In The News

Moment of Truth

Robert Scheer May 1, 2006
US polls cite illegal immigration a major concern, and politicians are divided over solutions. Yet the personal economic decisions by most US citizens tend to show more concern about low prices than protecting jobs or wages on the whole. Author Robert Scheer labels the so-called immigration “crisis” as fiction. Throughout history, whenever perceptions emerge about national security threats, low...

The Silent Globalization of Remittances

Richard Reeves April 26, 2006
When immigrants work in wealth countries like the US, they often send money back home to families. Such remittance income far exceeds foreign aid or direct foreign investment in Central America and the Caribbean region. The World Bank estimates that such foreign exchange is on the rise, with more than $223 billion transferred from rich countries to poor in 2005. The distribution is direct and...

US, China Eager to Gloss Over Any Disagreements

Daniel Sneider April 25, 2006
The inevitability of China’s rise has led its Asian neighbors to perform “fine balancing” acts, with the question of how to respond to China’s growth remaining high on every agenda. Even countries that have been historically at odds with China – such as Japan and Vietnam – worry about the threat, but must cooperate with the second largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power. Like...

Political Clout in the Age of Outsourcing

David Leonhardt April 21, 2006
Americans were once nonchalant about outsourcing – until reports emerged about hospitals sending radiology tests to doctors in India, who provided low-cost accurate readings. Commentators and politicians took notice and debated what such outsourcing would mean for health care. Economists from MIT decided to take a closer look and found a single company in India with three radiologists doing such...

China’s Investors Are to Get Freer Hand Abroad

James T. Areddy April 20, 2006
On the eve of Chinese President Hu’s visit to the US, China made a gesture toward a more open, market-based currency that pleases the US, but falls short of revaluing of the yuan. China will allow companies and individuals to make financial investments overseas, which could influence the country’s currency exchange-rate system as well as the value of yuan. China has kept the yuan’s value...

A Lobby, Not a Conspiracy

Tony Judt April 20, 2006
Some international critics suggest that Israel wields too much influence when it comes to US foreign policy. An essay assessing Israel-as-lobbyist, published in March by the “London Review of Books,” has unleashed raucous debate about the nature and purpose of the US-Israel relationship. The essay makes two claims: first, that uncritical support of Israel does not always serve US interests and...

Mothers Want Hope for Their Children

Sonia Nazario April 19, 2006
The tide of illegal immigrants to American shores has become unmanageable, with numbers far outstripping those at any other time in US history. Immigrants take jobs that are unpopular with native US workers, often at reduced wages, thus allowing US firms to compete globally. The immigrant workforce reduces US food and clothing costs and makes child-care readily available for US families,...