Global economics

The idea of globalization had been around for centuries but it came into its own in the 1950's when Nobel economist Milton Friedman promoted the idea that who ever could make the best product in the most efficient way should make that product. This opened the door to free trade around the world. While this was a great idea from a theoretical standpoint it was not so great when put into practice. The major flaw was that countries did not behave in an ethical manner and the free was turned into government supported industries and currency manipulation. Between 1950 and 2000 world trade expanded 300 times to $28 trillion. But it was after China joined the WTO that trade really took off increasing from $6 trillion to $28 trillion. The result was that 8 million manufacturing jobs left the US and these were mostly high paying union jobs. This resulted in wage stagnation from 1980 until 2020 and meanwhile China's economy was booming with all of the new jobs taken from Americans. When the mortgage crisis of 2006 hit it was the beginning of the decline in global business and this was further accelerated by the spread across the globe of populism headed by Trump in the United States. The pandemic hit and reinforced the move away from globalization. Make America great again was the call to bring the jobs home. US consumers enjoyed 20 years of low prices at the expense of sending jobs overseas and today America is at the mercy of such important items as computer chips, solar panels and pharmaceuticals. Those in the United Nations who still believe in globalization see it as a way to continue to move assets from developed countries to poor countries.