In The News

Resident Non-Immigrants in US: 1 in 4 Is From India

Chidanand Rajghatta April 21, 2014
Indians are the largest category of resident non-immigrants in the US, including temporary guest workers, students and families, 22.9 percent in all, suggests a report from the US Department of Homeland Security for the year ending in June 2012. According to the report, of 840,000 temporary workers and families, 38 percent hailed from India, with 25 percent Chinese and 16 percent South Koreans....

Obama Travels to Asia, But Future of Trade Pact Is Uncertain

David Dapice April 21, 2014
President Barack Obama begins travels this week to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines as the United States strives to convince Asian allies that a pivot to Asia is real. An indicator of US policy success is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact being negotiated by 12 Pacific Rim nations, explains economist David Dapice. Such regional trade agreements are emerging beyond the...

China's Air Pollution Leading to More Erratic Climate for US, Say Scientists

Jonathan Kaiman April 17, 2014
The United States and Canada rank highest in energy consumption per capita, though China has now surpassed the United States in overall greenhouse gas emissions. A team of US researchers suggest that air pollution from China “is leading to more intense cyclones, increased precipitation and more warm air in the mid-Pacific moving towards the north pole,” reports Jonathan Kaiman for the Guardian....

Walgreens Urged to Leave US to Gain Tax Benefit

Ed Hammond April 15, 2014
A small group that owns shares of the largest pharmacy chain retailer in the United States wants Walgreens to relocate to Europe: “investors owning close to 5 per cent of Walgreens’ shares lobbied the company’s management to use its $16bn takeover of Swiss-based Alliance Boots to re-domicile its tax base,” reports Ed Hammond for the Financial Times. “The move, known as an inversion, would...

On the Wrong Side of Globalization

Joseph E. Stiglitz April 7, 2014
Trade adds to market efficiency and the diversity of goods. But unlike trade agreements of old, which focus on eliminating ineffective tariffs, the modern agreements focus on non-tariff barriers and minimizing regulations that protect consumers, workers and the environment. Economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz – weighing in on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed agreement of 12...

Shale Gas Helps Fracture US-Saudi Ties

Joergen Oerstroem Moeller April 1, 2014
President Barack Obama traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah, and both men “recognize that the geopolitical ground shaped by their common interest in stable oil prices has shifted, creating a new imbalance that could spill over into Mideast security policy,” suggests researcher Joergen Oerstroem Moeller. The so-called shale-gas revolution and eventual self-sufficiency in the United...

MH370 Amuses as Syria Suffers

Tony Burman April 1, 2014
The global audience appears to be more curious about the mystery of 239 people on board Malaysian Flight MH370 than the victims of the civil war in Syria – as many as 125,000 dead, including nearly 12,000 children, and millions of refugees as of December. Tony Burman, journalism professor, reviews the news coverage of a search by 25 nations for a missing jet versus the suffering in a refugee camp...