In The News

US Leapfrogs Sluggish EU on Financial Reform

Wolfgang Reuter July 20, 2010
The US approved a financial reform law that could nudge the rest of the world, especially Europe, into preventing another financial meltdown. In an interconnected system, fast action on regulating complex securities and speculation can set global patterns into play, as noted by Wolfgang Reuter: “Americans have established a benchmark. European banks that do business in the United States will now...

Chinese Rating Agency Strips Western Nations of AAA Status

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard July 13, 2010
Credit agencies assign ratings based on the risk of timely payments, and some US agencies have been faulted for underestimating the risk of major Western corporations. Now, China’s Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. demonstrate wariness about debt held by developed nations as well as how western credit agencies like Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s or Fitch evaluate that debt. Dagong emphasizes “...

Germany's Export Boom Has Trade Partners Stewing

Armin Mahler, Christian Reiermann, Wolfgang Reuter, Janko Tietz June 30, 2010
Fortunes turn quickly, and the experience of German manufacturers shows that some firms emerge from recession with renewed strength. But global trade partners that rely on deficit spending claim that German prosperity comes at others’ expense, as suggests this Spiegel Online article. Critics complain that a weak euro, German wage stability and failure to stimulate domestic demand decrease the...

African Migrant Workers Find Slim Pickings in Strawberry Fields of Southern Spain

Jean-Jacques Bozonnet June 28, 2010
In Spain, migrant men called “ghosts,” live in hidden plywood shacks adjoining berry fields, and wait for the next season’s harvest. But weather and laws have disrupted the plans of many who travel from Africa and Eastern Europe seeking work on berry farms. In 2008, Spain aimed to reduce immigration by reducing the number of temporary work permits for harvests. The country’s unemployment rate...

Growing Challenges of Energy and Environment – Part I

Susan Froetschel June 22, 2010
Emerging economies have joined developed nations in the wild scramble for energy, all taking greater risks in drilling for oil and gas supplies while largely shrugging about effects on climate, the environment or public health. Nations and corporations go to great lengths to explore and drill, but repairs are not so easy, as seen with a broken well gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico since April...

Globalization of Energy Demand

June 18, 2010
In an interview with Nayan Chanda, Editor of YaleGlobal Online, Daniel Yergin, one of the world’s leading experts on energy, discusses the future of dependence on oil and a push towards efficiency. He also talks about the “globalization of demand”, in which he states that the success of globalization, notably demonstrated by rapidly rising incomes in, for example, China and India, is reflected in...

As Growth in US Slows, Wal-Mart Puts More Emphasis on Foreign Stores

Ylan Q. Mui June 10, 2010
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, pursues ambitious foreign expansion to make up for lagging sales in the United States. While no single country could replace the US in terms of consumer power, developing nations are poised for economic growth. Wal-Mart caters to newly-empowered consumers in emerging economies, a business model much like the firm’s “early strategy of building stores in a...