Economics

Foreign Affairs Article

India's Feeble Foreign Policy

Author: Manjari Chatterjee Miller

The world may expect great things from India, but as extensive reporting reveals, Indians themselves turn out to be deeply skeptical about their country's potential. That attitude, plus New Delhi's dysfunctional foreign-policy bureaucracy, prevent long-term planning of the sort China has mastered -- and are holding India back.

See more in India, Economic Development

Foreign Affairs Article

The Real Story Behind Executive Pay

Author: Steven N. Kaplan

Much of the outrage over economic inequality in the United States has centered on the high compensation and lack of accountability that corporate executives supposedly enjoy -- allegedly the result of boards at public companies. The truth, however, is that American CEOs now earn less and get fired more than in the recent past.

See more in Corruption and Bribery, Capital Markets, Corporate Governance

Foreign Affairs Article

Africa's Economic Boom

Authors: Shantayanan Devarajan and Wolfgang Fengler

Sub-Saharan Africa's GDP has grown five percent a year since 2000 and is expected to grow even faster in the future. Although pessimists are quick to point out that this growth has followed increases in commodities prices, the success of recent political reforms and the increased openness of African societies give the region a good chance of sustaining its boom for years to come.

See more in Sub-Saharan Africa, Economic Development

Foreign Affairs Article

Gangster's Paradise

Author: Peter R. Andreas

Despite media hoopla, cross-border crime -- illegal drugs sales, evasion of taxes, intellectual property theft, and money laundering -- is hardly a new phenomenon. For much of history, moreover, the United States was as much perpetrator as victim. Recognizing this awkward truth should help cool down overheated debates about today's transnational problems and how to respond to them.

See more in Trade, International Crime

Foreign Affairs Article

Capitalism and Inequality

Author: Jerry Muller

Inequality is rising across the post-industrial capitalist world. The problem is not caused by politics and politics will never be able to eliminate it. But simply ignoring it could generate a populist backlash. Governments must accept that today as ever, inequality and insecurity are the inevitable results of market operations. Their challenge is to find ways of shielding citizens from capitalism's adverse consequences -- even as they preserve the dynamism that produces capitalism's vast economic and cultural benefits in the first place.

See more in Capital Markets, Poverty

Foreign Affairs Article

Mexico Makes It

Author: Shannon K. O'Neil

Even as Mexico continues to struggle with grave security threats, its steady rise is transforming the country's economy, society, and political system. Given the Mexico's bright future and the interests it shares with the United States in energy, manufacturing, and security, Washington needs to start seeing its southern neighbor as a partner instead of a problem.

See more in Mexico, Economics

Foreign Affairs Article

Red White

Author: Benn Steil

FDR Treasury official Harry Dexter White was the leading architect of the Bretton Woods international monetary and financial system. But he was also a vital agent for Soviet intelligence in the 1930s and '40s. This article brings to bear startling new archival evidence to illuminate his motives.

See more in Intelligence, Economics

Foreign Affairs Article

Broken BRICs

Author: Ruchir Sharma

Over the past several years, the most talked-about trend in the global economy has been the so-called rise of the rest, which saw the economies of many developing countries swiftly converging with those of their more developed peers.

See more in Brazil, Emerging Markets

Foreign Affairs Article
Transition 2012

Transition 2012

Are Taxes Too Damn High?

Authors: Grover Norquist and Andrea Louise Campbell

Andrea Campbell tips her hand partway through her essay "America the Undertaxed" (September/October 2012) when she writes that "the central debate in U.S. politics is whether to keep taxes, particularly federal taxes, at their current levels in the long term or emulate other advanced nations and raise them."

See more in United States, Economics

Foreign Affairs Article
Transition 2012

Transition 2012

Stimulus or Reform?

Authors: Menzie D. Chinn, Karl Smith, and Raghuram G. Rajan

Since weak demand is at the heart of the recession, governments need to enact not just structural reforms but also stimulus programs, argues Menzie Chinn.

See more in United States, Economics

Foreign Affairs Article

Trading Up in Asia

Author: Bernard K. Gordon

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive multilateral trade agreement now in the works that focuses on the Asia-Pacific region, could add billions of dollars to the U.S. economy and solidify Washington's commitment to the Pacific. But if the Obama administration fails to calm critics of the deal, there is a growing possibility that it could collapse.

See more in Business and Foreign Policy, International Finance