In The News

Exporting Animation a Huge Japanese Success Story

Hiroko Nakata July 7, 2004
The export of Japanese animation series, particularly to the US, continues to grow both in terms of hours of animation and number of series. Along with related products such as video games and toys, export of these programs has brought considerable lucre to the island nation. Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! have become household names in many American communities, but the Japanese language vocabulary of...

US Shrimpers Still Carping

Jane Bussey July 7, 2004
The shrimping industry across eight Southern US states has filed antidumping complaints against countries in both Latin America and Asia. On Tuesday two of those complaints, against China and Vietnam, were recognized as legitimate when the US Commerce Department's International Trade Administration recommended punitive duties. Though these duties cannot be imposed without a final ruling by...

Asian Music, Accompanied by the A Train

Yilu Zhao July 6, 2004
In China, traditional musicians face the two-fold threat of florescent pop music and a gradual drying of government funding, both of which have led to a decrease in demand for their craft. "While most pop music groups take in extra income by playing at clubs and parties," writes Yilu Zhao, "some traditional music ensembles… sit idle for months on end." As a result, many...

Immigration is Changing the Face of Suburban America

William G. Holt, III July 6, 2004
New immigrants to the US are settling in some surprising places. In the past, most newcomers to the US found comfort and kin in the urban centers of cities like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. But increasingly, says sociologist William Holt, immigrants are settling in the suburbs of 'second-city' destinations like Atlanta and reversing a trend set by the earlier period of...

U.S. Is seen Losing Its Moral Authority

Thomas Fuller July 5, 2004
Many diplomats, academics, and human rights groups claim that recent American policies and blunders have “eroded the moral leadership that Washington has pursued without embarrassment for years.” Citing the Iraq war, prisoner detention at Guantánamo Bay, the promulgation of the Patriot Act, and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, critics charge that America’s newly tarnished image has harmed its...

Exploding the Myths of Offshoring

Martin N. Baily July 1, 2004
In the heated public discourse in the US on outsourcing the aspect that is most often highlighted is the threat of American job loss to low-wage workers in India. In this essay a former Clinton administration economist Martin Baily and Diana Farrell , director of the McKinsey Global Institute make the case that outsourcing is in fact win-win for both the countries. They say that with the digital...

Faces of Globalization

Jong-Heon Lee July 1, 2004
Korean films have recently experienced increased popularity such that they now control 70 percent of the domestic market share, a figure which is up from 35.1 percent in 2000. Whereas, in the past, South Korean films were of poor quality and attracted few viewers, now the industry is producing blockbusters like "Taegukgi" (the South Korean national flag) which not only fared well...