World Bank

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 2004Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s recently announced plan to nationalize the telecommunications and electricity industries in his country sent shockwaves through the boardrooms of multinational corporations with large holdings in Latin America. While some see Chavez as the leading edge of a “socialist revolution,” research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests this latest nationalization push is nothing more than politics as usual, part of a predictable pattern of political tensions that often arise when corporations make large foreign investments.

Malaria, along with tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, is one of the three largest global killers of the world’s poorest people.

Nobel Laureate Kenneth J. Arrow will discuss “The Economics of New Antimalarial Drugs” at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 21 in the Bryan Cave Courtroom, Anheuser-Busch Hall. Arrow, a longtime professor of economics at Stanford University, recently chaired a National Institute of Medicine committee that issued a report titled “Saving Lives, Buying Time: Economics of Malaria Drugs in an Age of Resistance.” Malaria, along with tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, is one of the big three global killers of the world’s poorest people.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) bills itself as an organization of 184 countries working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty. While the IMF’s objectives are laudable, a study just published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution provides compelling evidence that IMF intervention actually has a substantial negative impact on at least one important indicator of a country’s long-term economic vigor – the level of foreign direct investment in that country by private investors.