Simon Chair in Political Economy - Related In the News

Swine flu: when America sneezes

nurwitz — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Sidney Weintraub, CSIS Simon Chair in Political Economy, U.S. Wins Clout with OAS Deal on Cuba, Experts Say, 6/7/09

KLockhart — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Sidney Weintraub, the CSIS Simon Chair in Political Economy, Spy Charges May Complicate Obama's Efforts to Engage Cuba, 6/6/09

KLockhart — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Mexico is Right to Retaliate on Trade

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Mexico announced, effective March 19, tariff increases ranging between 10% and 45% on 90 products whose imports from the U.S. amount to $2.4 billion.

Mexico Releases List of U.S. Products That Will See Higher Tariffs.

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0400

The tariffs "will have a big impact on the companies that export those items," said Sidney Weintraub, a specialist in international economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "It could take them out of the market."

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A Failed Drug War's Rising Body Count.

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Sidney Weintraub of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told The Chronicle that 40 percent of Mexico's drug sales are marijuana. "What we have to do is change our policy and decriminalize marijuana."

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Fears in U.S. Drug War Will Destablize Mexico.

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Washington - -- Concern about a potential failed state - not Pakistan, not Somalia, but California's neighbor Mexico - is mounting in Washington as an all-out war involving 45,000 Mexican military personnel fails to quell rising drug violence that is spilling from such Mexican cities as Tijuana into the United States.

"My personal view is, it's us who is more responsible than Mexico," said Sidney Weintraub, a leading Latin American scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "We're providing profits of about $25 billion to the drug cartels. That's a lot of money."

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Chavez Sours Latin American Investment Climate.

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500

The investment climate in Latin America's grain sector has been soured by Venezuela's seizure of a rice mill owned by U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill, but major democracies in the region will remain attractive over the long term. [. . .]

"Some countries are not at all antagonistic to foreign investment but they're not getting it at the moment anyhow, and not just because of what's happening in Argentina and Venezuela, and to a certain extent Ecuador and Bolivia," said Sidney Weintraub, senior economist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

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Financial Crisis Emphasizes Importance of G-20.

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

A leaders’ meeting to discuss global financial architecture — something like a new version of the World War II Bretton Woods meeting — could simply take too long, says Brookings’ Robert Litan. And global finance ministers can work out enough coordinated action to start to restore confidence, “I’m not sure what’s left for the leaders to talk about,” he adds.

“My deepest feeling is what we need is action, not more talk,” says Sidney Weintraub of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

But when the big leaders’ summit happens, look for it to include a lot of the G-20 countries.

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Failures in the Fight Against Drugs.

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

[...]To the Editor:

Your editorial includes powerful information on the futility of the United States war on drugs but then makes the fatuous recommendation that the next administration should provide funds to reform Mexico’s judicial system — a process that is already under way.

Mexico faces a killing spree affecting thousands of innocent people that is financed by American money going to the drug cartels that fight for dominance of the lucrative United States market for illegal drugs. The earnings from this trade amount to at least $15 billion a year — enough to buy arms to outgun the Mexican police and bribe underpaid security officials.

We can’t buy our way out of this culpability with a few hundred million dollars of aid and irrelevant advice. The remedies lie on our side of the border. We need to curb demand by treating our addicts and by decriminalizing drug use, reduce the street price of drugs and thus the gains of the drug lords.

Sidney Weintraub

Washington, July 2, 2008

The writer is an economist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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