In The News

Wal-Mart Invades, and Mexico Gladly Surrenders

Tim Weiner December 6, 2003
Wal-Mart, the largest corporation in America, has revenues that exceed the economies of all but 30 of the world's nations. It dominates about 30% of the grocery business in the US, as well as substantial proportions of other industries. Now, its domestic success is being duplicated in Mexico. Wal-Mart employs 100,164 Mexican workers, making it the biggest private employer in the nation....

China Eases Foreign Entry into Bank Sector

James Kynge December 1, 2003
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), announced a loosening of regulations on foreign banks and finance companies on Monday. These changes are largely assumed to be a response to US and EU accusations that China engages in unfair trading practices, which violate their commitment to the WTO. Wen Jiabao is traveling to Washington...

Japan Has Some Bold Ideas for Talks with ASEAN

Anthony Rowley November 26, 2003
After China's president made his successful ASEAN trip last month, Japan is now gearing up for December's ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit meeting in Tokyo, as well as a meeting of Asean+3 finance ministers early next year. To push further for a common Asian bond market is one of the priorities for Japan at these meetings, says this article in Singapore's Business Times, but Prime...

Asia Worries About Growth of China’s Economic Power

Erik Eckholm November 24, 2003
As China continues to move from a planned toward a free market economy, several of its neighbors are finding foreign investment dwindling. The world’s most populous nation has successfully harnessed its great industrial power, and this has attracted hundreds of thousands of high-tech jobs and millions of dollars in investment that formerly went to countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and...

Crunch Time for Thai Fishing Fleet

November 22, 2003
Over the past 19 years, thousands of Thai fishing trawlers and fishermen have been arrested for poaching in the waters of other countries in the oceans off Thailand's coast. The introduction of the dragnet in 1960 allowed Thai fishermen to net large amounts of fish every hour. But the increased catches soon caused a depletion in supply, which forced trawlers further out from shore and into...

Superpower Dream Behind China's Heavy Industry Push

Guo Shiping November 19, 2003
Beijing's recent decision to invest in the development of heavy industries in northeastern China is not only an economically strategic move, says Chinese economist Guo Shiping. While heavy industry is a necessary backbone to long-term growth, Guo says, the shift away from a single-minded focus on light industry and service sectors will also better prepare China for true superpower status....

Caught in the Pull of Globalization

Aaron Davis November 10, 2003
White collar jobs are moving with increasing rapidity from US soil to India, China, and other major Asian players. Corporations can pay less than half an American employee's wage for the same work and, they argue, can free up American workers for more "interesting" jobs. Labor interests in the US fear this trend, claiming that jobs are leaving "overnight" or while...