Trustbusting isn’t the only area where America no longer sets the standard. The EU set out clear rules to protect information privacy nearly a decade ago, but U.S. firms still find themselves lobbying Washington to follow suit. The deregulation of Britain’s financial markets during the same period is now drawing so many deals to London that Washington faces pressure to back off its tough post-Enron rules. Britain’s lack of U.S.-style First Amendment press protections also makes it the go-to spot for libel suits. Even tough U.S. criminal law is starting to bow to overseas influence; Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has approvingly cited European rulings in landmark death-penalty cases (to the chagrin of conservatives).
One key force dispersing global legal power is the Internet. Since plaintiffs can now be virtually “present” anywhere, it’s much easier to shop for favorable venues and jurisdictions. Meanwhile notions of universal rights are weakening national sovereignty, both in politics and in commerce. One key front in that erosion, say experts, is a new push by Europeans and other foreigners burned by the bundles of subprime mortgages they bought from American sellers to sue in international forums rather than in U.S. courts. The Microsoft lawyers aren’t the only U.S. attorneys who face a struggle to stay on top. –John Sparks
Emerging Markets: Danger Zones In most poor economies, cash is king. But that does not necessarily mean they are protected from the still-unfurling global credit crisis, says Walter Molano, head of economic research at BCP Securities of Greenwich, Connecticut. “The Philippines is the most vulnerable country in Asia,” he warns, for a simple reason. Like other poor nations (and not only in Asia) the Philippines relies on cash remittances from workers—nannies, maids, doctors, engineers—who have gone to work in richer countries. Those expats now count for as much as 10 percent of the population, and the cash they send home makes up 15 percent of the Philippines’ GDP. This has fueled a consumer boom and the highest overall growth rate in 20 years. But the economies where the expats work—whether as construction workers in the Middle East, white-collar professionals in the United States or domestics in Hong Kong—are places where further credit-related troubles would bite hardest. If there’s a slowdown, the Philippines could see its remittance cash flow dry up with little warning. Other vulnerable, remittance-dependent nations on Molano’s list: Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico and Turkey. –J.S.
Film: Falling Backward If the Toronto Film Festival is a guide, this autumn will bring a crop of American movies whose style recalls the 1960s and ’70s. The spirit of ’70s auteur Terry Malick (“Badlands,” “Days of Heaven”) hovers over “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.” Brad Pitt is terrific as the manic Jesse, alternately charming and paranoid, and Casey Affleck superbly creepy as his killer. Sixties music gets a hearing in Todd Haynes’s playful, puzzling, provocative (and wildly uneven) “I’m Not There,” a fantasia on the slippery myth of Bob Dylan. Sean Penn’s gorgeous and disturbing “Into the Wild,” based on Jon Krakauer’s book, may be set in the ’90s, but its idealistic, radically dissatisfied protagonist couldn’t be more ’60s in spirit—a kid who gives his money away and lights out for the territory—with tragic results. If it’s moody ambiguity you seek, this will be a season to remember. –David Ansen
America Gets Smart Daimler’s Smart car is a fixture of European cityscapes. Now it’s coming to the world’s biggest—in both senses—car market. NEWSWEEK asked Smart’s U.S. president how the tiny cars measure up in the land of the SUV.
A: The logical conclusion to that question is that we should all be driving locomotives. We should all be getting smaller, as every other market in the world has done, for a variety of reasons including safety, economy, environmental and urban congestion.
A: I have a friend who weighs 500 pounds, and he had no problem comfortably fitting inside. –Tara Weingarten
Art: Space Oddities For art collectors, the latest must-have objects are, quite literally, falling from the sky. Boldface names like Steven Spielberg and Yo-Yo Ma are buying meteorites from auction houses at prices that are out of this world. On Oct. 28 in New York, Bonhams auctioneers will hold their first-ever sale devoted exclusively to meteorites, and prices are expected to climb well past the seven-figure mark. “The natural world is making a foray into the art world,” explains Barbara Tapp, editor of Art & Antiques. The jewel of the Bonhams sale is a $1.3 million chunk of the American Museum of Natural History’s Willamette meteorite, the largest one ever found in the United States. But despite the frisson, some scientists fret. Denton Abel, curator of the museum’s meteorite collection, sums up their worries: “When stuff from nature is less trendy, these things could be discarded without thought.” –Kurt Soller
Reality Check Governments in both the United States and Europe are set to demand that carmakers raise the fuel economy of vehicles in order to help slow climate change. But in America, current land-use trends could make new rules moot. By 2030, say experts, the continued spread of auto-dependent sprawl will produce a 59 percent increase in the number of miles Americans drive, canceling out any reduction in greenhouse gases from more fuel-efficient cars and trucks. –John Sparks
