In The News

South Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Temptation

Lee Byong-Chul October 14, 2011
The warm welcome accorded to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Washington this week reaffirmed the close alliance. Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, South Korea has relied on the US to deter threats from North Korea. But with the US in economic decline and China as a rising power in Northeast Asia, South Koreans, particularly conservatives, increasingly question the endurance of that...

Biggest US Free-Trade Accord Since ’94 Passed

Eric Martin and William McQuillen October 13, 2011
In an unusual display of agreement, the 112th US Congress approved free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. The South Korea deal alone will remove duties on almost two-thirds of US farm exports and phase out tariffs on virtually all industrial and consumer exports within five years, reports Bloomberg. The US is striving to double US exports by 2015, and trade momentum could...

America’s Labor Pains

Nayan Chanda October 10, 2011
Americans are frustrated by their inability to find jobs and the widening inequality that brings. Proposals from government and corporations so far rely on unworkable notions that failed in the past, including protectionist measures or subsidies that reinforce aging industries that are no longer competitive. The world economy has undergone structural transformation, explains Nayan Chanda in his...

Brazil's Stand-Up Comics Lead Social Revolution Against Powerful Elites

Tom Phillips October 7, 2011
The powerful, never appreciating being the butt of comics’ jokes or withering commentary of critics, have long tried to keep a lid on criticism with ownership of media conglomerates and influence over media licenses. The freewheeling internet has changed all that, allowing comedy to take hold in nations like Brazil where the powerful expected unthinking deference. In the 1980s, jokes about...

Revolution Is Happening in the USA

Ismail Salami October 4, 2011
The Occupy Wall Street movement is hardly a revolution, and rather, the protest movement aims at influencing democratic leaders. Started by small groups of college students, protesters express concern about the dangers of high student debt, excessive corporate profits, family struggles with home foreclosures, widening inequality, environmental degradation all combined with a disturbing lack of...

Message to Perry: Stop Banging on About Israel

Simon Schama September 28, 2011
Global communications put US politicians and presidential candidates on the world stage with constant scrutiny. Attempts by Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican candidate for US president, to blast President Barack Obama’s Middle East policies and support Israel, may have backfired, revealing an ignorance of history, US policies and security issues that’s alarming, argues author Simon Schama,...

The World Is Flatter

Nayan Chanda September 27, 2011
The United States seems to have a knack for ushering in changes, then failing to adapt to the challenges they bring. The failure of the US to adapt to the technology and finance-driven globalization it introduced to the world has prompted an alarming decline. In his regular column for Businessworld, YaleGlobal editor Nayan Chanda reviews “That Used to Be Us: How America fell behind in the world...