As the border that divides Canada and the US has continued to "thicken" with greater security measures since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, scholars Steven Globerman and Paul Storer of Western Washington University have compiled a comprehensive study of how these changes have come to affect the integration of the North American economy. Using time series data on transportation costs, Globerman and Storer have studied various customs districts to analyze what factors have contributed to changes in cost.

The Canadian government's CDN $47.2 billion Economic Action Plan, a responsive measure to the economic turmoil which began in 2008, has come under fire in a recent report released by the Fraser Institute. The report, entitled "Did Government Stimulus Fuel Economic Growth in Canada?

Health care reform, one of the cornerstones of US President Barack Obama's administration, is being debated in a live broadcast by Democrat and Republican politicians in Washington, DC.

For every shipment of drugs north across the Mexican-American border, a return shipment comes of money and guns, including assault rifles. The impact of this influx of cash and weaponry into the hands of drug cartels has serious repercussions for the Mexican state, as access to the bountiful arms market of the United States promotes the militarization of the cartels.

President Calderon ordered Mexican federal police to close the offices of Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LyFC) late on the night of Saturday October 10, citing gross inefficiencies in the operation of the country's second largest energy company. Fearing labour protest, riot gear-clad officers occupied dozens of the company's offices and distribution centres in the middle of the night. The government argued that Mexican law obligates the federal police to protect state-owned property considered important to its national interests.

New from Brookings:

The Brookings Institution

Canadian Press