Are multinational corporations in the United States relocating their manufacturing sites overseas, abandoning workers and communities at home? And are their investments abroad “hollowing out” America’s productive capacity? At a time of global economic and financial turmoil, these questions are as controversial as ever.  The 2008 election rekindled the debate over the practices of multinational [...]

Read full post

I’ve had a chance over the past 10 days to debate the details of what’s next for the macroeconomy with leading policymakers in both the eurozone/European Union and India. I’m struck by some similarities. In both places, there is little or no concern that inflation will rebound any time soon. As a result, people based [...]

Read full post

The latest economic data from France look bad. The strategy of keeping official growth forecasts high (despite the evidence) is coming under increasing pressure and there may be substantial revisions to the outlook in the pipeline. Once you break through to being more honest, there is some catching up to do. Even more worrying are [...]

Read full post

The possible American bailout of its Big Three automakers is already being described outside the United States as “protectionist” and a violation of commitments made to the G-20 not to contribute to a trade war in the midst of a global economic slump. Whether or not the typical Congressperson would see it that way, an overlooked consideration in the American debate is how the contemplated actions might come into conflict with existing US obligations in the World Trade Organization (WTO). The United States could trip over two WTO rules.

Read full post