Misrepresentations About International Trade: The Case of Apple’s iPhone

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© 2025, Farok J. Contractor, Distinguished Professor, Rutgers Business School This article is scheduled for publication in the Spring 2025 edition of the Rutgers Business Review. Abstract In  the present debates about US manufacturing and trade deficits, the case of the Apple iPhone provides several useful insights. Looking only at the US-China trade balance, the … Continue reading Misrepresentations About International Trade: The Case of Apple’s iPhone

Thanksgiving Day: A Story of Globalization, Cross-cultural Influences, and Unity

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Image Credit: "Freedom from Want" - The Saturday Evening Post Cover of March 6, 1943, by Norman Rockwell – US National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain © 2024 Farok J. Contractor, Distinguished Professor, Rutgers Business School As Americans sit down to their Thanksgiving Day repasts each year, they are taught to recall the story … Continue reading Thanksgiving Day: A Story of Globalization, Cross-cultural Influences, and Unity

Premature Schadenfreude Directed at the US Dollar

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Photo Credit: ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA/REUTERS © 2023 Farok J. Contractor, Distinguished Professor, Rutgers Business School RECENTLY, THERE HAS BEEN A PROLIFERATION of wishful-thinking posts predicting the imminent decline of the US dollar as a universal currency, further stating that its fate is to be replaced by the Chinese yuan, the Indian rupee, or some other currency. Pundits … Continue reading Premature Schadenfreude Directed at the US Dollar

The Purchasing Power Parity Theory Works – Illustrated by the Sad Tale of the Argentine Peso

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© 2021, Farok J. Contractor, Distinguished Professor, Management & Global Business, Rutgers Business School On  November 8, 2021, it happened — as predicted by the purchasing power parity (PPP) theory: the Argentine monetary unit crossed the symbolically important threshold of 100 pesos = 1 US dollar (USD). A lurid but sad tale. A century ago, … Continue reading The Purchasing Power Parity Theory Works – Illustrated by the Sad Tale of the Argentine Peso

The US-China Business Relationship: “Bi-Polar”? Or a Stabilizing Pillar of the World Economy? A Video Lecture

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© 2020, Farok J. Contractor, Distinguished Professor, Rutgers Business School, and President-Elect, Academy of International Business Introduction to a public lecture sponsored by the Academy of International Business and the University of Nottingham (China, Ningbo Campus) VIDEO LINK Talk approximately 60 minutes followed by Q&A of 30 minutes Just two countries, China and the US, … Continue reading The US-China Business Relationship: “Bi-Polar”? Or a Stabilizing Pillar of the World Economy? A Video Lecture

A Decline in US Manufacturing Because of Globalization and China? Don’t Believe This Fake News

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© 2020, Farok J. Contractor, Rutgers Business School Featured Image Source: Wall Street Journal This is a pre-copyedited draft version of an article to be published in Management & Organization Review. The final authenticated version will be available online at Cambridge University Press. For at least 35 years, US politicians and pundits have scared the … Continue reading A Decline in US Manufacturing Because of Globalization and China? Don’t Believe This Fake News

Argentina Seems Headed for Another Currency Crisis (and Perhaps Default)

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© 2020, Farok J. Contractor, Rutgers Business School In many dozens of emerging nations, perhaps as many as sixty of them, the government interferes in the foreign exchange market to prevent, or delay, the devaluation of its currency. Featured Image Credit: ngcoin.com A recent article from the Financial Times (FT)[1] about Argentina’s peso is yet another illustration … Continue reading Argentina Seems Headed for Another Currency Crisis (and Perhaps Default)

The Quarreling Couple That Still Needs to Dance Together: A Webinar Addressing US-China Rivalry and Cooperation

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© 2020, Farok J. Contractor, Rutgers Business School The two biggest economies on the planet—the US and China, constituting 40 percent of the entire world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 23 percent of its population—need to cooperate for the sake of humankind. And yet, over the last four years, tensions between the two nations have … Continue reading The Quarreling Couple That Still Needs to Dance Together: A Webinar Addressing US-China Rivalry and Cooperation

What Is Socialism? Why I Changed the Subtitle of My Previous Post

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© 2020, Farok J. Contractor, Rutgers Business School In commenting about the Indian economy and its relation to International Business in my previous post, I had initially used the term “socialist somnolence” in the subtitle to describe the Indian business environment as it existed decades ago. Some elements of that past linger, as I described, … Continue reading What Is Socialism? Why I Changed the Subtitle of My Previous Post

What Does “Flattening the Curve” Mean? Will It Also Flatten the Global Economy?

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©2020 Farok J. Contractor, Rutgers Business School Update to  20 Mar 2020 and  23 Mar 2020 posts with additional references from medical experts and economists for those who wish to read deeper The Excruciating Choice Governments face an “excruciating choice” between “flattening the (coronavirus) curve” by imposing quarantines and lockdowns and the huge, unprecedented economic impact … Continue reading What Does “Flattening the Curve” Mean? Will It Also Flatten the Global Economy?