The U.S. ‘COMPETES’ with China — At What Cost?
The COMPETES Act, which ramps up spending to raise the stakes with China, puts Washington’s warped priorities on display.
Building a Post-Extractivist Future for Latin America
The region faces a choice between top-down “Green growth” and bottom-up efforts to transform economies.
What Putin Wants
The Russian leader is focused on his legacy, which means that economic sanctions don’t concern him.
Suicide Truckers
The “Freedom Convoy” in Canada wants to spread its anti-government, antisocial, and ultimately self-defeating messages far and wide.
China’s Missing Middle Class
Two parallel narratives surround globalization and the trade imbalance between China and the United States. One side moans that competition with China has squeezed traditional U.S. manufacturing jobs and caused the middle class to disappear. The other side declares that a new Chinese middle class is riding the wave of China’s inexorable economic boom. A particularly hyperbolic headline in Forbes, for example, proclaimed the rise of China’s middle class to be “The Biggest Story of Our Time.”
Arrest of Mexican General for Cartel Connections May Be Purely Political
Not only are the charges old, but he supports President Felipe Calderon’s opposition.
Supporting MEK a Lose-Lose Proposition for Israel
Removing the Mujahedin-e Khalq from the U.S. Department Terrorism list doesn’t bring the Iranian scientists it killed back to life.
Asia’s Mad Arms Race
Asia is currently in the middle of an unprecedented arms race that is not only sharpening tensions in the region but also competing with efforts by Asian countries to address poverty and growing economic disparity. The gap between rich and poor—calculated by the Gini coefficient that measures inequality—has increased from 39 percent to 46 percent in China, India, and Indonesia. Although affluent households continue to garner larger and larger portions of the economic pie, “Children born to poor families can be 10 times more likely to die in infancy” than those from wealthy families, according to Changyong Rhee, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank.
Scram!
Get out of town. Go on, scram! That’s what a graduation ceremony is all about: the big boot. Thanks for those thousands of dollars, here’s a receipt in the form of a diploma, and now hurry up and make room for the next class. Oh, and don’t forget to write: checks that is, once you’ve somehow paid off your mountainous student debt.
I wasn’t invited to give a commencement address this year. But here’s what I would say if an institution were foolish enough to give me a microphone and an audience.
India’s Need for Iran’s Oil a Sticking Point for U.S. and Its Sanctions Regime
The third U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue next month will deal with contentious issues such as protectionism and sanctions.
Free Trade Agreement Ignores Colombian History of Violence Against Trade Unions
Anti-union crimes are widespread and remain a tremendous concern for people who object to the U.S.-Colombia FTA.
The Book About Terrorism Crying Out to Be Written
Somewhere, there must be an investigate journalist who will link the violence of the likes of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to abuse they may have suffered as children.
Morocco’s Short-Sighted Politics
April of this year marked the 21st anniversary since the UN Security Council accepted responsibility for trying to resolve the Western Sahara conflict through a referendum on self-determination. The referendum has never taken place, nor is it likely to ever happen. Nor, for that matter, is it likely that the conflict will be resolved through the mutually acceptable political solution that the Council has been asking for since April 2004.
The Pentagon’s Obesity Problem
America has a problem with portion control. U.S. restaurants serve enormous entrees, convenience stores sell “Big Gulp” cups of soda, and Americans routinely compete to see who can eat the most hot dogs or pizzas or chicken wings in ten minutes. It’s not just the quantity. It’s also the quality. Americans get as much as one-third of their calories from junk food. No wonder that Americans are fatter than citizens of any other developed country, with the obesity rate twice that of many European nations. The Pentagon has the same problem with portion control.