Introduction

    Issue/article: Buy American--Why Not? (Los Angeles Times (2009))

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    What is globalization?
    Globalization refers to the interconnectedness of the world's economies and societies
    This buzzword of the 1990s is actually about 30 years older. The term Globalized quota first appears in 1959 in The Economist; it is a reference to quotas on car imports to Italy. The word globalization itself appears in Merriam Webster's New International Dictionary in 1961. Several other sources use the term throughout the early 1960s. It was well established by 1965.
    "the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole."
    Roland Robinson, Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture, 1992.
    "The process of integration, across frontiers, of liberalizing market economies"
    Martin Wolf, Why Globalization Works, 2004.
    Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times
    I have more than a dozen international economics texts. The oldest edition that lists globalization in its index is 1997.

    triangulate: (1) Ca<-->Nv <--> NY) - (2) US <--> China <--> Mexico

    ? What sorts of interactions link these geographic areas?
        trade
        travel
        communication
        migration
        investment
        diffusion of information and technology
        spread of cultural influences, values
        illegal trafficking: sex trade / drugs / terrorists
        colonialism / imperialism

    ? Why a separate class for international interactions?
    The extra complications of interactions between countries versus interactions within countries?
    Different currencies
    Trade barriers
    Immigration restrictions
    Different governance: laws, regulations, and policies
    Different societies: language, culture, religion

    A subset of globalization: International economics: the study of the flows between countries of goods, services, resources and financial assets (money, stocks, bonds, etc.)

    Concerns of the course: 
    What differences do these complications of make?
    What, if anything, should we do about the complications?

    ? Why do you think group 2 interactions have grown so rapidly to become so pervasive more in recent years?
        falling transportation costs
        falling communication costs
    ? About how much does a 3-minute phone call to London cost?
    The cost of a three-minute telephone call from New York to London in current prices dropped from about $250 in 1930 to a few cents today (2 cents per minute with Google phone).
        falling barriers to international transactions
    Argentina trips
    1976: snail mail / no contact / Ushuaia: 1 paragraph, 6K people in wool
    2004: Ushuaia: >50K / tourism / internet / cells / rap music

    Global trends

    1. Output over time has been on the rise (gdp chart)

    2. But so has population (gdp&pop chart)

    Since output has grown faster, output per person has increased over time

    3. Trade:

    Trade has grown faster than output (gdp&pop&t chart)
    Handout (print landscape)