8 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(01/19/10 1:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In 1992, Chairman Deng Xiaoping uttered the famous phrase, “To get rich is glorious.” Since that historic quote, which was followed by market liberalizations, a wave of entrepreneurial activity and foreign investment, China has prospered. With an economic growth rate in the double digits for the past 20 years, China recently surpassed Germany as the world’s top exporter, and many experts agree China will overtake Japan as the world’s second-largest economy by GDP by the end of 2010, second only to the United States.With this unparalleled rise, China’s economy seems to be an unstoppable force. However, one IU professor says China might be overhyped and, more importantly, overvalued monetarily.“I’m optimistic about China becoming the center of the new global economy in the long run, but there are still many problems with this transformation,” said Dr. Ho-fung Hung, assistant professor of sociology and senior associate at the Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business. Hung delivered a lecture titled “China in the Global Crisis: Death Knell of the East Asian Development Model?” to a packed room Thursday at the City University of Hong Kong.Hung predicted that a rapid rise of China would not follow the same path as in Japan, Taiwan or South Korea, where growth was fueled mainly by American debt-spending. After the global financial crisis and decline in worldwide credit, this opportunity of debt-fueled American spending will not exist for China in the coming decade.Because China will not receive as much U.S. support as other Asian countries in the past, Hung looked at domestic Chinese consumption, possible currency fluctuations and the Chinese stimulus plan of 2008 to examine opportunities and to dispel current overly positive beliefs about the Chinese economy.Despite China’s high savings rate, almost all are enterprise savings, not personal, so the businesses save and don’t necessarily pass this savings on to employees who can spend it to grow the domestic Chinese economy. Hung said it’s not feasible for the Chinese domestic market to reduce the current over-capacity in the system. In fact, using recently acquired statistics on Chinese consumers, Dr. Hung said “China’s private consumption share of GDP has dropped to an all-time low.”Additionally, Hung reiterated the argument of 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics winner Paul Krugman and said that “China is trapped by the U.S. dollar.” Hung defended Krugman, saying that even if the Chinese yuan was to appreciate by 20 to 30 percent, little in China would change for the better. Actually, though China has been pushing the world to move away from the U.S. dollar as the de facto world currency, China increased its holding of U.S. Treasury bonds from September 2008 to September 2009.The increase shows a conservative financial outlook on the government’s part. Even though China splurged to provide a domestic stimulus package to jump-start the economy, it has disproportionately favored urban investing, thereby leaving out more than 800 million rural Chinese who could benefit and bring growth to the country. As a result, Hung predicts “a ‘W’-shaped double downturn as a result of bad debt in China’s near future.”Hung’s lecture helped dismiss the notion that China’s economy is a panacea for the world’s ills, especially the stagnant growth, slacking consumer spending and rising unemployment in the United States and Western Europe. As the world looks to the developing world for future growth, the analysis presented will have sweeping implications for future economic growth forecasting, not just in China but around the world.
(07/01/09 9:48pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>SAN GERARDO, Ecuador – In the highlands of the Andes, near the base of Chimborazo, one of the Western Hemisphere’s tallest mountains, rests a small village of about 600 people called San Gerardo.The indigenous community with its rolling farmland and bucolic pastures is picturesque, but at the same time it is depressingly poor. Most adults are involved in agricultural production or are hired as day laborers in the nearby provincial capital, Riobamba.Last year, two students from the town were the first ever to graduate from high school. Almost a quarter of the population is under the age of 13, a startling statistic that describes how poor the community is but similarly how things are slowly changing for the better. Two 2008 IU alumnae are helping to speed up the development process in this town.Last fall, Isabel Estevez, a former Wells Scholar, and Erica Weyer, former co-director of IU’s Outreach Kenya Development Volunteers, came to San Gerardo in order to help start a women’s microenterprise that would provide additional revenue along with a sense of empowerment.“I wanted to come down to Ecuador in order to immerse myself in a new culture, to improve my Spanish skills and, more than anything, to help other women learn how to help themselves,” Weyer said. “So far, the experience has been fantastic and I feel like our efforts have been fruitful.”Estevez and Weyer helped start a small women’s cooperative called Las Flores, which will help women in the community augment their income. The cooperative helps teach the women how to produce small artisan crafts and, more importantly, how to construct traditional chigras, or small bags similar to purses, a tradition that had nearly been lost before Weyer and Estevez stepped in.Additionally, the two IU graduates helped a group of men start their own business producing traditional and organic hygiene products, ranging from soap and shampoo to foot cream. The two have also put the community in contact with a health foods company in Ecuador called Randimpak, where farmers can now export quinoa, a popular local grain. Finally, Weyer and Estevez have helped formalize the town’s banking system, so now entrepreneurs have a way to get seed-money and credit.Although Weyer will return to the United States in early July to start training as a middle or high school teacher, Estevez plans to returning in the fall to start a handicrafts line for Randimpak’s stores in Quito, Ecuador, in addition to attending graduate school. To make their efforts more sustainable, the two brought down other IU students to Ecuador this summer. Elliot Hayden, a graduate student, and undergraduate Alyssa Taylor said they hope to expand the San Gerardo project and continue the blossoming legacy of Weyer and Estevez.
(06/24/09 11:52pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>QUITO, Ecuador – As Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa continues the reforms he promised when re-elected in April as part of the Revolucion Ciudadana (Citizen’s Revolution), lingering questions remain about his very recent agglomeration of power. During the past week, Correa has been chastised for what some commentators are calling outright censorship of television and radio network TeleAmazonas.Correa threatened TeleAmazonas, a national broadcaster within Ecuador, with closure for airing Fox’s “The Simpsons” in addition to other violations such as showing graphic images of bullfights and reporting “false” stories. America’s favorite TV family – and longest-running animated program, sitcom and primetime entertainment program in the United States – is broadcast in Ecuador during primetime, which Correa says detrimentally affects both children and adolescents.TeleAmazonas owner Fidel Egas, a wealthy Ecuadorian businessman, has been strongly critical of the current leftist government and its plans for change within the country, which include aligning with more socialist countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua. For its first violation, the broadcast of the Ambato Bullfight Festival, TeleAmazonas was fined $20 – a nominal fee when considering TeleAmazonas grosses millions of dollars in advertising and licensing revenue annually. The second, still-pending violation was for airing “The Simpsons,” which will result in a 90-day suspension of the channel. If Correa is successful in fighting TeleAmazonas, the government could take away the channel’s access to its radio and television frequencies, thus definitively closing the station. TeleAmazonas has been on the air since February 1974 and is one of the most widely available channels within Ecuador. This is not Correa’s first intrusion into the media world. In 2007, he filed a lawsuit against a popular daily newspaper, La Hora, claiming libel. This past year, he threw the editor of El Universo out of a press conference for asking questions related to his personal life. Correa has also created a new state-run television station, Ecuador TV, and turned over control of the newspaper El Telegrafo to the state.“Correa is overstepping his given powers to try and direct popular opinion his direction,” said Alexandra Saa, a former neighbor of Correa in 2007 when Correa was the Ecuador economic minister. “There are problems with freedom of the press in all parts of the world, but they’re becoming worse in Ecuador.” Saa voted for Correa back in 2007, but she claims the president is becoming too autocratic. “Even Barack Obama agrees that Correa is taking away freedom of the press.” Indeed, U.S. President Obama made clear in a phone call to Correa last week that he supports a “free and independent” press within Ecuador, according to Reuters reports. But other Ecuadorians are satisfied with the job Correa is doing, even in spite of these recent problems with the press. Correa was the first president to win an election without a runoff in more than 30 years, and he is the first to survive more than one term in the past 15 years.The TeleAmazonas case remains in court as of press time, and the future of the press in Ecuador is undoubtedly tied to the pending result.
(06/17/09 10:15pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>QUITO, Ecuador – The elections for the Andean Parliament, an advisory body for Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, took place for the Ecuadorian representatives last Sunday in Quito, Ecuador. Turnout, because of obligatory voting laws that fine citizens $45 for not voting, was high as always, but so was voter apathy. Many people believe the Andean Parliament is a powerless, unnecessary bureaucratic institution. With voters disinterested in the elections, attention turned to another high-profile, politically charged case in the Ecuadorian capital the next morning.Rafael Correa, the current socialist president of Ecuador, has been pushing the country more and more in line politically and economically with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s Eva Morales and less in line with nearby neighbor Alvaro Uribe of Colombia. As a liberal with socialist allies, Correa now has to answer some important questions in regard to one of his former cabinet members.Former Ecuadorian Assistant Secretary for Policy Coordination Jose Ignacio Chauvin, a one-time cabinet member for President Correa, has come under fire for his alleged ties with Colombian guerrilla group FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). The U.S. Department of State designated FARC a terrorist organization in 2004.Chauvin was arrested in January by Judge Zoila Alvarado, who accused him of receiving political funding from the Ostaiza brothers, who were convicted of coordinating a network of drug-trafficking within northern Ecuador and southern Colombia. Because Chauvin was a member of the cabinet during Correa’s first presidential term, Correa is now wont to remove himself from any association with Chauvin in a country where association with the FARC is akin to political suicide.On Monday, Chauvin was brought before the five members of the Transparency Commission of Ecuador at the National Higher Education Committee (Conesup) to answer questions related to the bombing of a FARC facility by the Colombian government on Ecuadorian soil in March 2008 that led to the death of FARC commander Raul Reyes. Chauvin admitted to meeting with Reyes, court reporters said from the closed courtroom. But this admission does little to solve the underlying problems related with FARC in Ecuador and Colombia, nor does it prove or disprove Chauvin’s innocence.“(Jose) Chauvin is innocent, and this whole case was concocted by the conservative elements within the country,” Chauvin’s brother said, who was standing outside the Conesup building in northern Quito on Monday. Another supporter of Chauvin who would only give his name as “Belem” merely said over and over again, “Innocent.” Meanwhile, protestors carried posters of Che Guevara, and banners across the street sported the phrase “Free Chauvin” as Chauvin was accompanied into the police truck and taken back to jail. The political saga that has stunned this nation and caused problems between Colombia and Ecuador continues.
(06/10/09 10:49pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>CARTAGENA DE INDIAS, Colombia – “We can open a window of opportunity to alleviate poverty among women, men, young and old to set them free,” former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo said of microfinance.At the 12th annual Microcredit Summit Campaign for the Latin American-Caribbean Region in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, leaders in microfinance gathered to discuss ways to ensure that the extreme poor receive financial and business services. They also talked about how to ensure that 100 million families rise above the $1 purchasing power parity, even amidst one of the worst financial crises of this century. Aside from Toledo, other dignitaries in attendance included current Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, director of Grameen Bank Muhammad Yunus and countless other microcredit, microfinance and microenterprise professionals from Austria to Zambia. They have descended upon this Caribbean colonial town to talk shop and compare plans for the future. Yunus, along with Grameen Bank, which he founded, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his efforts to solve world poverty through microfinance. Yunus virtually founded the field of microfinance back in the late 1970s in Bangladesh. Now, because of this revolution in credit extension, “more than 80 percent of Bangladeshis have access to financial services, a huge increase, unheard of in other developing countries,” Yunus said. As of July 2007, Grameen had loaned $6.38 billion to more than 7.4 million borrowers around the world, including some in the United States.“The challenge is finding a way to give the more than 1 billion people who still lack financial services in the world a helping hand especially as microfinance and microbusinessmen are being greatly affected by the world financial crisis,” said Reynold Walter, executive director of Fundacion de Asesoria Financiera a Instituciones de Desarrollo y Servicio Social in Guatemala. Some of the recommendations discussed at the summit to increase the poor’s access to financial services include using technology to create cost-effective e-banking, creating a stock market that trades only in microfinance and microenterprise organizations, and creating a legal framework for the microfinance industry. “Microfinance doesn’t have a home or regulatory framework to allow for sustainability,” Yunus said. “Taking savings as a microfinance institution is an illegal activity in many countries, and these antiquated laws must be changed.” Speakers cited the ongoing worldwide financial crisis as reason to take drastic action soon.“The financial crisis has shown the world that microfinance is how the world should do banking,” said Elisabeth Rhyne, managing director of the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION USA, an American microfinance firm. “(Microfinance) has a way to change how private industry does business and how to work toward full financial inclusion. In short, microfinance shows how business can have a soul.”The summit also had sessions on how to improve transparency in interest rate pricing, integration of microfinance with health care, use of technology for greater efficiency and how microfinance institutions can have a positive impact on gender equality and the environment. In addition, the summit had its own social commentary on the current state of the business world.“Business should just cover costs and not have the goal of making a profit. This is the basis of selflessness,” Yunus said. “Profits should not be a consideration, only getting people out of poverty.”In addition, Rhyne said, “To have a soul, companies need to understand low-income people and make a patient, long-term commitment to servicing them. There needs to be an enlargement and elevation of social goals within the business process.”As the conference came to a close Wednesday, Toledo reminded the delegates that “to alleviate the poverty in the world is the central reason why we are here today and the reason why MFIs (microfinance institutions) exist. Never forget that.”
(06/04/09 12:13am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>MADRID – Every day for the past two weeks, the Plaza de Toros in Madrid has been bustling. The end of May marks the Festival of San Isidro, in which for 14 days, two-hour bullfights take place each night for the entertainment of tourists and locals alike.On Sunday, I decided to partake and watched the final night of the festival with a few friends.Plaza de Toros, on Madrid’s east side, is the third-largest bullfighting arena in the world and is the largest public outdoor venue in Madrid, seating 25,000 people. When I arrived at 7 p.m., after a few Spanish beers and some tapas, of course, the sun was still high in the sky and beating down at an ungodly temperature. The arena was surprisingly full – I’d heard that the spectacle (not at all a sport, according to the Spaniards) was dying out. Lots of old men and visitors to the Spanish capital like myself sat fanning themselves and eating (and spitting out) sunflower seeds. And suddenly, without any fanfare, the first bull was prodded and ran confusedly into the ring. Meanwhile, the real show was taking place at the opposite end of the circle, where a man on horseback – decked out in the full traditional costume of riding boots, breeches and a velvet sports coat – strutted out into the ring brandishing a giant, colorful spear.A few minutes later, the spear was thrust into the shoulders of the bull. This “tradition” was repeated almost dispassionately two or three more times, and by then, a deep purple color emerged on the bull’s skin.Finally, the bullfighter scurried out carrying what looked like little more than a yellow and pink sheet. He tried to taunt the bull into action by throwing the same sheet back and forth in front of his face a few times. The bull was about as uninterested as the crowd and decided instead to pursue the horseman and prod the stallion with its horns a few times. Instead of the tango I had imagined between the bull and bullfighter, the horseman waited until the bull was sufficiently exhausted and had dropped to the sandy ground before piercing a long, silver-colored sword into its brain, twisting it for effect. The bull, dead by this time, was then paraded around by horses that dragged it out of the arena. This process was repeated five times.Many people have called for an end to these events because of their gruesomeness.I’m not trying to disrespect a time-honored tradition or praise a bloody spectacle – this was simply what occurred on the last night of San Isidro in Madrid. The whole affair was fairly sanitized. I was never scared or grossed out, and this is coming from someone who fainted at the sight of his own blood. However, I think the whole event has turned into nothing more than a tourist attraction, and the real essence of the bullfight – the bravado, the passion, the machismo of the cultural event – has been lost. That is the real tragedy of the modern bullfight.
(05/27/09 11:54pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>ROSTOV, Russia – The debate on how best to reform health care in the United States continues two weeks after President Obama met with the CEOs of several pharmaceutical companies, insurance firms, and powerful medical lobbyist groups – including the American Medical Association. The most “pragmatic” solution, according to the resulting agreement, is decreasing the overall cost of health care while maintaining the current level of quality. In fact, the only semi-tangible result of that May 11 discussion between the government and health care industry leaders was a pledge, without any concrete plan, to decrease the amount of money spent on health care by $2 trillion within the next decade.By decreasing costs, the government will lower the barriers to entry for the nearly 50 million uninsured people within the United States, putting the country well on its way to unofficial universal care.A widely discussed means of lowering health care costs is to require every American to own some form of insurance, either from current private firms like Anthem or Aetna, from a new national system of insurance administered by the government or from a mixture of both. Some states, such as Massachusetts, already require all citizens to own some type of coverage, which is similar in many respects to the current system in place in many Eastern European countries, like the Russian Federation. In Russia, universal health care access is written into the constitution and is funded in part by the federal government, each municipal government, national insurance firms, private insurance firms and under-the-table “entrepreneurial activity” – bribes by patients for nicer rooms and more frequent doctor visits.The result of universal health care with no cost to the patient is a system that provides what is called “optimal care,” which is heavily dependent on federal funding with a wide variety of quality depending on the region and population demographics.National insurance firm Astra is one private company in the Southern Federal District of Russia that specializes in processing claims by regional hospitals. Director Gelena Pshegusova explains that in Russia, “national insurance reimburses hospitals for doctors’ salaries (which start at around $700 per month) while the federal and municipal governments cover medical technology and most other costs.” In effect, the government gives Astra, a privately held firm founded in 1993 after the breakup of the Soviet Union, more than 1.25 billion rubles – around $50 million with an exchange rate of 32 rubles for every $1 as of May 26 – each year to pay doctor salaries. This money comes from a 3.2 percent additional income tax on all residents. In addition, employers can buy premium private insurance from Astra to cover procedures not covered by the national program or more costly programs like paid sick leave. The public-private program Astra is a part of what was supposed to be a transition from a Soviet system to a privatized industry; the transition has lasted more than 16 years and continues to this day.The system is not without its flaws. Chief surgeon of Rostov City Emergency Hospital, Vladimir Simitkov, said the hospital cannot cover its costs. When asked about how the hospital finances its projects, translated from Russian he said, “No one needs to know that.” Similarly, Simitkov, who has studied at the University of Louisville and visited many hospitals within the United States, said discreetly that he prefers the American system because “the U.S. has much better medicine.” Fortunately for him, his hospital is relatively well-funded because it’s situated within the prosperous city of Rostov, supported by a hospital-friendly governor, and acts as the only emergency health care center for a region of more than 10 million people. Only 5 to 7 percent of the Russia’s population is able to afford private insurance. “National public insurance is the only ‘pragmatic’ solution to the problem of health care costs in Russia,” Chief Doctor of Provincial Hospital No. 2 Igor Pakus said. With similar thoughts floating around the United States currently, it remains to be seen if America will emulate its Russian counterpart.
(03/24/09 12:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Public perception of the business world has reached an all-time low – and rightly so.Bernie Madoff, swindling thousands of investors out of $50 billion in the largest Ponzi scheme ever, is a poster child of our financial system. Vikram Pandit, former professor at the Kelley School of Business and current CEO of Citigroup, tried to buy a corporate jet just days after the banking giant received $45 billion in federal bailout funds. All told, the current economic debacle is taking quite a toll on the public’s view of business. According to the Financial Trust Index in January, only 22 percent of Americans still trust the financial system.One way to regain the trust of the American people is to make sure our current and future business leaders have a strong ethical framework to make prudent, forward-thinking decisions. The topic of ethics, not just within Kelley but across campus, is often an afterthought, with few classes incorporating how to go about making an ethical decision. When looking to other business schools with a focus on ethics like the University of Notre Dame and Brigham Young University, both of which have recently soared up the charts of BusinessWeek’s undergraduate business school ranking, it becomes glaringly clear that ethics needs to become more important at Kelley if it wants to retain iys position as a top-tier institution.Kelley Student Government is working on several initiatives to make ethics an integral part of the undergraduate business education program.A few weeks ago, the student government, along with Provelopment, the Finance Club and Kelley Consulting Group, was host to the inaugural Kelley Undergraduate Ethics Case Competition. Teams had to argue an ethical position in front of a panel of nine judges, mostly from the Business Law and Ethics department. This was a great way to show the importance of ethics at Kelley. However, more must be done.The only course specifically dedicated to ethics at Kelley is associate professor Joel Rubin’s course, L312: The Ethical Responsibilities of Business, currently offered every spring. This is a phenomenal class full of lively discussion and case-based learning. Yet, with only 34 students, mostly juniors and seniors, the material is not reaching a critical mass of students. One might ask, “Why not just implement this course on a larger scale, say, as a part of I-Core?” Although a candid discourse on ethics would be optimal for all students, with more than 4,000 undergraduates at Kelley, it’s clear that a change this huge cannot happen overnight. Due to the generosity of the Jeffrey and Martha Comment Endowment Fund, Kelley Student Government receives $1,500 each year for business school organizations that are planning ethics-related events. However, little of this money has been requested or disbursed. Hopefully we can use the monetary resources we have to instill the importance of ethics in business students and to prepare the future leaders of the world to make wise choices.