In The News

Irrational Exuberance to Bust: Financial Bubbles Demand Regulation

Kemal Dervis April 23, 2008
As the financial sector has gained dominance in the world economy, some investors have become accustomed to steady growth and double-digit profits. While the financial industry rewards efficiency and innovation among competing firms, the relentless quest for profits and a short-term mentality in some finance circles have contributed to a series of asset bubbles: the Asian-Russia financial crisis...

Battleground Over Globalization

Robert McMahom April 22, 2008
The presidential candidates repeatedly describe some voters as “real Americans” and “the lifeblood of this country.” Even for those voters, American” issues are international issues. Debates over NAFTA take center stage in industrial hotspots like Pennsylvania and Ohio, where steelworkers and other blue-collar communities harbor justifiable fears over how the trade deal has affected the US...

Housing Woes in US Spread Around Globe

Mark Landler April 22, 2008
Housing prices are dropping around the globe like dominoes – and some analysts fear an extended downturn could result in economic collapse. Countries and regions with the highest prices, including Ireland and other European nations, have the most to lose, reports Mark Landler in the New York Times. Residential investment accounts for 4 percent of the US economy versus 12 percent of the Irish...

The IPCC: The Science Is In on Climate Change

April 21, 2008
Rajendra K. Pachauri, director-general of the Energy Research Institute, was elected chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2002. For that work, he was co-awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace. In this interview with Nayan Chanda, Pachauri explains the IPCC’s purpose of collecting and disseminating science. Climate change affects countries in many different ways, and...

Global Approach Required to Tackle Food Prices

Dominique Strauss-Khan April 21, 2008
Warnings about climate change, biofuels, use of agricultural land for other purposes and the herd mentality of the financial markets have been ample over the past year. Still, food shortages, rising prices and the resulting humanitarian crisis have come as a surprise for some governments. The managing director of the International Monetary Fund calls for immediate global planning. “Unless we act...

The Fury of the Poor

Spiegel Staff April 18, 2008
People living in the world’s poorest countries often spend the bulk of their incomes on food. But with the prices of some staples doubling or more, food has become unaffordable. Despair and shame can quickly transform into violence, note a team of writers with Spiegel Online. An unchecked growing world population, climate change and loss of agriculture land, large refugee populations that cannot...

Clock Running Out on Irreversible Climate Change – Part II

Bo Ekman April 18, 2008
The coming negotiations over the successor to the Kyoto Protocol appear doomed as states express more concern about their narrow rights than the planet’s health. Bo Ekman, founder of Tällberg Forum, argues for developing fallback policies that global citizens must consider in the event of failure of the Copenhagen Process. Ekman fears that the “world will descend into eco-protectionism, where...