Trade & Globalization: All Articles and Books

Here Comes the Second World

Ron Tang — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:42:00 -0400

This article is adapted from Parag Khanna's book The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order.

The term "second world" has fallen out of use. It used to mean countries of the socialist world; today I use the phrase to refer to those countries in eastern Europe and central Asia, Latin America, the middle east and southeast Asia which are both rich and poor, developed and underdeveloped, postmodern and pre-modern, cosmopolitan and tribal -- all at the same time. This is not a temporary state between third world and first, but a permanent condition in which… more

Confessions Of a Sweatshop Inspector

Ron Tang — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:53:00 -0400

I remember one particularly bad factory in China. It produced outdoor tables, parasols, and gazebos, and the place was a mess. Work floors were so crowded with production materials that I could barely make my way from one end to the other. In one area, where metals were being chemically treated, workers squatted at the edge of steaming pools as if contemplating a sudden, final swim. The dormitories were filthy: the hallways were strewn with garbage -- orange peels, tea leaves -- and the only way for anyone to bathe was to fill a bucket with cold water. In a… more

What High Oil Prices Can Do For a Country

Ron Tang — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 08:43:00 -0400

From the outside, Effat College doesn't seem like a bellwether of change. The all-girls school in Jeddah, a port city on the coast of the Red Sea, is rimmed by unscalable high walls and an empty parking lot, resembling the scene of a freshly departed circus in Middle America. In many ways, the college's exterior illustrates conventional misperceptions -- closed, drab, and unwelcoming -- of modern Saudi Arabia. Perhaps the only thing less inviting is the bold, red lettering at the top of the form handed to visitors as they enter the kingdom, which reads: "WARNING: Death to Drug Traffickers."

But… more

Watching Sovereign Wealth

Ron Tang — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

When the adjectives most often used to describe you are "secretive," "opaque" and "mysterious," you've got an image problem. Such is the predicament of sovereign wealth funds, the government-controlled investment vehicles, often in authoritarian states, that have become the bane of Western politicians. Yesterday, the European Commission became the latest body to propose transparency guidelines for these funds.

But the good news for sovereign wealth funds is that increased disclosure and transparency may actually be a win-win for everyone. A little openness can go a long way.

Market participants and regulators would benefit by gaining some insight into potential contagion risks and… more

California's Wimps in D.C.

Ron Tang — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Free trade's benefit to the country as a whole may be open to debate, but there is no doubt that California stands to gain from it. So why are the state's political leaders so squeamish about standing up for free trade in Washington?

California has twin engines of ingenuity -- Hollywood and the Silicon Valley -- and continued trade liberalization is crucial to keep both running. These industries face more daunting market barriers -- the absurdly low number of foreign films allowed in China's cinemas is a good example -- than do traditional industrial manufacturers, which already have benefited from many… more

Waving Goodbye to Hegemony

Ron Tang — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Turn on the TV today, and you could be forgiven for thinking it's 1999. Democrats and Republicans are bickering about where and how to intervene, whether to do it alone or with allies and what kind of world America should lead. Democrats believe they can hit a reset button, and Republicans believe muscular moralism is the way to go. It's as if the first decade of the 21st century didn't happen -- and almost as if history itself doesn't happen. But the distribution of power in the world has fundamentally altered over the two presidential terms of George W. Bush,… more

Look Back in Awe

adminn — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 22:29:00 -0500

Democrats and Republicans are alike in one respect, according to the libertarian writer Brink Lindsey: their shared nostalgia for the 1950s. Except, he says, "Republicans want to go home to the United States of the 1950s, while Democrats want to work there."

Indeed, from television (where Mad Men has faithfully recreated the furnishings, boozy smell, and chronic sexual dishonesty of the New York executive suite circa 1960), to the celebrated 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, to the current political debate, we seem to be awash in 1950s nostalgia. While most of the Republican presidential candidates have life experiences… more

The Centre-Ground's Shift to the Left

adminn — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:42:00 -0500

Whether a Democrat or a Republican is inaugurated in January 2009, the centre of political gravity in the US is well to the left of where it was a decade ago. President George W. Bush's own contribution to the shift has been negligible. It is the result of long-term, tectonic shifts in political and economic ideology that are affecting all developed countries.

In hindsight, despite the re-election of a conservative president, 2004 was the hinge between eras. The definitions of right, left and centre changed dramatically between 1932 and 2004, which can be broken into two periods.

In the first, 1932-1968, the… more

Undebated Challenges

Articles — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:35:00 -0500

The most damaging part of the Bush foreign policy legacy is not the precipitous decline in American power and influence brought about by the disastrous Iraq occupation. It is the way the Administration’s "war on terror" and its neoimperial project in the Middle East have distorted our vision of the world.

They magnify out of all proportion what should at worst be minor threats to our national security and ignore much larger developments, such as the extraordinary economic rise of China and India, which are having a much more profound effect on the American way of life.

Just how distorted our… more

Mission Accomplished

Articles — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:30:00 -0500

Perhaps it's time to add the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to that list of things that, like houseguests and fish, can overstay their welcome. The bank now strays so far from its original remit that it risks spoiling the legacy of its earlier successes. The EBRD should quit while ahead, declare victory and be privatized.

At its pinnacle, the EBRD was a triumph of financial statecraft. Established in 1990 with funding from the U.S., the EU and other governments, it provided financing to companies in postcommunist Central and Eastern Europe at a time when the private sector shunned them.… more

Nowhere -- and No Way -- to Hide

Articles — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:06:00 -0500

Privacy doesn't mean anonymity. Think about that for a bit -- and get used to it.

Or if you don't like it, get a plan. But it had better be a good one.

On Oct. 23, Donald Kerr, deputy director of the Office of National Intelligence, outlined the new order of things: "Too often, privacy has been equated with anonymity; and it's an idea that is deeply rooted in American culture." Well, yes, the Bill of Rights, for instance, includes protections against "search," as well as "seizure." But that was then. As Kerr put it, "In our interconnected and wireless world, anonymity… more

The Missing Innovators

Articles — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 15:52:00 -0500

On the same week last month that the European Union unveiled its new, no-hassle "blue card" program to attract highly skilled migrant workers, the U.S. Senate voted to hike employer fees for H1-B visas to $5,000. H1-Bs allow U.S. employers to bring foreign talent into the American workforce. It was a telling coincidence, demonstrating that as the rest of the world is becoming more welcoming of skilled immigrants who fuel innovation, the United States, mired in its know-nothing Lou Dobbesian nativism, is turning its back on one of its great competitive advantages -- its historic knack for playing the role… more

1 Plan, 1 World, 1 Colossally Foolish Concept

Articles — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:24:00 -0400

The Grand Globalist surveyed the panoramic vista from his lofty office suite. He could see all the places in the world in a moment’s time. And yet the Grand Globalist was not pleased with what he saw.

As he looked down, the Globalist could see people far below, scurrying around like ants, not realizing how tiny and pathetic their little lives were.

Indeed, that was the problem: The ants were all different. They were diverse. Each bunch of ants lived in its own stupid ant heap, which, in the ants’ pathetic manner, they called "countries." And each country had its own idiotic… more

Trade Imbalance

adminn — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 05:04:00 -0400

Trade is controversial; around the world many people believe that trade agreements, even trade per se, undermines particular human rights such as labor rights or access to affordable medicine (the right to health). But trade and trade agreements can also advance human rights, directly or indirectly. In fact, some countries use trade policies to advance specific human rights such as labor rights or property rights.

Nonetheless, policymakers struggle to achieve both goals because:

The global economic environment is increasingly complexHuman rights conditions, priorities and policies change constantly.Policymakers have no mandate to coordinate trade and human rightsMost governments have no… more

Inside Track: The Financialization of Foreign Policy

Articles — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 08:29:00 -0400

Over the first half of 2007, central banks in the world’s emerging economies accumulated over $600 billion of new reserves. That’s double the total reserve position of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) -- an institution whose mission used to include preventing the collapse of these same governments, and whose new managing director recently raised questions about the body’s “relevance and legitimacy.” Over the same period, China, Russia and Japan joined the list of governments establishing “sovereign wealth funds”, whose worldwide assets now approach $3 trillion. The U.S. Treasury, meanwhile, is focusing its attention on the Strategic Economic Dialogue with China,… more

The Problem with GM's UAW Deal

Articles — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:13:00 -0400

In 1946, Peter Drucker’s intimate, multiyear examination of General Motors (GM), Concept of the Corporation, was published. GM hated it.

Drucker’s take -- that the then-wildly-successful automaker might want to reexamine a host of long-standing policies on customer relations, dealer relations, employee relations, and more -- was viewed from inside the corporation as hypercritical. GM’s revered chairman, Alfred Sloan, was so upset about the book that he "simply treated it as if it did not exist," Drucker later recalled, "never mentioning it and never allowing it to be mentioned in his presence."

The United Auto Workers didn’t exactly embrace Drucker’s thinking either.… more

Soccer Versus Futbol

adminn — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 12:44:00 -0400

Renowned metrosexual megastar David Beckham is earning some street cred. When the $250-million man first arrived in Los Angeles last month, he seemed too famous and too fragile to deign to take the pitch at Carson's Home Depot Center.

But that was then; this is now. On Wednesday, he suffered a knee injury when he didn't flinch from a rough collision. The week before, in the "super clasico" matchup between Los Angeles' two teams -- Beckham's Galaxy and Chivas USA -- the Englishman stoically played all 90 minutes despite having played an international match against Germany the day before -- in… more

New Trade Deals Imperil Our Safety

Articles — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:05:00 -0400

If you like America’s immigration policy, you’ll love America’s trade policy. Because the same people are giving you both -- even if they can’t be bothered to worry about the details.

To put it bluntly, in Washington today, globalist theory takes precedence over localist well-being. Or, to put it even more bluntly, the elites in Washington seem to care more about their international deals than about ordinary Americans.

The immediate issues at hand are proposed free trade agreements between the United States and Colombia, Panama, Peru and South Korea. The Bush administration backs all of them; now the question is whether Congress… more

Protecting China Trade, Not Us

Articles — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 12:11:00 -0400

What’s made in China -- death? Is the principle of free trade really more important than the health of our citizens? So far, at least, we know the answer.

Let’s make four points:

First, it’s darn scary to learn that Chinese-manufactured toothpaste on our store shelves could be poisonous. There have been only close calls here, as far as we know -- with the long-term health effects, of course, yet to be determined. But in Panama, more than 100 people are known to have died from toxic cough syrup originating in China.

Other countries, too, have discovered import problems from China, including Canada,… more

Organizing the L.A. Times Pressroom

Articles — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:23:00 -0400

It’s tough to imagine what Gen. Harrison Gray Otis -- the bellicose press baron with the steely gaze and a speaking voice once likened to "that of a game warden roaring at seal poachers" -- would make of his family’s recent decision to sever the last of its ties with the Los Angeles Times.

The 19th-century publisher, were he looking down upon this vale, couldn’t be too happy that his descendants have walked away from the paper he built. At the same time, Otis was a savvy enough businessman that he might at least take some pleasure from the terms… more