In The News

Spend $150 Billion Per Year to Cure World Poverty

Daphne Eviatar November 7, 2004
In 2000, the United Nations Millennium Summit laid out its ambitious plans for global development, pledging to drastically reduce poverty by 2015. Economist Jeffrey Sachs was one of the leading strategists behind these goals. A former champion of free-trade, Sachs has since adopted an agenda at odds with the economist orthodoxy. Instead of preaching the merits of busting into poor economies with...

Bin Laden Lauds Costs Of War to US

John Mintz November 2, 2004
In a full version of Osama bin Laden’s recent videotaped address, the al-Qaeda leader thanked current US president George W. Bush for helping him bankrupt America. “It has appeared to some analysts and diplomats that the White House and we are playing as one team toward the economic goals of the United States, even if the intentions differ," he said. According to bin Laden, the US invasion...

Textile Quotas to End, Punishing Carolina Towns

Elizabeth Becker November 2, 2004
With the global textile quota system coming to an end in early 2005, the potential winners and losers of the previous system are becoming apparent. While several big developing countries specializing in the textiles will have the largest shares of the US$495 billion textile trade regime, others – whether industrialized countries like the US or under-developed countries like Cambodia – will see...

Resilience Is Not Forever

Ernesto Zedillo November 1, 2004
The last four years has seen many potential economic shocks: the dot-com bust, terrorist attacks, and corporate scandals. Somehow, amidst the turbulence, the global economy has managed to persevere, relatively unscathed. According to Ernesto Zedillo, director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and former president of Mexico, this resilience is due to a number of factors,...

Dollar Decision a Sign of Distress

Jane Bussey October 28, 2004
Days after his humiliating tumble off a stage, Fidel Castro announced a decision to dedollarize Cuba – yet another sign of the growing strains on the economy. After November 8th, Cubans may still hold dollars and swap them for convertible pesos – but will have to pay a 10 percent commission to the government. Cuba, already short on cash, does not earn enough foreign exchange from investment,...

Time to Prick the Dollar Balloon, Gently

David Dapice October 27, 2004
As the already sizeable US account deficit increases at an astonishing rate, experts continue to debate its consequences. Offering a counterpoint to a previous YaleGlobal article by Hilton Root, economist David Dapice argues that the escalating US debt is not, in fact, innocuous. Asian central banks support over half of the US debt. However, if current trends persist, US needs will be...

Fueling a Crisis in Nigeria

Olly Owen October 25, 2004
Under a package of International Monetary Fund-endorsed reforms, the Nigerian government hopes to eliminate domestic fuel subsidies. Yet low gas prices are currently the only economic benefit for cash-strapped Nigerians, who see price increases as another kickback to local elites and foreign oil companies. The proposed reforms have caused domestic turbulence; unions launched a series of...