In The News

Is Mexico the New China?

Rafael Rivero, Sara Miller Llana September 17, 2008
With uncertainty in oil prices and rising labor costs in Asia, Mexico is luring manufacturing jobs away from China. US companies seek manufacturers close to US markets, an attempt to curb transport costs. Chinese workers also demand protections and higher wages. An emphasis on public and worker education also attracts jobs: Mexico has emphasized worker education, which complements value-added...

Globalization and Politics

Nayan Chanda September 17, 2008
Faced with a battered American economy and a five-year high unemployment rate, US presidential candidates tend to slip into anti-trade mode. Piling blame on foreigners is convenient and attracts votes. But the US has misidentified the source of its economic woes, suggests Nayan Chanda in his column for Businessworld. Outsourcing is just one side of the coin of globalization; on the flip side,...

Flour That Has the Flavor of Home

Indrani Sen September 16, 2008
Societies emerged around local grain cultivation, and some analysts suggest that the Green Revolution – industrialization of the agriculture industry with fertilizers, pesticides and other chemical interventions – has homogenized agriculture. A global movement encourages consumers and markets to support cultivation of flavorful in-season fruits and vegetables, including grains, which are...

Russia and a New Democratic Realism

Francis Fukuyama September 12, 2008
The weakened Russia of the 1990s has bulked up into a formidable nation that makes the former satellites of the Soviet Union uneasy. In the meantime, the US allowed negotiation opportunities and moral credibility to slip away. The US invasion of Iraq and support of separation for Kosovo handed an excuse to others that might invade sovereign states for regime change or disgruntled provinces that...

Why the Discomfort Over Free Trade

Kevin Casas-Zamora September 12, 2008
Many benefits flow from free trade, and attempts to “protect” economies from competition are doomed. Yet free trade has fallen into disrepute, as more workers, voters and politicians express skepticism, questioning why most rewards flow to a few. Costa Rica’s former vice-president, Kevin Casas-Zamora, insists that advocates for free trade, and he counts himself as one, must examine the problems...

China's Outsourcing Appeal Dimming

Ariana Eunjung Cha September 11, 2008
US manufacturers, who watch budgets and make products for consumers outside China, are less eager to outsource manufacturing operations work. “Soaring energy costs, the falling dollar and inflation are cutting into what U.S. manufacturers call the ‘China price’ – the 40 to 50 percent cost advantage once offered by Chinese producers,” reports Ariana Eunjung Cha for the Washington Post. Cha...

Why Obama Shouldn't Cave on Trade

Roger Bybee September 11, 2008
The Democratic Party in the United States is divided over the benefits of free trade, and support has shriveled in recent years even among working-class Republicans. While many pundits and politicians insist that open trade enriches all, other analysts suggest that inserting conditions into free-trade agreements could protect human rights and the environment as well as stem rising resentment that...