Scrapping tariffs can hurt poor farmers, and a deal with Colombia might boost coca production.
Free Trade’s Winners and Losers in Latin America
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Labor, Trade, & Finance
Europe’s Austerity: Like Something Out of the Brothers Grimm
EU’s narrative that high wages, early retirement, and generous benefits have led several countries to the verge of bankruptcy is nothing but a fairy tale.
Failure to Open “New Chapter of Engagement” Will Dog President Obama on Visit to Latin America
Brazil’s rise in a way parallels the demise of U.S. influence in the region.
The Battle for Greece
While the world’s attention is focused on the revolution in Egypt, street fighting in Libya, and the battle for Sana in Yemen, in democracy’s birthplace people are also taking to the streets, continuing to protest an austerity plan that many Greeks say will beggar them. On February 23, protesters conducted a 24-hour strike that brought hundreds of thousands of people into the streets of Athens.
Putin’s Extravagant Proposal to Abolish Visas Echoes Gorbachev and Nukes
Meanwhile, Moscow once again boasts more billionaires than New York City.
Mexico’s Hot Money Challenge
The headlines out of Mexico these days are dominated by the fiery violence related to the war on drugs. Mexico’s economy is also heating up in ways that are extremely dangerous to the future of the country.
True Reason for China’s Appeal to American Industry Even More Shameful Than Low Wages
The real story of why American industry moves to China may never be told in the mainstream media.
Development Aid: Enemy of Emancipation
Kenyan scholar Firoze Manji gives his thoughts on the ‘aid industry’, an industry which hampers Africans’ recovery of their continent, made rotten with corruption and the pillaging of natural resources.
Food Security and National Security
Sounding the alarm about various threats posed by a rising China has become a cottage industry among pundits and politicians. One of the oldest warnings is that China’s increasing demand for food will wreak havoc on international markets, causing mass starvation in food-importing countries. But this concern ignores the safeguards China has in place for food shortages and the lessons the rest of the world could learn from this approach.
Poverty Capitalism: Interview with Ananya Roy
The last decade of officially celebrated growth left behind a vast underclass. The world’s richest 500 people, hardly enough to fill a movie theater, command more wealth than the bottom 416 million. From the varied vantage points of affluence, the poor are many things — victims, citizens, objects, profit opportunities. Ananya Roy’s recent book Poverty Capital brilliantly captures a growing global consensus about poverty, and a brave new world of ideas aiming to fulfill oft repeated declarations of “making poverty history.”