In The News

Bye, Bye, Bananas

Roberto A. Ferdman December 25, 2015
The popular Cavendish banana, representing 99 percent of all export bananas, is under threat. It’s not the first time export bananas have succumbed to a disease, explains Roberto A. Ferdman, after a fungus spread from Australia to South America and destroyed the previous top export banana, Gros Michael. A new variation of the fungus, Tropical Race 4, emerged in Southeast Asia 50 years ago and...

Tax Can End Africa’s Aid Dependency

Benjamin Fox December 24, 2015
Companies seek to maximize profits by reducing tax payments, relocating if necessary. Tax avoidance and illegal financial flows cost Africa $50 billion per year, suggests one report. “Legislation in Europe and North America is now in force requiring extractive sector firms to publish country-by-country reports of all payments they make to governments, a system that is gradually being expanded to...

Rethinking North Korean Missile Capabilities

Nah Liang Tuang December 23, 2015
North Korea conducted a flight test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile from a floating barge in November. “[E]ven as anti-DPRK watchers might feel a sense of schadenfreude when Pyongyang’s missile development team stumbles and falls, or even snigger at the lackluster qualities of their missiles, gloating is not only premature but ill-advised,” warns Nah Liang Tuang for the Diplomat. He...

The 5 Key Trends in Globalization That Are Changing the US and the World

Edward Goldberg December 23, 2015
Events in one country or one industry can have repercussions that spread throughout the world. Edward Goldberg, a professor who teaches about globalization, identifies five trends for the Huffington Post: China’s economy is slowing, and the government will likely adjust, eliminating inefficient state-owned companies and accepting citizens’ need to adapt to rising unemployment through...

Number of Workers per Retiree Declines Worldwide

Joseph Chamie December 22, 2015
Most governments must juggle budgets and confront the fact that the world has fewer people of working age to support the swelling ranks of the elderly. Joseph Chamie, a demographer, analyzes the Potential Support Ratio, or PSR, and suggests the statistic could reveal more about the overall health of an economy than GDP or other common indicators. “The PSR has weighty implications for governments...

2016: Time for Energy to Reinvent Itself?

Tara Schmidt December 22, 2015
The US Energy Information Administration estimates that renewable energies represent more than 10 percent of world’s marketed energy consumption. A technological breakthrough could make renewables like solar or wind more competitive, suggests Tara Schmidt, Global Trends Research manager, in an essay for Forbes. “While renewables continue to grow, the fossil fuel industry is facing more...

Trade Talks Lead to “Death of Doha and Birth of New WTO”

Shawn Donnan December 21, 2015
Members of the World Trade Organization committed to a global ban on agriculture export subsidies, with some exceptions. The WTO also signaled a move toward incremental changes as member states did not reach consensus on reaffirming the Doha round – a broad attempt underway since 2001 to reduce trade barriers and poverty for the world’s poorest nations. Shawn Donnan, writing for Financial Times...