, 2005
China, the world's most populous country, looks set to become one of the 21st century's main movers and shakers. Analysts speak in less glowing terms about China's neighbor and budding rival, India. The subcontinental giant has years of catch-up to play to match China's startlingly rapid rise. Yet Simon Long argues that despite its delayed entrance into the free-market game,...

India's Knowledge Economy

Guy de Jonquières March 29, 2005
A visit to the gleaming corporate campuses of Bangalore shatters most myths about India's outsourcing industry. Some people still believe that Indian outsourcing companies pay a bunch of PhDs pitifully low wages to do menial drudgework while working in sweatshops. "If these are sweatshops, the Ritz hotel is a doss-house," writes FT columnist Guy de Jonquières. And the research and...