U.S.

In most wars a victor is declared. Yet, there is one war that has raged for more than half a century and there is no winner: the war on poverty. It started under the Lyndon Johnson administration with the best intentions. Now 50 years and $20 trillion later, poverty in this nation has actually grown […]

Legislation recently introduced in Congress to restore “fast track” trade promotion authority is considered necessary to complete and ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement between the United States and 11 other Pacific-bordering nations, as well as other trade agreements. But this vehicle, which conveys congressional negotiating objectives to the president in exchange of a timely, up-or-down...

With the United States coming off of a certain degree of economic turmoil, rising wages in China, and industrial production decline in Europe, many executives in the U.S. have begun looking back home for manufacturing. As a result, American manufacturing is experiencing a bit of resurgence. Here is a look at U.S. cities experiencing a […]

On December 10, the Nicaraguan Congress approved a package of more than three dozen changes to the constitution. President Daniel Ortega claims the reforms will lay the foundation for a system of “direct democracy.” But the president’s critics contend that the result will be the perpetuation of Ortega’s hold on the presidency and the further […]

On December 19th, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced the decision to begin tapering monthly bond purchases indicating that “downside risks to growth have diminished.” However, as the United States appears to slowly recover from its worst recession since the Great Depression, many are questioning their level of confidence in American Capitalism. In fact, some...

In a recent Reuters op-ed, Council on Foreign Relations’ scholar Edward Alden lavished praise on the Obama administration for “quietly embrac[ing] the most ambitious agenda on trade and investment liberalization in the past two decades.” Ted’s take evokes this Washington Post article from last March, in which Howard Schneider noted the emergence of a robust...

Trade unions are always proclaiming their mission is to save and create U.S. jobs. But if you have been paying attention to their actions, you would be hard pressed to see this philosophy in action. Jobs aren’t being created by unions — the opposite is occurring. That may explain why union membership has dropped to […]

American manufacturers are a significant factor in the rebounding U.S. economy, thanks in part to a ready supply of natural gas. Technologies that leverage lower natural gas prices are leading to increased production at better price points for North American manufacturers. Even the recently depressed steel industry is making noise on the global front by […]

Professional sports players are usually paid based on performance. The better they play, the more money they make. In the business world, CEOs are typically compensated based on the performance of their company. The better the company performs, the more they are paid in salary and stock options.

In today’s highly competitive and quickly changing international marketplace, companies engaged in import/export operations must constantly assess efficiencies while seeking cost-saving opportunities. And due to evolving conditions, strategies that were not relevant years ago may be appropriate today. That’s why it’s important to consider the following five essential strategies for the years ahead.

After several decades of kinder, gentler compliance-focused assessments, Customs & Border Protection’s Office of Regulatory Audit still retains a “gotcha” import audit approach reminiscent of the 1980s and early 1990s in its enforcement arsenal. And, according to Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg sources, all importers—especially small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs)—are cautioned to prepare for what is […]

Even after the November 2012 election results were known, non-US-based companies looked forward to investing capital in U.S. facilities in 2013. And they did just that. This sentiment certainly was not shared by U.S. investors. Thus, a Site Selection survey of American corporate real estate executives was overwhelmingly pessimistic about a second Obama term.

SPECIAL REPORT—Americans currently pay high taxes on food, clothing, automobiles, industrial inputs and other goods and services, and their own United States Trade Representative is vigorously fighting other countries to keep it that way. Even worse, the government’s efforts all but ensure that removing such taxes — and easing the artificial burdens they place on […]

I run a successful manufacturing and export business. My success depends on our ability to accurately cost the materials and services we consume. If my estimates are wrong, I won’t stay in business very long. Our government has no such apparent obligation. Our tax dollars are being wasted on projects that are so out of sync […]

SPECIAL REPORT—The potential upside of a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement to liberalize trade, investment, and regulatory barriers between the United States and the European Union is substantial. The economic benefits are estimated to be in the range of a $125 billion annual boost to GDP on each side of the Atlantic.

SPECIAL REPORT — Much attention recently has been paid to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the wake of the high-profile investigation into the activities of Wal-Mart in Mexico, where it is alleged to have bribed foreign officials to expedite permits for its stores. Yet, the Wal-Mart situation is but one example of a […]

<p>The Business Roundtable, an association of chief executives, recently proposed that the United States is the world&#8217;s innovation leader because of a commitment to basic research, a world-class workforce and a climate that rewards innovation. This sense of pride has been eclipsed by a feeling of economic pessimism manifesting itself in a perceived lack of [&hellip;]</p>

I don&#8217;t pay much attention to opinion polls, because they&#8217;re only as good as the pollster, and many of them are faulty in one way or another. But you don&#8217;t have to be a Harvard Business School graduate to realize that the average voter has little or no respect for government, from the top down.

A decade-long trend toward an increasingly conservative makeup of all of Iran’s most powerful political institutions was disrupted at the presidential election held in June 2013. Hassan Rowhani, the lone moderate among the six candidates vying to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, emerged the victor, winning slightly more than 50 percent of the first-round vote.

Allegations of exorbitant claims for reimbursement of living expenses submitted by some senators from the governing CPC became a major problem for Prime Minister Stephen Harper after it was revealed that his chief of staff, Nigel Wright, had cut a check for $90,000 to one senator. Wright resigned, but Harper’s claim that he had no [&hellip;]