In The News

Bailing Out Economies

Nayan Chanda August 1, 2008
Capital is mobile, seeking profit, and it moves to countries where the returns are higher, with no regard for immobile workers, explains Nayan Chanda in his column for Businessworld. Flush with cash, foreign investors in search of safe havens invested in bonds issued by US government-sponsored mortgage lenders, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. With the bonds not as safe as advertised, the US...

Parallel Universe

Nayan Chanda July 22, 2008
At the Tallberg Forum in late June, it became apparent that politicians and scientists are often on different wavelengths. Scientists accept with much certainty that the Arctic ice sheet is melting and that temperatures are rising. Others worry about the increasing amounts of fossil fuels being emitted into the atmosphere. Scientists recognize that the current situation will lead to droughts,...

Chinese Checkers

Nayan Chanda July 7, 2008
Producer and consumer countries can’t expect to escape unscathed if economic problems strike one or the other as a maze of complicated challenges confront the global economy: The subprime mortgage crisis battered global banks; businesses have trouble finding credit; consumer spending has slowed; and energy prices are on the rise. Giant sovereign wealth funds based in Asia and the Middle East came...

Distance Does Matter

Nayan Chanda June 10, 2008
As fuel and transportation costs rise, regional networks are likely to become more essential. High transport costs will slow international trade for certain products, especially those with low value-to-freight ratios, such as apparel or industrial machinery. Producers will pass increased costs on to the consumer, but the most significant changes may emerge in the supply-chain production system...

Supply Chinks

Nayan Chanda June 3, 2008
Even though the global supply chain has grown tremendously, the quality of products produced in other parts of the world has diminished. In fact, labels have become more misleading. A label stating that the product is “Made in China” is not necessarily true. According to Nayan Chanda, it is actually "made in the world." And the origin of some products or ingredients is never truly...

Food for Thought

Nayan Chanda May 8, 2008
While trying to save the environment, businesses try new public relation campaigns, which may end up hurting the world’s poor. The British supermarket giant Tesco has resorted to putting labels on imported foods that indicate foreign origin and warn consumers that the product contributes to global warming. The company also adopted a "carbon labeling" system which shows the amount of...

Outpacing Resources

Nayan Chanda April 15, 2008
In 1798, economist Thomas Malthus predicted that population growth could lead to declining resources and catastrophe. The global population was then less than a billion, and critics dismissed his concerns. Now, the human population has grown more than sixfold, and is estimated to reach 9 billion in less than 50 years. Shortages of basic resources, including oil, food and water are not uncommon in...