In The News

Medicine Shortages? South China Morning Post

Simone McCarthy March 4, 2020
China has ordered closures of businesses and schools to prevent the spread of COVID-19. “As the world’s top producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients, … China’s disrupted factory output has the potential to upset global supply chains, and regulators have been watching with concern,” reports Simone McCarthy for South China Morning Post. The US Food and Drug Administration named 20 drugs with...

Declining Fortunes of the Young: IMFBlog

Era Dabla-Norris , Carlo Pizzinelli and Jay Rappaport March 3, 2020
A key indicator of economic success for families is that children do as well as their parents. Such assumptions are less sure. “Despite being more educated than their parents, millennials – those born between 1980 and 2000 – may have less job stability during their working life,” explains a team for the IMFBlog. Entering and remaining in the middle class, fast-changing job requirements, intense...

Globalization Spreads Contagion of All Kinds: FT

Ian Goldin March 3, 2020
The swift spread of COVID-19 followed by market declines alarms citizens and policymakers. “As trade, finance, travel, cyber and other networks grow in scale and interact, they become more complex and unstable,” writes Oxford University professor Ian Goldin for Financial Times. “The super-spreaders of the goods of globalisation, such as major airport hubs, are also super-spreaders of the bads.”...

Denmark the New “American Dream”? PIIE

Jacob Funk Kirkegaard March 2, 2020
Denmark may represent a new version of the American dream, as voters and Democratic candidates in the US presidential race seek secure benefits, especially affordable health care. An OECD study suggests that low-income families in Denmark, due to reduced inequality, can enter the middle class in two generations whereas low-income US families require five generations. Such reduced inequality comes...

Brands Accused of Using Forced Chinese Labor: AFP

March 2, 2020
Human rights advocates have long criticized China for detaining about 1 million Uighurs for reeducation. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute reports that China has transferred about 80,000 Uighurs to factories around the country behind 80 global brands including Apple, BMW, Gap, Huawei, Nike, Mercedes-Benz, Samsung and Sony. “Companies using forced Uighur labour in their supply chains could...

Georgia Seeks Help Against Russia: Financial Times

Michael Peel and Henry Foy March 1, 2020
Before its 2014 takeover of Crimea in Ukraine, Russia intervened in Georgia, and that interference continues today. Russia is increasing influence around Black Sea area with a series of military actions and investments, pushing Georgia to seek urgent support from Western countries. Since Russia occupied about 20 percent of its territory in 2008, Georgia has lived in the shadows. Recently, the...

Trump’s Visit in India: CNN

Kevin Liptak February 29, 2020
US President Donald Trump concluded a two-day visit in India, receiving an impressive welcome but leaving the country without concrete announcements on trade or security. Despite the close friendship between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the president said that disagreements on tariffs and deficits wouldn’t be resolved shortly. Hours before Trump landed in India, riots over...