Which Countries Have Profited the Most from Globalization February 22, 2012
Posted by tkcollier in Economy & Business, Geopolitics.Tags: China, Economy & Business, Globalization
add a comment
America’s Gift to the World September 12, 2011
Posted by tkcollier in Geopolitics.Tags: China, Geopolitics, Globalization
add a comment
Numerous world powers served as global or regional hegemons before we came along, and their record on economic development was painfully transparent: Elites got richer, and the masses got poorer. Then America showed up after World War II and engineered an international liberal trade order, one that was at first admittedly limited to the West. But within four decades it went virally global, and now for the first time in history, more than half of our planet’s population lives in conditions of modest-to-mounting abundance — after millennia of mere sustenance.
You may choose to interpret this as some sort of cosmic coincidence, but the historical sequence is undeniable: With its unrivaled power, America made the world a far better place.
via WPR Article | The New Rules: The Rise of the Rest Spells U.S. Strategic Victory.
Globalization’s Greatest Victory September 9, 2011
Posted by tkcollier in Economy & Business, Geopolitics.Tags: Geopolitics, Globalization
add a comment
The past four years have seen a sharp contrast between recession-hit rich countries and buoyant emerging giants. Estimates from the Asian and African Development Banks, using a rather broad definition of middle class as living on $2-20 a day, confirm the picture. On this measurement, which includes many people who are only just above the poverty line, a third of Africans and three-quarters of Latin Americans were middle class in 2008. Meanwhile, the evidence that this progress will bring political demands that will reshape the developing world is mounting.
People ask, what did America do for the world? It set the conditions for this to happen – and then it defended that system from those who would do it harm. The US is only world power in history whose primary goal has been the peaceful rise of other great powers through trade and development.
via Thomas P.M. Barnett’s Globlogization – Blog – Chart of the Day: globalization’s greatest victory.
What to Teach in School February 19, 2011
Posted by tkcollier in Economy & Business, Geopolitics.Tags: Education, Globalization
add a comment
We need to rethink our education system so that it turns out more people who are trained for the jobs that will remain in the United States and fewer for the jobs that will migrate overseas. We cannot, of course, foresee exactly which jobs will go and which will stay. But one good bet is that many electronic service jobs will move offshore, whereas personal service jobs will not. Here are a few examples. Tax accounting is easily offshorable; onsite auditing is not. Computer programming is offshorable; computer repair is not. Architects could be endangered, but builders aren’t. Were it not for stiff regulations, radiology would be offshorable; but pediatrics and geriatrics aren’t. Lawyers who write contracts can do so at a distance and deliver them electronically; litigators who argue cases in court cannot.
via Free Trade’s Great, but Offshoring Rattles Me – washingtonpost.com.
Globalization Retreating March 5, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Economy & Business, Geopolitics.Tags: Banks, Economy & Business, Financial Crisis, Globalization
add a comment
“The collapse of globalization . . . is absolutely possible,” said Jeffrey Sachs, a noted American economist. “It happened in the 20th century in the wake of World War I and the Great Depression, and could happen again. Nationalism is rising and our political systems are inward looking, the more so in times of crisis.”
Shipping costs start to crimp globalization August 2, 2008
Posted by tkcollier in Economy & Business.Tags: Energy, Globalization
add a comment
Shipping costs start to crimp globalization – International Herald Tribune
The cost of shipping a 40-foot container from Shanghai to the United States has risen to $8,000, compared with $3,000 early in the decade, according to a recent study of transportation costs. Big container ships, the pack mules of the 21st-century economy, have shaved their top speed by nearly 20 percent to save on fuel costs, substantially slowing shipping times.
The study, published in May by the Canadian investment bank CIBC World Markets, calculates that the recent surge in shipping costs is on average the equivalent of a 9 percent tariff on trade. “The cost of moving goods, not the cost of tariffs, is the largest barrier to global trade today,” the report concluded, and as a result “has effectively offset all the trade liberalization efforts of the last three decades.” (more…)
The Next Empire May 26, 2008
Posted by tkcollier in Economy & Business, Geopolitics.Tags: Globalization
add a comment
The Next Empire
The future trajectory of the world could change if American policy in the Western hemisphere changed. If the U.S. straightened things out with Venezuela, if Brazilian oil reserves proved to be as robust as they are predicted to be, and if Canadian oil came onstream efficiently and cost-effectively, the U.S. would actually be sitting pretty. For all of its mistakes in failing to fully comprehend or take advantage of globalization, the U.S. doesn’t need to significantly improve its interests in the rest of the world — if it gets its own hemisphere right. I believe that Latin America will emerge as the solution to the problem of the United States’ future competitiveness. The answer doesn’t lie in worrying about China or expanding influence in the Middle East or restoring transatlantic ties. The answer lies in our own backyard. Literally. (more…)
Blame Innovation not Globalization May 2, 2008
Posted by tkcollier in Economy & Business, Geopolitics.Tags: Globalization
add a comment
The Cognitive Age – New York Times
As Thomas Duesterberg of Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, a research firm, has pointed out, the U.S.’s share of global manufacturing output has actually increased slightly since 1980.
The chief force reshaping manufacturing is technological change (hastened by competition with other companies in Canada, Germany or down the street). Thanks to innovation, manufacturing productivity has doubled over two decades. Employers now require fewer but more highly skilled workers. Technological change affects China just as it does the America. William Overholt of the RAND Corporation has noted that between 1994 and 2004 the Chinese shed 25 million manufacturing jobs, 10 times more than the U.S.
The central process driving this is not globalization. It’s the skills revolution. We’re moving into a more demanding cognitive age. In order to thrive, people are compelled to become better at absorbing, processing and combining information. This is happening in localized and globalized sectors, and it would be happening even if you tore up every free trade deal ever inked.
