In The News

Our Vanishing Night

Verlyn Klinkenborg October 20, 2008
The growth of cities across the globe has obscured the line between night and day. Artificial lights that regularly brighten the night sky for human activity in metropolises and their suburbs has repercussions on humans and other living organisms that are only now beginning to be understood. Increased light disrupts the migratory patterns of birds, confuses newborn sea turtles, upsets amphibious...

How the US Financial Crisis Might Affect Kenya

Ochieng Rapuro October 20, 2008
The fallout of the US financial crisis has already spread to Europe's banks, and developing countries like Kenya also speculate on how the crisis could affect their welfare. Reporting for Kenya's Business Daily, Ochieng Rapuro and Jenny Luesby note that the nation’s banking sector is mostly insulated from foreign finance. In Kenya, concern centers on the increasingly likely chance that...

Outrage Over Offshoring Goes Off-Target

Ann All October 17, 2008
Offshoring work overseas by US companies is a handy populist issue during a US presidential campaigns. The issue distinguishes the two candidates: Republican John McCain staunchly supports free trade and low taxes; Democrat Barack Obama supports free-trade agreements, but urges tax incentives for companies that keep jobs inside the US. Many US workers bitterly blame the loss of high-skilled...

A Lesson in the “Link”

Nayan Chanda October 16, 2008
Just as one foul ingredient can spoil a recipe, so can one sloppy procedure ruin reputations for any firm and its country. The most recent case: Chinese dairies trying to boost profits with melamine-tainted milk that went into all kinds of products, causing health problems for more than 50,000 children. It’s good business practice for companies to monitor their supply chains, down to the smallest...

Chronicle of a Disaster Foretold

Ernesto Zedillo October 15, 2008
Low interest rates and plenty of credit in recent years created a housing bubble with the attendant risk. Investment banks divided the loans into complex financial packages, many labeled as safe and even insured. But the investments were safe only as long as housing prices continued to climb. “Once again the markets forget that financial innovations are likely to be underpriced and therefore...

The Death of the Washington Consensus?

Kevin Gallagher October 15, 2008
US officials over the past two decades insisted that free trade without limits tend to provide more benefits than costs for American and other consumers. Princeton economist Paul Krugman won the Nobel prize for economics, not for his columns for the New York Times, but for his study of international trade and his stance against trade without limits. Krugman has long insisted that government...

Drawing the Wrong Lessons

Shashi Tharoor October 14, 2008
Some leaders from poor nations gloat about the global credit crisis and point fingers of blame at liberal, open-market policies. “In India, the debate between capitalist globalization and self-reliance required a huge paradigm shift,” writes Shashi Tharoor for the International Herald Tribune, noting that while the West associates capitalism with freedom, nations like India associate it with...