In The News

Economic Ramifications of Remittances-for-Border Wall Proposal

Susanna Kim April 5, 2016
A US presidential candidate has proposed blocking workers from sending remittances to their families and canceling visas to force Mexico to build a wall along the shared border. Policy analysts quickly responded that a plan to block such money transfers would harm both economies and may violate laws. Aaron Klein, Brookings Institution fellow, in a report by Susanna Kim for ABC News, explained...

Debunking America’s Populist Narrative

J. Bradford DeLong April 5, 2016
As US voters worry stagnant wages, the availability of good jobs, and the nation’s ability to compete, economist J. Bradford DeLong suggests that candidates and voters may be going after the wrong targets. “The reason that incomes have stagnated is that American politicians have failed to implement policies to manage globalization’s effects,” he writes for Project Syndicate. US candidates have...

Nafta May Have Saved Many Autoworkers’ Jobs

Eduardo Porter March 30, 2016
The North American Free Trade Agreement, in effect for more than two decades, likely saved the US auto industry. “Even in the narrowest sense – to protect jobs in car assembly plants – a wall of tariffs against America’s southern neighbor would probably do more harm than good,” suggests Eduardo Porter for the New York Times based on research by Gordon Hanson, an economist at the University of...

Choices by US Voters Will Influence the World

Bruce Stokes March 17, 2016
The US primary season has slowly winnowed down the field of presidential candidates. “To date, the campaign debate has been dominated by multiple themes that could ultimately impact people outside the United States – trade, immigration and terrorism, to name just a few,” explains Bruce Stokes, director of global economic attitudes at the Pew Research Center. Hillary Clinton, former US secretary...

Donald Trump, Viktor Orban and the West’s Great Walls

Gideon Rachman March 4, 2016
Fear encourages isolation, and in the course of a few decades, Republican politicians in the United States have shifted from demanding that East Germany tear down the Berlin wall to demanding a massive wall along the US border with Mexico. Europe, too, is adding barriers to block refugees fleeing war in the Middle East. “The journey from Reagan to Trump – from tearing down walls to putting them...

Call for US Ban on Muslims and Business Deals: IBT

Sarah Berger and David Sirota December 9, 2015
Bans of any sort are not good for business, perhaps especially so when a leading Republican presidential candidate calls for a blanket travel ban for Muslims seeking to enter the United States. One out of seven people in the world are Muslim, and simply uttering the broad and unworkable proposal could disrupt investment plans for Donald Trump’s business. “His company's on-the-ground dealings...

In US, Every Four Years, Much Ado Over China

Edward Gresser February 15, 2012
Railing against China’s trade policies has long been campaign fodder in US elections, and a visit this week by China’s presumptive incoming president could turn up the volume. It’s an old pattern, observes trade expert Edward Gresser. The party out of power may rail against unfair trade practices – but once in office, US presidents quickly discover that campaign promises on China are tough to...