Weeks 32-35: Modern history IDs

Economic Globalization

-Economic Globalization is basically the greater global connectedness of businesses and investments

Globalization in Business

Involved rapid increases in exports and imports

Division of labor on a worldwide basis
Multinational corporations – extension of business organization across political boundaries
Example: Japanese cars had more American-made parts in them than Detroit products had
Example: Women in the West Indies and Africa made computer boards that were then sold back to the US
These businesses usually had more powerful and more resources than the governments of the countries in which they operated so they faced little government regulation

Investments

Accelerated rapidly at the end of the 20th century

Stock exchanges occurred between countries like China and Brazil as well as the great corporations of the West and Japan
By the 1980s foreign operations were generating between 25 and 40 percent of all corporate profits in the US
Japans foreign investment rose fifteen-fold in the 1970s

-The World Bank and International Monetery Fund were founded after WWII to promote economic globalization

-Caused a new protest movement as meetings by the World Bank and IMF were marked by massive protest and violence

-Some thought economic globalization was threatening the environment, others spoke out against the use of cheap labor, and others protested rampant Consumerism

-Another common concern was that it was only good for the already wealthy nations and was actually harmful to most of the world

Cartoon criticizing economic globalization by pointing out how unethical corporations are