In The News

Globalisation: The Forgotten Strategy

Pankaj Ghemawat January 21, 2004
Multinational corporations have employed different global corporate strategies in their efforts to adapt to the growing mobility of capital resources. Originally, the approach was to use economies of scale to compete in foreign countries with large domestic markets. Large firms can use their size to average fixed costs over many more products, bringing overall costs down compared to their smaller...

No Boundaries in Fight Against Globalisation

January 21, 2004
In Mumbai, India this week, the annual meeting of the World Social Forum was full-on with speeches, music, and people blasting the ills of 'rapacious imperialism' and globalization. This report from India's Economic Times notes that a variety of ideas for reforming the capitalist world economy are being promoted at the WSF. Wolfgang Sachs said that consumerism and a drive for...

U.S. Urged to Monitor Global Labor Policies

David Brown January 16, 2004
More can be done by government to encourage global best practices, say leaders of both multinational corporations and academic institutions. In fact, a study group comprised of businessmen and academics recently sent the US government 18 recommendations on social responsibility, such as requiring US companies to be liable for overseas actions, encouraging socially responsible purchasing by...

Follow the Leader on Iraqi Debt

Timothy W. Guinnane January 15, 2004
In trying to rebuild a shattered Iraq, Washington is asking other governments to reduce or restructure debts owed them by the war-torn country. With over $120 billion at stake, this is not a small request. Still, debt reduction is an important goal, says Yale economic historian Timothy W. Guinnane. As in post-WWII Germany, he writes, debt reduction could facilitate Iraq's economic rebirth...

Why Globalisation Can't Work Globally

Leon Hadar January 14, 2004
Globalization has taken some hard blows recently, says this column in the Business Times. The rapid spread of SARS, the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US, and rising protectionism stand as sharp counterpoints to the "Globalisation-is-the-Messiah" outlook of some observers in the 1990s. But to backtrack on economic globalization would risk throwing the baby out with the...

Stopping Bioterrorism Before It Starts

Lauren T. Hickok January 8, 2004
The anthrax attacks that came on the heels of Sept. 11 frightened many Americans and added further fuel to calls for a global war on terror. Two years on, how secure is the world's supply of biological and chemical agents? Biosecurity experts Lauren T. Hickok and Reynolds M. Salerno write that although Washington has taken steps to mitigate the bioterrorism threat within the US, much work...

Study Sees Mass Extinctions Via Warming

January 8, 2004
A new report published in the science journal Nature says that over a million plant and animal species are in threat of extinction from global warming. The report's underlying study brought together a team of scientists in 14 laboratories around the globe to study the effects of temperature change on life in six different regions. "We're already seeing biological communities...