Economics & Global Affairs

In recent years the major focus of China’s engagement in Africa has been on economic diplomacy. Much of this debate has been influenced by concerns over China’s rise as an economic superpower and the preoccupation with viewing Africa through the jaded natural resource lens. A closer look at Africa’s growing economic diplomacy reveals a more complex picture involving other important emerging market economies as illustrated by economic relations with Brazil. Africa’s relations with Brazil highlight the emergence of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) as a new economic alliance that is reshaping international trading relations.

“Caterpillar to Shift Some Production to U.S.” That’s good news for American workers: 1,000 jobs are coming home from Japan. Some lucky state will win the lottery for the factory and become home base for global sourcing of Caterpillar’s small bulldozers and mini-hydraulic excavators. Interestingly, Caterpillar first developed these mini-machines to fix a distinctively Japanese problem. Cramped urban construction sites cried out for compact excavators. That friction brought on innovation, invention, and manufacturing.