In The News

Consumer Giants Court Muslims with Halal Face Creams, Shampoos

Martinne Geller and Randy Fabi September 15, 2016
Not waiting for a new law to take effect, multinational corporations such as L’Oreal and Unilever are embracing a mandate on halal labeling. “The law, the first of its kind, requires food to be labeled halal or not in 2017, followed by toiletries in 2018 and medicines in 2019,” explain Martinne Geller and Randy Fabi for Reuters. Such products, free of pork and alcohol, are made at production...

Rise of Right-Wing Populism: A Manifesto for the Moderate Left

Pranab Bardhan September 15, 2016
Populists take advantage of the real pain of inequality and the economic disruptions of new technology and globalization. Sympathetic and angry, they promise quick fixes and resist compromise. Such “demagogues thrive when the institutions of democracy are hollowed out,” argues economist Pranab Bardhan, and he offers recommendations for citizens whose politics lean left of center. Trade unions...

Question Mark Over TPP

Nayan Chanda September 14, 2016
The outlook for the Tans-Pacific Partnership appears bleak with only a few months remaining for the Obama administration. Trade has been vilified in the US presidential campaign. “Given the lofty rhetoric and expectations surrounding the 12-nation trade pact, its increasingly perilous path to fruition is already causing damage to US standing in Asia and opening the door further for China’s...

US Economy: Citizenship for Sale

Kara Scannell September 14, 2016
US cities like Miami are using the EB-5 visa to attract wealthy investors. The program was designed to promote development in areas of need, but Kara Scannell of the Financial Times describes luxury office towers, hotels and retail complexes. “For a $500,000 investment in a project that creates at least 10 jobs in a high-unemployment area, a foreign national can eventually receive a green card...

Uzbekistan Juggles Ties With Russia, China, Other Great Powers

Dilip Hiro September 13, 2016
Uzbekistan in Central Asia commands enormous attention from great powers, and Islam Abduganievich Karimov was adept at exploiting such interest. His death will do little to change the country’s manipulative or authoritarian ways, suggests author Dilip Hiro: “Karimov succeeded in getting the better of all three world powers, offering them what each needed at a particular time: local oil and gas...

Study: Climate Change in East Asia Caused by China’s Air Pollution

Viola Zhou September 13, 2016
Manufacturers reduced costs by relocating factories to China where wages were low and regulations few. Researchers from China, Britain and the United States published a study in Nature Geoscience that suggests China’s role in producing goods for the West is contributing to a changing climate for East Asia. New climate patterns are linked to factory and export activities, as well as a reliance on...

Africa’s Economic Potential Hit Hard by Gender Inequality

Amy Copley September 12, 2016
A recent United Nations Development Project report shows how increased gender equality in Africa would create economic benefits for the region as a whole – for both men and women. Gender disparities in educational and economic opportunities and health care are persistent. The report suggests that reduced GDP represents billions of dollars of loss, with $104.75 billion in 2014 alone, as a result...