chp 23

      I.         The Transformation of the World Economy

a.     Reglobalization

a.     Massive increase in global trade since 1945

                                               i.     Since World War II, there has been unprecedented growth in world trade, rising from $57 billion in 1947 to $16 trillion in 2009.

b.     Foreign direct investment, capital, and personal credit

                                               i.     The flow of money around the world is a major part of this history.

                                             ii.     Money moves as investments in industrial projects in other countries, as capital that can be loaned to various large and small borrowers, and as credit for individuals (hence, the rise of credit cards around the world).

c.     Transnational corporations

                                               i.     The world economy is increasingly dominated by businesses that are located in multiple nation-states and sell their products in markets around the world.

                                             ii.     Fifty-one of the top 100 economic entities in the world are not nation-states but TNCs.

d.     New patterns of human migration

                                               i.     In addition to the movement of money, people are moving around the world in greater and greater numbers.

                                             ii.     Push factors include wars, conflict, and ethnic cleansing, and pull factors include the lure of higher wages or just the promise of employment, freedom, and/or security.

b.     Growth Instability and Inequality

a.     Unprecedented growth but what of stability?

                                               i.     While the volume of trade in the world has generated great wealth, the cycles of boom and bust have left many people around the world feeling vulnerable.

                                             ii.     decrease in demand for something in Europe can lead to large-scale unemployment in an African mine or a Southeast Asian factory, and a jump in the price of petroleum can decrease production around the world.

b.     Unprecedented growth but what of social justice?

                                               i.     While the volume of trade in the world has generated great wealth, it has not been shared equally.

                                             ii.     This is true internationally with the Global North enjoying most of the benefits at the expense of the Global South and domestically as certain regions or economic sectors in a nation-state might see rewards while others suffer.

c.     Antiglobalization movements

                                               i.     Faced with these questions, an alternative critique of globalization has developed that both challenges the assumptions of neo-liberalism and the status quo and urges more equitable distributions of the world’s wealth.