Trade & Globalization: The Latest From New America

Do Sovereign Wealth Funds Make the U.S. Economy Stronger or Pose National Security Risks?

Economic Growth — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:00:00 -0500

By way of introduction, I spent most of the last seventeen years working as an investment banker and private equity investor based primarily in London, England. This experience, I believe, gives me a somewhat different perspective on Sovereign Wealth Funds and the role that they play in today’s international capital markets. Currently, I co-direct the Global Strategic Finance Initiative at the New America Foundation. The New America Foundation is a non-profit, post-partisan public policy institute in Washington D.C.

Over the past several months, few issues in international finance have generated as much discussion and comment as have Sovereign Wealth Funds. I commend you and your colleagues for the informed and balanced views… more

Back to Basics: A Pro-Growth Public Investment Strategy

Economic Growth — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:32:00 -0500

For more than a decade, rising asset prices have driven the economy, benefiting the wealthy but doing relatively little to improve either the economic status of the majority of Americans or the country’s overall competitiveness. Rising stock and housing prices created staggering short-term increases in wealth for some, but did little to bolster the nation’s preeminence in technology, industry, or agriculture.

In order to retool the economy and generate balanced, robust job growth, the government should focus on rebuilding and enhancing the nation’s energy, transportation, and communications infrastructure. Judicious investment in renewing and creating critical public goods… more

Foreign Investment and Sovereign Wealth Funds

Economic Growth — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:02:00 -0400

The amount of money now held by governments around the world both in reserves and through sovereign wealth funds (“SWFs”) represents the largest concentration of investment capital the world has ever known. Their sheer size and expected rate of growth raise important issues regarding both the origin of this wealth and how it is to be invested. The origin of these funds rests on two main factors: the global imbalances between debtor nations (like the U.S.) and surplus nations (like China), and the rise of state-owned commodity (oil) funds. As for their uses, these countries have built up sums… more

No Worker Left Behind

Workforce and Family — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 07:00:00 -0400

Why aren’t Republican presidential candidates talking more about job training?

Wherever they go on the campaign trail, candidates are asked about off-shoring, layoffs, and wages. Despite the strong U.S. economy and near full employment, middle class anxiety is real.

Hardly a day goes by that some Democratic candidate doesn’t speak about the struggles of the middle class family in the age of globalization.Democrats campaigned last November on responding to working family angst through a minimum wage increase. Republicans often respond that they would help at-risk workers through job skills, yet they lack specifics.

If they believe skills are the answer, it’s… more

Realizing America's Economic Potential

adminn — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 21:37:00 -0500

Over the past decade and half, two pivotal developments have come together to create the conditions for what could be a new golden era of faster economic growth and rising prosperity. One development involves the technological advancements and other changes associated with the new economy, which have substantially increased U.S. and world productivity growth. The bursting of the tech bubble in 2000 may have put an end to the hype surrounding the new economy. But it did not undo the three productivity-enhancing revolutions of the new economy -- the information technology revolution, the revolution in business and finance, and the… more

America's Promise in A New Century

adminn — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

FROM: Karen Kornbluh SUBJECT: America's Promise in A New Century DATE: August 6, 2004

Americans are concerned as they have not been since 1992 about the future of their way of life in a global economy. They sense that their kids may be part of the first generation that does worse than its parents and they don't understand how this can be so when they are "working hard and playing by the rules."

… more

Sustainable Enterprise

Economic Growth — Fri, 28 Feb 2003 00:00:00 -0500

The fundamental challenge for human institutions in the 21st century is to create and maintain a sustainable combination of economic, social, and natural environmental conditions in an increasingly global and commercial civilization.

This challenge is not now being met. The world economy so far is failing to meet even the basic needs of a large fraction of the human population, or to protect its natural resources and the ecosystems that produce them, even as it creates unprecedented wealth and amenities for a few. The reasons for these failures lie in both economic and political institutions.

An emerging… more

The Role of Regulation in Mitigating the Impact of International Capital Flows on the Environment

adminn — Wed, 23 Oct 2002 00:00:00 -0400

The large scale movement of capital in the form of financial flows and foreign direct investment is a relatively recent phenomenon despite the fact that international trade has been an important part of commerce throughout the industrial era. Such flows have constituted a major and perhaps defining part of the process of globalization over the past two decades. At the same time, the environmental problems created by industrialization have also grown to have global range, particularly as they are replicated around the world, largely as a result of international capital and technology flows. What were once local problems of resource… more

International Financial Institutions, Environmental Standards and Foreign Direct Investment

Economic Growth — Tue, 15 Oct 2002 00:00:00 -0400

The ongoing debate over the environmental impacts of private foreign direct investment (FDI) has focused primarily on the role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in implementing diverse standards in countries at varying levels of social, economic and political development. Since the international debt crisis of the late 1980s foreign investment flows have become increasingly important, financing current account deficits as well as sustaining economic development. The flow of FDI to developing countries and emerging markets now exceeds official development assistance (ODA) by a factor of five, (Jeucken p. 50) peaking at $220 billion in 1999. Therefore, the environmental impacts of FDI… more

Untangling the Knots of Protectionism

Economic Growth — Sun, 01 Sep 2002 00:00:00 -0400

In the months leading up to the votes on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), President Bush had to buy off powerful domestic constituencies with tariffs on steel and, more recently, increased subsidies for agriculture. Now that he has TPA, the President has wisely reversed course and proposed a far-reaching plan to use the Doha round of trade talks to eliminate the majority of world-government support for agricultural products by 2010. The agricultural proposal, in conjunction with TPA, will hopefully enable the administration to undo years of European Union and U.S. protectionist policy. This will provide benefits to taxpayers, consumers, and… more

Making Markets Pay for Stewardship

Economic Growth — Sun, 10 Feb 2002 00:00:00 -0500

Executive Summary

Some of the most promising ways to bring about rural poverty alleviation and conservation around the world involve innovative ways to increase the control that the rural poor can exercise over their natural resource base and to pay them for their sustainable stewardship of environmental functions and services. These approaches can make use of market instruments through innovative ways of valuing environmental goods and services, establishing … more

Stopping the Giveaway of Canada's Forests

Economic Growth — Sun, 01 Oct 2000 00:00:00 -0400

Canadian provincial governments have a long-standing policy of subsidizing their lumber mills, to the detriment of the U.S. lumber industry, U.S. landowners and the environment. Recently, a coalition of Canadian lumber companies, some lumber consumers, and others have aimed to change the longstanding U.S. policy of combating those subsidies. Under the veil of protecting consumers, this group aims to terminate the current U.S.- Canada agreement, which contains the damage from Canada’s forestry regime, and ensure that no action is taken to offset the subsidies. With the U.S.-Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA) due to expire in March of 2001, a spirited… more

Economic Development, Accelerated Tariff Liberalization & The Environment

Economic Growth — Mon, 01 Nov 1999 04:00:00 -0500

Despite claims to the contrary, evidence points to the fact that economic development is ultimately beneficial to the environment. The issues were first officially linked in the public's mind with the publication of Our Common Future (the Brundtland Report) in 1987, which provided much of the intellectual framework for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development's 1992 "Earth Summit" in Rio De Janeiro.

In the five years since the publication of the Brundtland Report, economists have consistently found that:

At the national level, rising incomes lead to improved access to basic sanitation, easing environmental pressures; Evidence indicates that as… more

Taiwan in the WTO

Economic Growth — Mon, 01 Nov 1999 00:00:00 -0500

The 1990s have been a time of change and achievement for Taiwan (a.k.a. the Republic of China). Politically, Taiwan has undergone a dramatic transition from an authoritarian government to a true democracy. On the economic front, Taiwan has continued to grow and prosper. With a 258 billion dollar economy, Taiwan has established itself as the world’s twelfth largest trading power. Taiwan has a multi-billion dollar annual trading relationship with the United States, Japan, Germany, Korea, France and a number of other countries. Taiwan is a producer of advanced manufactured products from semiconductors to computers to steel.

Taiwan has also tried… more