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https://theconversation.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-globalisation-the-battle-to-be-top-dog-267910>
"For nearly four centuries, the world economy has been on a path of
ever-greater integration that even two world wars could not totally derail.
This long march of globalisation was powered by rapidly increasing levels of
international trade and investment, coupled with vast movements of people
across national borders and dramatic changes in transportation and
communication technology.
According to economic historian J. Bradford DeLong, the value of the world
economy (measured at fixed 1990 prices) rose from US$81.7 billion (£61.5
billion) in 1650, when this story begins, to US$70.3 trillion (£53 trillion) in
2020 – an 860-fold increase. The most intensive periods of growth corresponded
to the two periods when global trade was rising fastest: first during the “long
19th century” between the end of the French revolution and start of the first
world war, and then as trade liberalisation expanded after the second world
war, from the 1950s up to the 2008 global financial crisis.
Now, however, this grand project is on the retreat. Globalisation is not dead
yet, but it is dying.
Is this a cause for celebration, or concern? And will the picture change again
when Donald Trump and his tariffs of mass disruption leave the White House? As
a longtime
BBC economics correspondent who was based in Washington during the
global financial crisis, I believe there are sound historical reasons to worry
about our deglobalised future – even once Trump has left the building.
Trump’s tariffs have amplified the world’s economic problems, but he is not the
root cause of them. Indeed, his approach reflects a truth that has been
emerging for many decades but which previous US administrations – and other
governments around the world – have been reluctant to admit: namely, the
decline of the US as the world’s no.1 economic power and engine of world
growth."
It’s worth reading both parts of this two-part article.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
