Can Lean Manufacturing Put an End to Sweatshops?
While no one advocates for labor abuses, poor working conditions are often seen as an inevitable consequence of global trade. Producers in less-developed countries compete by keeping costs low. Conventional wisdom holds that improving working conditions (which typically costs money) would undermine …
How Do You Stop a Future Terrorist When the Only Evidence Is a Thought?
The first time Larossi Abballa appeared on the radar of French terrorism investigators, the only act of violence they could pin on him was killing bunnies. He had joined a small group of men, all bent on waging jihad, on a trip to a snowy forest in northern France five years ago, when he was 19. The…
The Working Women Windfall
Narrowing the global gender gap would have huge potential economic benefits. According to the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), if every government helped its citizens catch up to the country in its region that has made the fastest strides toward gender parity, the total annual payoff in additional G…
Syrian refugees and the promise of work permits
Issuing work permits to refugees in return for donor support for jobs is seen as a “win-win-win” for refugees, host countries, and the international community. It would stem the flow of refugees to Europe, decrease the dangers of radicalization, and prevent the exploitation of refugees as a source o…
The New Economics of Cybercrime
It’s a good time to be a cybercriminal. There are more victims to target, there is more data to steal, and there is more money to be made from doing so than ever before. It would seem to follow, then, that there’s been very little progress since 2007, when hackers stole at least 45.6 million credit-…
China’s plan to cut meat consumption by 50% cheered by climate campaigners
The Chinese government has outlined a plan to reduce its citizens’ meat consumption by 50%, in a move that climate campaigners hope will provide major heft in the effort to avoid runaway global warming. New dietary guidelines drawn up by China’s health ministry recommend that the nation’s 1.3 billio…
On World Oceans Day, a reminder that climate change action must consider the oceans
Our oceans and the climate are inextricably linked: the ocean regulates our global climate, and climate change is having substantial impacts on the ocean and its wildlife. Since 1955, the ocean has absorbed over 90 percent of the excess heat building up from the release of greenhouse gases emitted f…
Global Entrepreneurship Summit to boost social business agenda
The 7th annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), set to open this week in Silicon Valley, has attracted over 1,000 conferees out of 4,500 applicants from around the world. It will be hosted by President Barack Obama who, starting with the inaugural summit in 2009, has made entrepreneurship promo…
Hunger in Shangri-La: Causes and Consequences of Food Insecurity in the World’s Mountains
Over the past decade, the number of undernourished people around the world has declined by around 167 million, to just under 800 million people. However, this positive trend glosses over a stark reality: Food insecurity is increasing in the world’s mountains. This pattern has been under-recognized b…
The Mind of The Islamic State
Two years ago, the armies of the group that would soon call itself the Islamic State, a group that already controlled large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, entered Mosul, the second city of Iraq. The Iraqi Army, in which the United States had invested, or perhaps wasted, US$25 billion, fled …