In The News

Western Profits Wilt on China's Surging Wages

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard August 31, 2010
As wages rise in China, companies of the West recognize that they cannot pass higher costs of manufacturing electronics or clothing onto their consumers who hold their purses tightly, amidst worries about the recession. “Reliance on Chinese plants is suddenly proving double-edged,” observes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard for the Telegraph. Some companies plan for reduced profits or shifting production...

Joys and Pains of a Global Paradigm Shift

Michael Casey August 27, 2010
In a world with immense wage inequality, two world views emerge, explains Michael Casey for the Wall Street Journal. Attitudes are relative, depending on whether one’s circumstances are improving or declining. Global economic power is in an ongoing shift from high-wage to low-wage nations, he argues, and if indeed deflation is underway, that represents additional hardship for the high-wage...

The Two-Tier Internet: Fighting for Control of the Web's Future

Frank Dohmen, Martin U. Müller, Hilmar Schmundt August 27, 2010
Profit margins have shrunk for internet providers. Attracted by low prices and rapid growth, consumers rely on cloud computing, which uses central servers for storage of treasured documents – yet few understand internet technology or long-term maintenance needs. A recent release from Google and Verizon recommended regulations, calling “for governments to leave it up to the market to determine...

Time to Sort Out the Long Overdue Doha Round

Hugh Corbet August 26, 2010
Expanding trade has enriched the world, and completing the Doha Round of negotiations could deliver nations – both rich and poor – from stagnation. The round of World Trade Organization negotiations began in 2001 as an effort to ease poverty by reducing trade barriers. But wealthy nations resist ending protections for their agricultural industries. “By offering to reduce agricultural subsidies...

The World Economy Needs Balancing, But How?

David Dapice August 3, 2010
Many nations seek economic relief by promoting exports. But a trade system built on all exports and no imports is an impossible feat to achieve. To lift economies from recession's mire, nations pursue, among other things, domestic rebalancing by curtailing unsustainable, wasteful spending and the borrowing that triggered the global downturn. On the other hand, the target markets for much of...

Speak Softly and Carry a Blank Cheque

July 22, 2010
Thanks to strong global demand for its agribusiness and industrial commodities, Brazil is one of the world's largest emerging markets and one of the rising BRIC four – along with Russia, India and China. Goldman Sachs predicts the combined economies of the four will exceed the G-7 total by 2032. With such economic power, Brazil extends several billion in development aid to other countries,...

Europe’s Social Burden

Nayan Chanda July 21, 2010
For more than four decades, Europe’s system of taxation provided its citizens with job security, education, health and retirement benefits that were envied around the globe. But global recession, an aging population and tax avoidance have disrupted the system, explains YaleGlobal editor Nayan Chanda in his regular column for Businessworld. Before the crisis struck, too many politicians tried to...