Chinese run media, the Global Times, blatantly tweeted an homage to China’s late leader Mao Zedong commemorating his 128th birthday. Fully understanding the storm of controversy this would create, with the Communist government’s full approval, such a provocation has been taken in the West as if just one more chess piece played in its geopolitical game against the United States in particular. No. The Communists really mean it. Mao’s their guy again. No. Let’s recall...
Read More »Top Institutions and Economists Now Say Globalization Increases Inequality
We’ve all heard that globalization lifts all boats and increases our prosperity … But mainstream economists and organizations are now starting to say that globalization increases inequality. The National Bureau of Economic Research – the largest economics research organization in the United States, with many Nobel economists and Chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisers as members – published, a report in May finding: Recent globalization...
Read More »Trump: Unilateralism or Isolationism?
Summary: Many who think that the US is becoming isolationist are wrong. The thrust is now more about unilateralism. Unilateralism can lead to the US being more isolated. Domestic issues have dominated the news of the first 50 days of the Trump Administration. With the German Chancellor’s trip to Washington tomorrow, Secretary of State Tillerson in Asia, and the G20 meeting, foreign affairs may knock the debate...
Read More »The Dark Side of Digitalization
Globalization and digitization make IT systems vulnerable to attack. Investing in security is therefore essential, and hackers can actually help in this regard. Cybersecurity was not an issue in the 1980s, when the internet was still in its infancy. Since then, however, the number and the...
Read More »The Future of Globalization
(draft of monthly column for a Chinese paper) The cross-border movement of goods, services, and capital increased markedly for the thirty years up to the Great Financial Crisis. Although the recovery has given way to a new economic expansion in the major economies, global trade and capital flows remain well below pre-crisis levels. It had given rise to a sense globalization is ending. The election of Donald Trump as...
Read More »“Globalization has acquired a bitter aftertaste”
The world stands at a turning point, says historian Harold James. We live in dangerous times, and the outcome is uncertain. A gloomy discussion, with a spark of hope at the end. Professor James, are we living in a more stable or more unstable world than twenty or thirty years ago? Howard James:...
Read More »Trade and Wage Inequality
In a CEPR discussion paper, Elhanan Helpman concludes that trade played an appreciable role in increasing wage inequality, but that its cumulative effect has been modest, and that globalization does not explain the preponderance of the rise in wage inequality within countries.
Read More »Richard Baldwin’s “The Great Convergence”
Link to slides of a presentation at the Peterson Institute. According to Baldwin, the new globalization (since 1990) reflects the fact that ICT enabled G7 firms to precisely control what goes on inside developing-nation factories.
Read More »You’ll Only Understand Trump and Brexit If You Understand the Failure of Globalization
[See also The Numbers Show Trump Win NOT Due to Racism and Sexism] You can only understand the victory of Donald Trump and Brexit once you understand the failure of globalization … Trump Trump made rejection of globalization a centerpiece of his campaign. In his July 21st acceptance speech as the Republican nominee, he said: Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. The Boston Globe bannered this headline on...
Read More »You’ll Only Understand Trump and Brexit If You Understand the Failure of Globalization
[See also The Numbers Show Trump Win NOT Due to Racism and Sexism] You can only understand the victory of Donald Trump and Brexit once you understand the failure of globalization … Trump Trump made rejection of globalization a centerpiece of his campaign. In his July 21st acceptance speech as the Republican nominee, he said: Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. The Boston Globe bannered this headline on Thursday: “Trump won. Globalization lost. Now...
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