A decade after the World Bank mounted its first anticorruption campaign, the impact appears to have been minimal. Paul Wolfowitz, the bank's new president, is seeking to reinvigorate the effort. But doubts remain about the bank's ability to confront corruption among its borrowers.
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies—produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation's adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
Drawing on extensive interviews with expatriate managers and other professionals currently at work in China, Behind the Open Door describes the experiences of foreign-invested firms in the mainland Chinese economy and the implications of those experiences for industrial countries' foreign commercial policies.
A flexible labor market and an open economy are crucial to economic competitiveness, but can sometimes cause prime-aged and older workers to suffer large, long-term income losses. This report explains why existing government programs, which emphasize retraining and insurance for short-term job loss, don't assuage workers' fears about globalization. It also proposes a shift of resources from existing programs to wage insurance.
This report makes recommendations for reforming the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and examines how the administration and Congress can reassure foreign investors of U.S. openness and address growing anxieties in other countries.
The Federal Reserve's move to inject an added $600 billion into the banking system is bad policy, straining the international monetary order and U.S. credibility abroad, writes CFR's Sebastian Mallaby.
Google's decision to end censorship of its search content in China, and Beijing's response, appear to strike a balance between holding to principles and doing business, but U.S.-China clouds continue to gather, writes CFR's Adam Segal.
Egypt's newly sworn in President Mohamed Morsi will have to tackle everything from setting a rocky economy back on course to combining reform efforts with placating a powerful military, says expert Daniel Brumberg.
Politician Bo Xilai's sudden fall from grace unmasks long-discussed corruption within the political ranks and undermines a smooth leadership transition for the Communist Party, says CFR's Elizabeth Economy.
News that global trade contracted in 2009 underscores the need for Obama's trade strategy to include negotiating exchange rates with Asian countries and promoting free trade agreements, says IIE's Gary Hufbauer.
CFR's Marc Levinson says further international coordination on financial regulation may do more harm than good and expresses doubts about federal restrictions on executive pay.
As Turkey builds up its circle of friends, including those that have fallen out of favor with the West, the International Crisis Group's Hugh Pope says Ankara's influence as a regional and global actor has Washington taking notice.
Paulo Sotero, a veteran Brazilian analyst, discusses the hopes and concerns of his country, and many Latin American states, about the economic impact of the next U.S. administration.
Economist Nouriel Roubini argues the $700 billion U.S. bailout bill will not alleviate frozen credit markets in the short term and encourages a series of steps to alleviate the current crisis.
Ron Paul interviewed by Joanna Klonsky, Associate Editor
Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul says he is working to reclaim what he calls the traditional values of the GOP, including limited government and less involvement in military campaigns abroad.
Stephen Sestanovich, CFR's top Russia expert, says that after two months as Russia's new president, Dmitri Medvedev "has not replaced Putin as president. He's only assumed the title."
Randall Stross follows one of the summer 2011 start-ups considered by Y Combinator for the summer 2011 batch of investments from tryout to "Demo Day," to see what it takes.
The EB-5 program has brought in a lot investment to the United States-- but expanding it without addressing some of its problems could be bad news, writes Ann Lee in the New York Times.
Although U.S. multinationals include many of biggest companies in the United States, the full extent of their economic impacts are less well known. The McKinsey Global Institute seeks to provide a fuller picture by assessing the contributions of MNCs across the key metrics of economic performance.
The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the printable CFR Experts Guide.
Special operations play a critical role in how the United States confronts irregular threats, but to have long-term strategic impact, the author argues, numerous shortfalls must be addressed.
The author analyzes the potentially serious consequences, both at home and abroad, of a lightly overseen drone program and makes recommendations for improving its governance.
Two experts argue that despite myriad development strategies, only one can succeed in alleviating poverty in India: the overall growth of the country's economy. More