In The News

It’s Time Businesses Got Back to Business

Klaus Schwab May 2, 2003
Many years ago, the business of business was business. Now, argues Klaus Schwab, president of the World Economic Forum, companies have been saddled with a host of social responsibilities, like fighting poverty and protecting the environment, that should be the purview of governments. Instead of focusing on these responsibilities, Schwab says, business leaders "must re-embrace the wealth-...

Global Finance Firms Plan Huge Jobs Reshuffle

Catherine Ong April 29, 2003
The worldwide improvement in telecommunications that has occurred in the last several years has opened the doors for new business opportunities with significant consequences for the global economic community. Now, with more and more countries offering multinational corporations a prosperous haven by promising cheap and reliable infrastructure and technical support, the largest firms have begun...

A New War Over Iraq

Joshua Chaffin April 27, 2003
Although the dust has barely settled from the fighting in Baghdad, international companies are already lobbying intensely for lucrative contracts to rebuild Iraq. The extent of reconstruction, the risks involved, and the specific roles for local, national and international stakeholders is yet to be determined. The success of the reconstruction efforts also depends on the development of...

Half in Germany, Half in Poland

Frank Pergande April 25, 2003
Poland’s pending membership in the European Union should, in theory, offer great benefits to towns on the border between Germany and Poland. The divisions created in 1945 had severe economic consequences for some small border towns. EU membership for Poland and cross-border trade between these poor German and Polish towns could make a difference. Studies caution, however, that most economic...

If Nike Defends Itself, Is That a Commercial?

Linda Feldmann April 23, 2003
Nike Inc. is the world's largest athletic footwear company. Nike, with its 900 factories in 51 countries and more than 600,000 employees, is currently embroiled in a Supreme Court case in the US. This case stems from a 1998 lawsuit, in which San Francisco activist Marc Kasky charged that Nike had made false statements about sweatshop conditions in its Asian factories. Mr. Kasky asserted...

Sars: A New Threat to Asian Prosperity

Michael Richardson April 21, 2003
Greater openness in tourism and trade, on which much of Asia's recent economic growth has been based, is coming back to haunt countries from South Korea to Thailand. The extent of the economic fall-out from the Sars epidemic is only just becoming apparent, but WHO estimates already place the global costs at $30 billion and rising. With China's true infection numbers still unknown and...

Economies Sickened by a Virus, and Fear

Keith Bradsher April 21, 2003
Around the Asia-Pacific region, the economic impact of Sars is being immediately felt. In one Australian fishing area, lack of demand from Hong Kong restaurants – the industry's biggest customers – means that some fishermen might not make their home mortgage payments. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, in India, a software company executive worries about the wisdom of his company's...