Globalization

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July 2008
- Booming China Flexing Its M&A Muscle
  
  newser | New York Times | Jul 15, 08 10:00 AM CDT
  
  Chinese companies are on a buying binge, snapping up $42 billion worth of foreign assets in the first 6 months of 2008. That's a 500% increase over the previous year, and equal to the combined value of takeovers from 2000 to 2006, reports DealBook in the New York Times. And, where Chinese companies once shied away from hostile takeovers, that appears to no longer be the case. More »
- Sorry, Veterans, Vietnam Is Profitable Now
  
  newser | Washington Post | Jul 9, 08 1:44 PM CDT
  
  More expensive Chinese labor has American enterprises heading to Vietnam, moving Harold Meyerson to wonder, in the Washington Post , why 58,000 US soldiers died trying to defend democracy there. "American business, backed by the American government, has realized that the problem with communism wasn't that it was undemocratic but that it was anti-capitalist," Meyerson writes. More »
- Oh Napoleon: Tiny Leaders Rule G8
  
  newser | ABC News | Jul 6, 08 1:47 PM CDT
  
  The leaders at this week's G8 summit are all political big shots, but they're pretty diminutive face-to-face—five don't even make it past 5'6''. Russia's Dmitry Medvedev brings up the short end of the stick at 5'2'', and Canada's Stephen Harper is the only one to pass the 6' mark. But luckily for the G8, reports ABC News, the Napoleon complex is just a myth. More »
June 2008
- Global Econ Puzzle Awaits New President
  
  newser | Financial Times (UK) | Jun 27, 08 10:42 AM CDT
  
  Whether it's John McCain or Barack Obama, the next president will confront a global economic landscape unlike anything his predecessor confronted, write Robert Hormats and Jim O'Neill. In an op-ed for the Financial Times , the two Goldman Sachs executives explain that the new president's greatest challenge will be the rise of emerging economies, whose share of world GDP has doubled since George W. Bush took office. More »
- DreamWorks Near Bollywood Alliance
  
  newser | Wall Street Journal | Jun 18, 08 10:09 AM CDT
  
  Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks venture is closing in on a deal with an Indian media conglomerate that could fund a break from Paramount Pictures, the Wall Street Journal reports. Mumbai-based Reliance, a conglomerate with stakes in telecom, finance, and entertainment looking to expand into Hollywood, could bring as much as $600 million. The Spielberg team's relations with Paramount have grown chilly recently. More »
- US Companies Set Up Shop in Vietnam
  
  newser | New York Times | Jun 18, 08 9:53 AM CDT
  
  Foreign manufacturers invested $83 billion in China last year, keeping it at the top of the list of overseas producers. But a confluence of circumstances—high inflation, changing government policies, and, above all, rising wages—have led corporations to start looking elsewhere in Asia, the New York Times reports. The shift to other parts of Asia, especially Vietnam, reflects a "China-plus-one" strategy, in which multinational corporations diversify their manufacturing operations. More »
- Oil Price Spike Brings Jobs Back to US
  
  newser | Wall Street Journal | Jun 13, 08 11:30 AM CDT
  
  As costs for overseas production and shipping soar, US companies are growing reluctant to outsource manufacturing—and some are even bringing their plants back to America, the Wall Street Journal reports. “In a world of triple-digit oil prices, distance costs money," said an economist. But it’s not just the transport: Raw materials are getting pricier, and workers abroad are calling for more money. More »
May 2008
- US, UK Workers to Create First Trans-Atlantic Union
  
  newser | Wall Street Journal | May 24, 08 10:07 AM CDT
  
  Workers from the US and UK are close to joining forces in what would be the first trans-Atlantic labor union, the Wall Street Journal reports. United Steelworkers is in talks with Britain’s Unite to create a 3-million-member group that would act as a single union in the US, Canada, Britain, and Ireland, fighting for workers’ interests amid multi-national companies. More »
- Who Cares Who We Talk to?
  
  newser | New York Times | May 21, 08 1:42 PM CDT
  
  Though politicians and pundits alike are caught up in which foes the US should or shouldn't be reaching out to, Thomas Friedman, in the New York Times , points out that few world leaders of any stripe are sitting by the phone waiting for our call. Waning American influence and the rise of new powers in the developing world and outside the state system worry Friedman much more. More »
- Small-Town Coffee Purveyor Goes Grande
  
  newser | Barre-Montpelier Times Argus | May 9, 08 9:00 PM CDT
  
  A success story is brewing in tiny-town Vermont, where a coffee roaster is supplying beans to 600 McDonald's restaurants across 50 states and 25 countries. The creator of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Bob Stiller, never imagined such a feat—nor the $121 million in sales last quarter—when he started the business in 1981. "This vision of today was not in his mind," Green Mountain exec Jon Wettstein said. More »
- Asia Needs Funds to Battle Food Crisis
  
  newser | Reuters | May 5, 08 4:40 PM CDT
  
  Asia need funds fast to prevent billions of people from facing severe hunger, says the region's development bank. The bank today appealed for "money and ideas" to stave off poverty in the wake of rice and wheat prices doubling over the past year, reports Reuters. "The global fight against poverty will be won or lost in our region," said the bank's president. More »
- US Should Welcome New World Order
  
  newser | Newsweek | May 5, 08 10:00 AM CDT
  
  The age of American dominance is ending, and Americans should be fine with that, writes Fareed Zakaria in his new book The Post-American World . In an excerpt in Newsweek , Zakaria argues that America’s long-preached globalization gospel has produced a prosperous “post-American” landscape. “It is the rise of the rest—the rest of the world.” More »
- Globalization Gives Pols an Easy Villain
  
  newser | New York Times | May 2, 08 3:50 PM CDT
  
  The candidates can complain all they want about globalization killing American workplaces, David Brooks writes in the New York Times , but job losses “would be happening even if you tore up every free trade deal ever inked.” It's no mystery, he argues: "The chief force reshaping manufacturing is technological change." More »
April 2008
- Another Key Shortage: Fertilizer
  
  newser | New York Times | Apr 30, 08 10:02 AM CDT
  
  One of the less touted factors behind the global food crisis is a shortage in chemical fertilizer, which has helped boost crop yields dramatically and particularly benefited the developing world. But while growing demand is unlikely to be met for many years, the environmental impact of producing and using chemical fertilizers is significant and negative, the New York Times reports. More »
- Bush Derides Pelosi's 'False Populism' in Trade Impasse
  
  newser | New York Times | Apr 22, 08 7:11 PM CDT
  
  Saying the House's top Democrat has been swayed by "voices of false populism," President Bush today ripped Nancy Pelosi for blocking a trade accord with Colombia, the New York Times reports. "it’s bad for our hemisphere to have the United States of America turn its back on a mutual friend like Colombia," Bush said in an appearance with the leaders of Canada and Mexico. More »
- Booming India Sees 'Brain Gain'
  
  newser | Guardian (UK) | Apr 20, 08 5:04 PM CDT
  
  India's educated are no longer rushing to the West for big bucks and a better lifestyle, the Guardian reports. More university grads are refusing to emigrate and many expats are returning home—a trend experts are dubbing "brain gain." One Indian, formerly in London, said he would "read about what was happening in India and I'd ask myself: What am I doing here? It was an obvious choice to return." More »
- Europe Backtracks on Biofuels
  
  newser | Guardian (UK) | Apr 19, 08 2:42 PM CDT
  
  The European commission is backing off a proposed 10% biofuels quota as scientists warn that the alternative fuels actually hurt the environment, the Guardian reports. “This is all very sensitive and fast-moving,” said a commission official. “There is now a lot of new evidence on biofuels, and the commission has become a prisoner of this process.” More »
- Europeans Cite China as Top Stability Threat
  
  newser | Financial Times (UK) | Apr 15, 08 1:00 PM CDT
  
  Europeans see China as the biggest threat to world stability, a new poll says. In the wake of the Tibet crackdown, 35% of Europeans labeled China a bigger threat than any other state, reports the Financial Times . “The story of the last five years has been about economic opportunities," said one expert. "The story of the last six months has been about China as a threat in Darfur and in Tibet." More »
- Surging Energy Prices Drive Global Inflation
  
  newser | Wall Street Journal | Apr 10, 08 12:00 PM CDT
  
  Inflation in Europe and the US is projected to reach its highest point since 1995, the Wall Street Journal reports, with food prices up 83% in three years and rising energy and transportation costs. The International Monetary Fund predicts the US and Europe will see inflation of 2.6% this year, with consumer prices in developing countries rising 7.4%. More »
- Pelosi, Dems Hijack Colombia Free-Trade Deal
  
  newser | New York Times | Apr 9, 08 6:58 PM CDT
  
  Congressional Democrats thumbed their noses today at Bush's renewed efforts to pass a free-trade pact with Colombia. Bush sent the bill over Monday, mandating Congress to vote yea or nay within 90 days. Or so he thought. Nancy Pelosi is changing the House rules and won't allow a vote until the White House attends to more pressing domestic issues, the New York Times reports. More »