Commentary

At the turn of the century, mass manufacturers controlled a demand economy. Consumers bought whateve

When I went to Bosnia-Herzegovina last spring, I got a valuable piece of advice: Don't pay by credit

If you have never heard of Weiliang Yang, you could be forgiven.And if you find it difficult

It's recorded that when a ruler was confronted by an enemy in very ancient times in China, he would

Perhaps the clearest evidence that the Cold War is over can be found in American trade statistics. U

On the way to the Y2K conference, I heard a radio report that some Canadians had invented windup AM

It's not every day that a maritime operational issue rises to a level of importance where those who

Some linguists claim that the name Finland comes from the French ''fin,'' the end, meaning the natio

A natural course of reactions to immense tragedies like the earthquake in Turkey is horror, followed

The latest efforts from Washington to deal with steel-imports are both nimble and Herculean, attempt

The U.S. merchant marine at the millennium is a merchant marine with a glorious past, a precarious p

In my 15 years of handling employment matters, including a decade on Capitol Hill, I have become fam

Although he is pictured in the American media as a moderate, Tony Blair, the prime minister of Great

Next week in San Francisco the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) will hold its annual m

I'll never understand folks from California. Maybe it's something in the water, or overexposure to t

The planned dismantling of the heavily indebted Daewoo Group is the most encouraging sign to date th

It didn't take away from his intentions, but a verbal misstep by President Clinton in his tribute to

The National Association of Manufacturers opposes the Clinton administration's proposed blacklisting

I recently worked with an entrepreneur whose business has grown from a two-person company to one tha

I don't claim to be an authority on cameras or digital photography, and I wouldn't know a megapixel

The Unicef survey of infant and maternal fatality rates in Iraq will return the issues of U.N. sanct

The Internet as a phenomenon is less than 10 years old, but it has already transformed the world. E-

Sometimes - all too many times - what seems like a simple answer to a difficult problem isn't an ans

A funny thing is happening as more and more companies are taking their logistics and outsourcing it

European governments, notoriously averse to adopting a uniform tax regime, are gradually making an e

Ancient mariners regarded the Rock of Gibraltar as one of the legendary Pillars of Hercules - the la

Now that Congress has agreed to extend normal trade relations (NTR) with Beijing for another year, t

Accustomed to operating out of public attention, the passenger-ferry industry is suddenly on multipl

Three recent opinion articles (''The dollar and the trade deficit,'' Feb. 22, Page 5A; ''Call a halt

Pressure is building in Congress to enact legislation regarding digital signatures, an Internet tech

They're not going to win any awards for good taste, but you have to give them credit for enterprise.

In the 1990s globalization has become a buzzword. Few would disagree that the new order of global tr

So we've done China Shipping Group, and we've drained the potential of the Maersk/Sea-Land acquisiti

Customs has issued new guidelines that should reduce the duration of the audits it performs on impor

This will be a busy week, if you're a trade-balance wonk. On Thursday, the Commerce Department will

It's a classic tale of the sea, young love and a poor choice of delivery systems.In 1957, Pi

Perhaps surprisingly, more than half of Americans with Internet capability have made a purchase over

As a young girl in Cuba I used to dream about eating an orange. You might find that to be a strange

I contacted George Hayashi this week to sound him out about what, if anything, has changed in the li

Since the beginning of the Asian crisis, markets and Asia watchers have kept a close eye on China. T