In The News

Running the World, After the Crash

Richard Samans, Klaus Schwab, Mark Malloch-Brown January 13, 2011
The world is not so different from a small, connected community, confronting numerous challenges with consequences for all inhabitants. Resolution requires cooperation rather than competition that exacerbates the pressing global problems, including climate change, nuclear non-proliferation, financial regulation, poverty reduction, easing trade and other economic imbalances. The world’s most...

Asia: Eastern Billions Can Still Join the World

Nandan Nilekani January 5, 2011
With global economic recession, many nations look inward, prioritizing domestic concerns and rejecting globalization. But the inward focus may not last for long, predicts Nandan Nilekani, author and former chief executive of Infosys, writing for Financial Times. India’s and China’s growth, combined with their transition from rural agricultural economies to manufacturing giants, could deliver new...

Where Are the Jobs? For Many Companies, Overseas

Pallavi Gogoi January 4, 2011
The large and growing emerging markets of China, India and Brazil are a lure for multinational corporations in search of top revenue and profits. Job creation follows the markets, strengthening the middle class and education programs in emerging markets, particularly Asia. Companies like Caterpillar, Coca-Cola and DuPont hired more employees overseas in 2010 than in their home base of the US,...

China Extends Help to Tackle Euro Crisis

Jamil Anderlini December 31, 2010
The EU is China’s biggest export market: Trade for 2010 is up by more than 30 percent over 2009 levels. China, not wanting its huge customer base to struggle, purchases European bonds and assists in financial stabilization. “China classifies the composition of its foreign exchange reserves as a state secret and European and US officials say it is often very hard to determine the true scale of...

The Rising Burden of Government Debt

Eswar Prasad, Mengjie Ding December 29, 2010
Nations hiked debt in recent years to escape economic crisis – with advanced economies doing most of the borrowing. Global debt is expected to more than double from $23 trillion in 2007 to $48 trillion in 2015. Emerging markets not only borrow less, but they also contribute more to economic growth, report Eswar Prasad and Mengjie Ding for the Brookings Institution. The pair examines debt not only...

Our Dickensian Economy

Alan S. Blinder December 21, 2010
Britain’s prolific novelist Charles Dickens, 1812 to 1870, spent part of his childhood visiting his father in debtor’s prison, an experience that influenced themes of alienation, ambition and inequality in his work. Economist Alan Blinder, writing for the Wall Street Journal, evokes Dickens, detailing how US government policies promote growing social divides: unemployment concentrated among those...

Brace for Change as the Global Economic Order Crumbles

Jeffrey E. Garten December 13, 2010
Asia increasingly accounts for a greater share of global revenues and financial clout. Yet power in global institutions, like the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank, is weighted toward the United States and other developed economies. Transition is underway in the global economic order. Jeffrey E. Garten, Yale University international trade and finance professor, warns that adjustment...