In The News

Rich Man, Poor Man

January 25, 2007
As the complexity of the global marketplace increases, top executives and the wealthy have seen a dramatic rise in compensation while average workers confront the pain of labor outsourcing and stagnant wages. This irony has sparked a renewed urge towards protectionism and redistribution that puts free-trade principles at risk. Rather than the government piling up obstacles for globalization or...

Indian Americans Come Out

Manjeet Kripalani January 24, 2007
Indian Americans, armed with advanced degrees and above-average incomes, are a formidable force in US politics, as evidenced by swift approval of the US-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act. Even longstanding supporters of nuclear nonproliferation supported the act that permits the sale of nuclear technology to India for civilian purposes and allows for more inspections of nuclear sites...

The Great Unbundling

January 23, 2007
The model of comparative advantage built on the works of Adam Smith and David Ricardo has rarely been challenged as the predominant rationale for international trade. With individual tasks of all sorts increasingly shipped overseas, some economists seek new theories to explain the logic behind the offshoring of services. Gene Grossman and Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, for example, have labeled...

Who Screwed Up Globalization?

Steven Weber January 23, 2007
Activists who attend the World Social Forum in Africa look for ways to slow or even reverse some parts of globalization. The activists worry about common global problems that go unsolved – pollution, global warming, health risks, overpopulation – because no profits stem from tackling such issues. Favorite targets for activists’ wrath, since the first World Social Forum gathering in Porto Alegre...

Globalization’s Unequal Discontents

William H. Overholt January 23, 2007
Sometimes globalization is a mechanism that levels playing fields and sometimes it is a bulldozer. Throughout history, globalization has often enriched business owners and risk-takers, while doing little for ordinary workers. In recent years, the modern workforce has gradually included more workers from China, India and other emerging nations, and that global competition has stagnated wages for...

Diplomacy as Afterthought Wins US Few Mideast Converts

Fawaz A. Gerges January 23, 2007
One can sympathize with the Bush administration’s desire to shift gears in the Middle East, from merely reacting to Iraq’s instability to actively pushing for peace in the region. Author and Mideast scholar Fawaz Gerges sees Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s diplomatic mission, however, as a case of too little, too late. Moderate Arab governments offer hollow words of support for the US in...

The False Promise of Financial Liberalization

Dani Rodrik January 22, 2007
Free capital flow over the past 15 years was supposed to help developing nations, writes Dani Rodrik, political economy professor with Harvard University, with excess funds moving from wealthy nations to worthy projects around the world, smoothing out boom-and-bust cycles and decreasing corruption. However, Rodrik points out that the developing nations with the most successful economies – China,...