Category Archives: General

President Barack Obama infamously killed the multilateral Doha Round last December by instructing his representative at the World Trade Organisation to be a “rejectionist” negotiator. He compounded the folly by instead floating the trans-Pacific Trade Initiative that is conceived in … Continue reading →

While developed countries are angst-ridden over mostly illegal immigration by unskilled workers from developing countries, a different set of concerns has surfaced in Africa, in particular, over the legal outflow of skilled, and even more importantly, highly skilled, people to … Continue reading →

The 17th conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, popularly known as COP-17, is taking place in Durban, South Africa, at a critical moment, as the historic 1997 Kyoto Protocol is set to expire next year. But, like … Continue reading →

The indifference and apathy that one finds in Washington from both the Congress and President Barack Obama on the Doha Round of world trade talks, and the alarm and concern expressed by statesmen elsewhere over the languishing negotiations, mark the … Continue reading →

Below is an article by Dean Baker and Jagdish Bhagwati, as appeared on CNNMoney. The notion of international trade in health care may seem strange. The issue may also seem far removed from the current policy preoccupations in Washington. However, … Continue reading →

Just as the witticism in American politics today is that the intellectually challenged Tea Party activists are pitted against the snobbish Coffee House elites, a witticism for the current Indian situation is that ‘Anna’ Hazare is taking on what we … Continue reading →

Professor Bhagwati favours carbon emission taxation. In particular, he favours it over ad hoc actions (urged by the “anti-globalization” lobbies) like subsidising local production as against importation of specific products based simply on the assertion that imports “obviously” add to … Continue reading →

The following is a letter from Professor Jagdish Bhagwati to the Financial Times, dated May 26, 2011. Sir, The choice of a successor to Dominique Strauss-Kahn has elicited predictable comments, especially that the succession be on merit and should not … Continue reading →

On December 12, 2010, a suicide bombing was committed in central Stockholm by an Islamic terrorist who denounced the Swedish government for its “foolish support for the pig Vilks.” Vilks was the conceptual artist who had, in 2007, depicted the … Continue reading →

The feud in Bangladesh between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Mohammed Yunus, the founder of the microloan-making Grameen Bank and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is being portrayed as a modern-day replay of the famous battle between the … Continue reading →