In The News

Industrialised World Must Adapt to Rising China and India

Eisuke Sakakibara February 6, 2003
A former Japanese Finance Ministry official writes that like the industrialization of the late 19th century, the globalization of the last two decades has rapidly altered the world economy. China and India are poised to become important actors in the new economy, but for them to succeed, many things must fall into place. Industrialized nations, specifically Japan, must respond to the emergence...

Lula’s Message for Two Worlds

January 30, 2003
First he inspired hope at a crowded haven for anti-globalizers. Then he received an ecstatic greeting from a globalized assembly of free traders meeting at a playground for the rich. Brazil's new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, moved last week between Porto Alegre and Davos with amazing ease. He was elected last year on a populist platform that railed against neo-liberal economics...

Hybrid Cars Are Catching On

Danny Hakim January 28, 2003
In a global economy in which national boundaries hold little meaning for multinational corporations, American businesses are being forced to deal with competition from abroad. Japanese hybrid automobiles have begun to gain popularity in American markets, and American automakers, fearful of ceding yet another market to Japanese companies, have responded by announcing plans for the development of...

Big Bang Expansion of the European Union

Shada Islam January 28, 2003
The expansion of the European Union to include another 75 million people in Eastern and Central Europe is an event of monumental proportion. Negotiations remain underway as 10 new countries adjust their economies and polities to EU standards on agriculture, trade, human rights, and other issues. Meanwhile, people around the globe are taking stock of what a larger EU means for their region. -...

Europe at a Snail's Pace

January 15, 2003
The European Union's experiment in supra-national government continues to face challenges from divergent national-level political and economic interests. This article in the UK's Economist says that yesterday's meeting between France's president and Germany's chancellor "sealed agreement between the two leaders on how the newly enlarged Union… will be governed....

American Investor Protection is Protectionist

Benn Steil January 15, 2003
The world of finance is often thought to be the most truly globalized economic sector. But Benn Steil, André Meyer senior fellow in international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, reminds us in this article that even such a free-market trumpeter as the US is still quite protectionist when it comes to its own financial markets. Despite the failure of Enron and the subsequent...

Investment Outlook Gloomy

January 13, 2003
Foreign investment stimulated a virtual goldrush in many Southeast Asian nations during the 1990s. But the crisis that struck the region in 1997 and 1998 led to large net outflows of money from many countries, including Indonesia. This editorial in Indonesia's Jakarta Post says that the largest Muslim nation in the world is still struggling to employ and feed its people 4 years after the...