In The News

Obama’s Global Challenges

Bruce Stokes November 9, 2012
The US has the world’s largest economy and military and, like it or not, citizens around the world recognize that they must live with the presidential choice of US voters. Political analysts have estimated that US presidents tend to keep about 75 percent of their promises, and President Barack Obama has maintained a higher rate, reported at more than 80 percent during his first term in office....

Reelected Obama Looks at Fiscal Cliff

David Dapice November 7, 2012
President Barack Obama has won the hard fought battle for a second term. But he has no time to rest or celebrate. The president and US politicians must hurry to put finances in order, warns economist David Dapice. Congress failing to agree on raising taxes or cut spending invoked a deus ex machina of painful automatic cuts and deadlines. In summer of 2011, the US Congress came close to...

US Lags in Race for Tech Talent

Vivek Wadhwa October 26, 2012
The US is highly protectionist on labor and jobs. The country remains a top destination among skilled talent because of its opportunities in education, angel investors and markets. But regulations on visas that allow immigrants to work at US firms increasingly lead to bottlenecks in the application process and career obstacles for individuals in a highly mobile global market for top talent. US...

Amid US Outsourcing Fears, India’s IT Firms Thrive

Patrick Thibodeau October 17, 2012
In his presidential campaigns, both 2008 and now, Barack Obama has blasted outsourcing and offshoring of US jobs. Such political attention unnerved India’s IT industry, which relies on skilled labor and large numbers of temporary work visas, particularly the H-1B for the US. That visa allows educated foreign workers with US employer sponsors to stay about six years and work in select technical...

China Play in US Election

Edward Gresser October 15, 2012
US politicians often gripe about China, but campaign promises to “get tough” aren’t easy to keep. China is the third largest export market for US products. The Obama administration has already heightened enforcement of trade laws and filed more trade complaints than the previous administration. Even so, Mitt Romney’s website suggests that the Obama administration extends “acquiescence to the one-...

Assange Asylum Raises South America’s Ire

Alistair Burnett October 12, 2012
By fleeing to the Ecuadoran embassy in London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, an Australian, escaped extradition to Sweden for charges of sexual assault and potentially being deported to the United States for spying. Intentionally or not, he also unleashed South American resentment over two centuries of domination, first by Europe and more recently by the US. Ecuador’s embassy in London, which...

US Voters Mull the Economy

Bruce Stokes September 6, 2012
The global economy has a stake in the US presidential campaign. Top issues so far are economic: jobs, debt reduction and protecting the safety net for the nation’s elderly, otherwise known as Social Security and Medicare, amid rising costs. US voters want the economy fixed, but resist the sacrifices required for long-term solutions. In polls, 80 percent of Americans have expressed dissatisfaction...