In The News

Forbes: China Treads Its Way to Global Governance

Shaheli Das February 9, 2017
China is ready to set the terms for global governance as US political leaders show less inclination to support global institutions. “Beijing advocates that the country follows international rules, but these rules were formulated about half a century ago with little participation of China and that global governance norms must be modified with changing times,” explains Shaheli Das for Forbes. “...

PBS Newshour: Backlash to Globalization Could Hurt the Middle Class

Vikram Mansharamani February 9, 2017
The demand for electric power and electric appliances continues to rise as global poverty declines. “To make alternative energies a truly viable source of power production, the world needs a robust, cost-effective means of storing energy…. and battery technology is among the more promising of the options,” explains Vikram Mansharamani for the PBS Newshour. He anticipates lithium to be in demand...

BBC News: Is the US Facing a Constitutional Crisis?

February 8, 2017
After a US judge has blocked a US executive order banning travelers from seven predominately Muslim countries as well as all refugees, President Donald Trump criticized the judge for putting the naton in “peril” and questioned his authority. “The separation of powers is crucial to understanding how the US is governed,” explains BBC News. “The country's constitution established its treasured...

Asia Sentinel: Trouble in the Air

Neeta Lal February 7, 2017
Air quality is so poor in Delhi, the fifth largest metropolitan area in the world, that one official has described the city as a “toxic gas chamber.” Writing for Asia Sentinel, Neeta Lal explains that “The city’s thick layer of smog is no longer merely an inconvenience to residents or a danger to asthmatics.” Instead, the smog is harming health for all residents and economic investments. “A...

Project Syndicate: Brexit in a Brave New World

Daniel Gros February 7, 2017
Trade increases efficiency, reducing costs for all parties. Large economies have advantages with tariffs, and “The advantage of the larger economy is even greater when it comes to non-tariff barriers, which often result from differences in regulations and standards among trading countries,” explains Daniel Gros for Project Syndicate. “In most cases, the smaller country must simply accept the...

MIT Technology Review: Hotter Days Will Drive Global Inequality

David Rotman February 6, 2017
Extreme heat reduces labor productivity and will drive inequality among nations and regions. “The average global income is predicted to be 23 percent less by the end of the century than it would be without climate change,” reports MIT Technology Review on work by researchers from Stanford and University of California at Berkeley. “But the effects of a hotter world will be shared very unevenly,...

The Economist: As America and Russia Talk, Ukraine Fights

February 4, 2017
Conflict in eastern Ukraine was frozen for two years but has “flared up with renewed force” soon after Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, presidents of the United States and Russia, spoke by telephone, reports the Economist. “Following the flare-up, the American ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which monitors the ceasefire, blamed ‘combined Russian-separatist...