In The News

Challenges for a Squabbling Europe – Part I

Katinka Barysch September 22, 2010
Even after the devastation of the Second World War, bitterly fought by Europeans, the continent united in rebuilding its economy. Led by Germany and France, Europe steadily embarked on a series of agreements that gradually pooled energy and economic resources, embraced trade, reduced border controls and developed a common currency. Now, as internal challenges combine with external competition,...

Australia Gets Money, China Gets Australia

Malcolm Knox September 20, 2010
Chinese investment and trade in Australia have grown rapidly. Australian metals and fuels flow to China to help power industrial growth. The scale involved – the costs, the tons moved each day – buoys the Australian economy during a time of global recession. Yet while most Australians deem China’s role as positive, a majority also worries about an over-reliance on such investment. While Australia...

Steps Out of the Global Development Crisis

Jens Martens September 20, 2010
As world leaders gather in New York to review the progress of the Millennium Development Goals set a decade ago, the enormity of the task ahead is clear. As the economic crisis spread across the globe, the government quickly adopted stimulus packages to stave off collapse. The fixes were temporary, though, failing to address immense structural challenges of trade imbalances, wage inequality and...

Chinese Remake the “Made in Italy” Fashion Label

Rachel Donadio September 16, 2010
An influx of Chinese to Prato transformed the Italian city into a center of low-end garment manufacturing. Trading in on the cachet of “Made in Italy,” Chinese firms increasingly connect to global production chains, quickly and cheaply meeting changing tastes, creating the “fast fashion” now so popular in Europe. Throughout Prato, new signs and specialty stores cater to the immigrants. Organized...

IMF Chief: Crisis Not Over Until Jobs Come Back

Bjoern H. Amland September 16, 2010
Global unemployment rates continue to climb – and the danger of global economic crisis is not past until jobs return, warns Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Only through cooperation can the IMF and the International Labor Oganization “steer globalization in the right direction,” maintains Juan Somavia, director-general for the ILO. Unsustainable...

The Presidency, Chained to the World

Matt Bai September 14, 2010
The US has plenty of problems at home, including high unemployment, a deteriorating infrastructure and a voter base polarized over basics like health care, financial regulation and energy needs. But pressing crises from all parts of the globe repeatedly demand attention and take priority. “[P]owerlessness in the face of economic free fall has emerged as a hallmark of the modern presidency,”...

Changing Paradigms

Nayan Chanda September 13, 2010
Enduring a mortgage crisis followed by global recession and an ongoing credit crunch, Western nations extended emergency funding to major banks and also tightened regulations to prevent future crises. Now those same banks are expanding, even relocating operations to Asia’s substantial markets, offering rapid growth and business development. “The fact that one of America’s largest banks and one...