In The News

Indian IT Industry Roots for Barack Obama

Bhargavi Kerur July 1, 2008
Presidential candidate Barack Obama points to the need to fix the American economy and proposes expanding overseas opportunities by outsourcing jobs as a possible solution for a flailing economy. Business is a two-way street, this article from the Daily News & Analysis in India suggests, and nations that outsource work can benefit as much as the nations that receive outsourced work. Plenty of...

Obama Goes Soft on Free Trade

John Nichols June 24, 2008
American workers blame much of their recent economic hardships on free-trade agreements, focusing their enmity on the North American Free Trade Agreement in particular. Barack Obama has sought to harness this enmity in the past, criticizing NAFTA in an effort to court working-class voters during the primary battle with Hillary Clinton. Now that he has secured the Democratic presidential...

Can the US Bring Jobs Back from China?

Pete Engardio June 23, 2008
Despite a decline in the dollar and a spike in oil prices, finding a US manufacturer eager to develop prototypes for new products or compete for contracts is not easy. Not only does the US fail to compete in industries that require ample cheap labor, it also struggles to compete in terms of innovation. “American factories and supplier networks in many industries have withered in the era of...

This Global Show Must Go On

Tyler Cowen June 12, 2008
Living standards have improved immensely throughout the world since 1990, largely due to open trade and globalization. But ordinary observers and intellectuals increasingly express concern about the speed of globalization and suggest that applying some controls could ease climbing commodity prices and inflation. Slowing the global economy would be a challenge, argues economist Tyler Cowen for...

Globalization Is Good

Peter Mandelson June 11, 2008
The US has been a major driver behind globalization of trade, and either Barack Obama or John McCain will preside over the next phase. Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner lays out the challenges for the next US president and offers advice: The global economy is no longer based on a powerful center, inequality within a society matters as much as inequality between countries, and trade...

China and Wal-Mart: The Champions of Equality

Christian Broda June 5, 2008
Workers worry about being on the losing side of trade and losing jobs. But inflation and higher prices can also quickly erode wealth. “National statistics ignore the fact that inflation affects people in different income groups unevenly because the rich and poor consume different baskets of goods,” writes Christian Broda for the Financial Times. In the US, where unemployment stands at about 5...

Falling Behind: Globalization and Its Discontents

Henry A. Kissinger June 3, 2008
An emerging global economy and accompanying systems have prompted some countries to cling to power and display nationalistic tendencies. “The basic premise of globalization is that competition will sort out the most efficient, a process that, by definition, involves winners and losers,” writes Henry Kissinger in an opinion essay for the International Herald Tribune. Even occasional losers are...