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BUSINESS
ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE
HAITI AFTER THE DONORS’ CONFERENCE: A WAY FORWARD.
U.S. Institute of Peace. Robert Maguire. October 5, 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 20 pages]
Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars pledged to stimulate Haiti's economic development and reduce poverty, concerns remain that this funding will not reverse the country’s fortunes as Haiti continues to be vulnerable to external shocks. The report examines the obstacles to sustained growth, why stimulative efforts thus far have not succeeded and then recommends a way forward for both Haitians and the international community.
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ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
WHY CHINA MAY STUMBLE.
Council on Foreign Relations. Steven Dunaway. October 13, 2009.
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China's continued impressive growth is by no means assured, writes the author. Without basic changes to its economic model, including rule of law reforms, it could face considerable struggles, he says.
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AA09331
Yunus, Muhammad ECONOMIC SECURITY FOR A WORLD IN CRISIS (World Policy Journal, vol. 26, no. 2, Summer 2009, pp. 5-12)
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Yunus, founder of Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank, notes that the optimism about global prosperity that prevailed at the beginning of the millennium has been soured by the financial collapse that began in 2008. He predicts that we are in the beginning stages of a long and painful period, in which the combined effects of the intertwined financial, food, energy and environmental crises will have a disproportionate effect on the world’s poorest people. Capitalism is in crisis, says Yunus, because the basic purpose of the financial system and credit markets have been fundamentally distorted by the obsession with paper profits instead of serving human needs. He argues that capitalism is a “half-built structure” -- most efforts have been focused on the profit-making framework of the free-market system that was conceived by Adam Smith 250 years ago, yet we have paid little attention to Smith’s equally-important writings on the moral dimension. Yunus believes that the current economic crisis offers an unparalleled opportunity to reintroduce the disregarded aspects of Adam Smith’s message by developing what Yunus calls “social businesses”, whose primary function is not to make profits, but to promote the public welfare.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
PROMOTING SAVINGS AS A TOOL FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.
New America Foundation. Jamie M. Zimmerman and Shweta S. Banerjee. October 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 12 pages]
Scholars, policymakers, and practitioners of microfinance are increasingly turning their focus toward devising and offering effective and accessible savings services for the poor. Not only have experts argued that demand for savings services greatly exceeds that of microcredit, but many also contend that savings-led programs and products, with a focus on building assets, may be more effective than credit in providing a pathway out of poverty, according to the report.
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AA09330
EUREKA MOMENTS: HOW A LUXURY ITEM BECAME A TOOL OF GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT (Economist, September 24, 2009)
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Mobile phones, now affordable to the vast majority of people around the world, have become the single most transformative tool for development, according to Jeffrey Sachs of the Columbia University’s Earth Institute. In Africa, “mobile money” now means financial transactions can be carried out easily even in remote areas. Mobile phones play a huge role in micro businesses, which make up 50 to 60 percent of business globally, and as much as 90 percent in Africa. Small businesses can more efficiently negotiate with suppliers and reduce the overhead of running their small enterprises. There is also some evidence that mobile phones can be used to root out corruption; the article cites the example of an official in Pakistan overseeing land transfers, who randomly called the mobile numbers of buyers and sellers to find out if they had been asked to pay bribes.
ECONOMIC INTEGRATION & COOPERATION
ECONOMIC POLICY
ECONOMIC SYSTEMS
ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS & ENERGY
GROWING U.S. TRADE IN GREEN TECHNOLOGY.
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Steven F. Hayward. October 7, 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 4 pages]
The two main issues that should be considered when assessing the prospects for increased export potential for American energy technology are the actual dynamics of the present market environment and the cross-cutting factors that will come to bear on how trade flows will unfold in the real world, according to the testimony.
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REPORT TO CONGRESS: HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DIESEL EMISSIONS REDUCTION PROGRAM.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. October 14, 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 60 pages]
The report to Congress details the health, environmental and economic benefits of the agency’s Diesel Emission Reduction Program. The program, funded at $50 million last year, allowed EPA to fund the purchase or retrofitting of 14,000 diesel-powered vehicles and pieces of equipment, preventing respiratory illnesses and saving money in communities nationwide.
OPEC REVENUES FACT SHEET.
Energy Information Administration. October 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 3 pages]
The members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could earn $558 billion of net oil export revenues in 2009 and $686 billion in 2010. Last year, OPEC earned $971 billion in net oil export revenues, a 42 percent increase from 2007. Saudi Arabia earned the largest share of these earnings, $288 billion, representing 30 percent of total OPEC revenues. On a per-capita basis, OPEC net oil export earning reached $2,688 in 2008, a 40 percent increase from 2007.
BIOFUELS: POTENTIAL EFFECTS AND CHALLENGES OF REQUIRED INCREASES IN PRODUCTION AND USE.
U.S. Government Accountability Office. Web posted October 2, 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 184 pages]
In December 2007, the Congress expanded the renewable fuel standard (RFS), which requires rising use of ethanol and other biofuels, from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons in 2022. To meet the RFS, the Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy (DOE) are developing advanced biofuels that use cellulosic feedstocks, such as corn stover and switchgrass. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers the RFS. The report examines, among other things, (1) the effects of increased biofuels production on U.S. agriculture, environment, and greenhouse gas emissions; (2) federal support for domestic biofuels production; and (3) key challenges in meeting the RFS.
FINANCIAL & MONETARY AFFAIRS
GLOBAL CRISIS: BANGLADESH BUCKS THE TRENDS.
YaleGlobal. Zafar Sobhan. October 14, 2009.
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A year ago as the world financial system teetered on the edge of collapse after many Wall Street giants failed, there was widespread concern about the impact of its tsunami effect on the world's developing countries so dependent on the U.S. market. But not only have China, India and other major developing countries survived and prospered, even poorer countries like Bangladesh have come out virtually unscathed. The author discusses the reasons behind it.
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THE FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2009.
World Economic Forum. October 8, 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 380 pages]
The world's largest economies took the biggest hit, according to the report. Global financial centers still lead in the report's Index, but the effects of financial instability have pulled down their scores compared to last year. The United Kingdom, buoyed by the relative strength of its banking and non-banking financial activities, claimed the Index's top spot from the U.S., which slipped to third position behind Australia largely due to poorer financial stability scores and a weakened banking sector. The report ranks 55 of the world's leading financial systems and capital markets.
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THE FEDERAL RESERVE’S BALANCE SHEET: AN UPDATE.
Board of Governors of Federal Reserve System. Ben S. Bernanke. October 8, 2009.
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Chairman Bernanke reviews important elements of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet, as well as some aspects of their evolution over time. He provides a means of explaining the steps the Federal Reserve has taken, beyond conventional interest rate reductions, to mitigate the financial crisis and the recession, as well as how those actions will be reversed as the economy recovers.
FOREIGN TRADE & INVESTMENT
INDUSTRIES
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
LABOR SECTOR AFFAIRS
SUSTAINING WORKERS’ BARGAINING POWER IN AN AGE OF GLOBALIZATION.
Economic Policy Institute. Mark Barenberg. October 9, 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 56 pages]
Time after time, the labor-rights provisions of trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA fail the workers they were designed to protect. The briefing paper lays out a plan to remedy this problem.
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JOB SHARING: TAX CREDITS TO PREVENT LAYOFFS AND STIMULATE EMPLOYMENT.
Center for Economic and Policy Research. Dean Baker. October 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 3 pages]
The unemployment rate is expected to average 10.2 percent for 2010, 9.1 percent for 2011, and 7.3 percent for 2012. With this in mind, the Issue Brief describes a job sharing tax credit, designed to provide a quick and substantial boost to the economy. It would use tax dollars to pay firms to shorten the typical workweek, while keeping pay constant. This should cause employers to want to hire additional workers. A rough estimate of the impact of this tax credit is between 1.3 and 2.7 million jobs created.
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ARE GREEN JOBS “GOOD JOBS” FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS?
Economic Policy Institute. Algernon Austin. Web posted October 6, 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 11 pages]
Research shows that creating more "green jobs" would have a significant benefit on male African American workers whose unemployment rate is well above the overall nationwide rate. Algernon Austin, director of Economic Policy Institute's Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy, presented some of these findings Sept. 25 at the annual legislative conference of the Congressional Black Caucus.
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THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION – SEPTEMBER 2009.
U.S. Department of Labor]. October 2, 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 30 pages]
Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 7.6 million to 15.1 million, and the unemployment rate has doubled to 9.8 percent. In September, the number of persons working part time for economic reasons, sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers, was little changed at 9.2 million. The number of such workers rose sharply throughout most of the fall and winter but has been little changed since March.
FACT SHEET: RECOVERY TO DISCOVERY: $5 BILLION RECOVERY ACT INVESTMENT IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND JOBS.
The White House. September 30, 2009.
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Since September 1st, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the Department of Health and Human Services, has awarded more than 12,000 grants to research institutions in every state across the country. This $5 billion investment through the Recovery Act is the largest infusion of capital into biomedical research ever and is expected to support tens of thousands of jobs over the next two years, ranging from support staff and lab technicians to database managers and scientists.
WOMEN IN THE LABOR FORCE: A DATABOOK.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. September 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 101 pages]
The past several decades have been marked by notable changes in women’s labor force activities. Women’s labor force participation is significantly higher today than it was in the 970s, particularly among women with children, and a larger share of women work full time and year round than in past decades. In addition, women have increasingly attained higher levels of education: among women aged 25 to 64 who are in the labor force, the pro- portion with a college degree roughly tripled from 1970 to 2008.
LAND MANAGEMENT
FOREIGN HOLDINGS OF U.S. AGRICULTURAL LAND.
U.S. Department of Agriculture. October 6, 2009.
Full Text [PDF format, 181 pages]
The publication contains statistics through Feb. 28, 2008, regarding the 20.9 million acres of U.S. agricultural land in which foreign persons hold an interest. It reports that foreigners have an interest, partial or total ownership, in 1.6 percent of all privately held U.S. agricultural land and 0.92 percent of all land in the United States. This is a 1.4 million acre increase from 2007.