Rafiq Dossani, Senior Research Scholar at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center of Stanford University, acknowleged that by the measure of economic growth and international prestige, India is unquestionably “arriving” as a major global power. But when one considers other indicators—such as India’s non-market sector, widespread poverty, and social democracy—India’s arrival is not so obvious.
While President Hugo Chavez has been molding Venezuela into his personal socialist vision, other transformations -- less visible but equally profound -- have taken hold in the country. Venezuela has become a major hub for international crime syndicates. What attracts them is not the local market; what they really love are the excellent conditions Venezuela offers to anyone in charge of managing a global criminal network.
In a speech at the Carnegie Endowment, European Commissioner for Trade Peter Mandelson argued that the European Union and the United States must use their collective economic weight to underwrite the openness of the global economy as it adjusts to the rise of new economic powers and greater global flows of investment.
It's become a cliché that globalization has brought both pain and gain. But in the general painting of the dark side of globalization, one aspect is frequently ignored: intensified trade and travel have enabled the rise of corrupt states that thrive on illegal businesses. Only by changing the rules of the global trade that allowed corrupt states to grow can this blot on globalization be removed.
For a rapidly growing economy like China's, with major income and consumption increases in all regions, inequality can serve to provide incentives for labor to move voluntarily to locations and occupations where it is more productive and hence better able to earn a higher standard of living.
Asia’s resurgence is revolutionary; Asia will contribute 43% of world GDP by 2020, is the second global hub of innovation, and has amassed a tremendous amount of military power. But the resurgence is also incomplete. Large swaths remain outside of Asia’s economic “miracle,” political systems remain at various stages of development, and Asian nations face many religious and ideological challenges.
You can always count on the Olympic Games to provide drama. Next year’s games in Beijing will be no different; they too will produce powerful stories and riveting television. But this time the images will not just be athletes overcoming the odds or breaking records. They will also focus on the clashes between the Chinese police and the activists who will arrive from all around the world.
The Carnegie Endowment hosted a discussion with Kevin Gallagher of his new book, The Enclave Economy: Foreign Investment and Sustainable Development in Mexico’s Silicon Valley, on October 26, 2007.
Economic reform measures in the region have had many flaws. Nowhere have they been part of a comprehensive economic plan that coordinated with social policies and different economic sectors. Nowhere have they been sustained. The reform process suffers from lack of consensus around the meaning and ramifications of reform among key national stakeholders.
Carnegie Senior Associate Albert Keidel of the China Program presented his latest policy brief "China's Looming Crisis-Inflation Returns." Moderated and discussed by Nick Lardy from the Peterson Institute and Pieter Bottelier from Johns Hopkins University.























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