Suchergebnisse

Interview with McDonald's Corporation CEO Jack Greenberg in which he discusses the company's US and foreign fast food operations and defends McDonald's role in the global economy.

Chronicles the development of the "new international financial architecture" (NIFA), created at the summit in Cologne, Germany, in 1999. Its goal of securing the integration of "systemically important" emerging market economies into the international policy-making environment is described, along with methods used to achieve this & to ensure their compliance with Western (US)-dominated rules & standards, manifested through structural adjustment policies imposed on emerging economies. The roles of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) & the World Bank in the NIFA are discussed. Ways in which these organizations attempt to quell the dissatisfaction of emerging economies with these arrangements are explored, focusing on their efforts to reestablish the legitimacy of the neoliberal agenda. The function of the NIFA in reproducing the power of financial capital in the world economy, primarily through the strategy of "imposed leadership," is analyzed; structural contradictions in this strategy are also identified. The proliferation & maintenance of the US "Dollar-Wall Street Regime" & the need for NIFA to continually work to fortify its political & ideological scaffolding are explored in light of the threats to global finance posed by the fact that economic problems in any part of the newly interconnected (& interdependent) international financial system can quickly spread & become crises. K. Hyatt Stewart

Tensions between corporate activity & basic rights are identified to determine how global economic forces can be contained in democratic practice. Existing theories on the regulation of private power & democratic principles err by pressing public standards onto private power without attending to its special organizational features & political setting, or by overly deferring to the rules & principles of private enterprise. A framework of principles to relate an enterprise to a democratic political order & to the interests of those affected under a logic of delegation or of devolution is developed. This framework assists in determining when civil rights may win out over the survival of an enterprise & when those rights may be considered removable in transition from a local to global environment. M. Pflum

Topics include the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS agreement) Measures; product safety; regulation; and other issues; four articles.

Critiques six myths about the World Trade Organization (WTO) that supporters present as accepted fact. It is contended that assertions that the WTO is about free trade are euphemisms for strategic trade policies that often serve as forms of corporate protectionism. The myth that the WTO promotes equitable access to a rule-based trading system is debunked by rules that allow industrialized nations to restrict imports from developing nations while forcing the latter to accept rules designed to benefit Western corporations. WTO practices refute claims that it is a democratic organization, especially its dominance by the "Quad" (US, EU, Canada, & Japan), & increasing disparities among nations in economic growth rates/income distribution have created serious doubts about the claim that the WTO benefits the world's poor. The notion that incorporating environmental & labor agreements will settle disputes is unrealistic in light of developing country members who see cheap labor as their comparative advantage. The sixth myth, that there is no alternative, was negated by the Seattle protest, which created new political space for democratic participation in the future of economic development. J. Lindroth

Examines impact of accelerating pace of regulatory, technical, and business innovation and changing competitive strategies on the telecommunications industry, and challenges that companies, governments, and other players face in exploitation of new opportunities created by change; international perspective.