The Next Economic Victim: Globalization

Plunging exports, protectionism undercut 'golden age'
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 5, 2009 9:02 AM CST
The Next Economic Victim: Globalization
Exports have fallen 35% in Singapore.   (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

World trade has quadrupled since 1982, but economic woes are eating away at globalization’s “golden age” as exports fall, foreign workers head home, and governments seek to protect their own, the Washington Post reports. “The collapse of globalization is absolutely possible,” said a US economist. “It happened in the 20th century in the wake of World War I and the Great Depression, and could happen again.”

In Singapore, where manufactured goods are almost entirely sent abroad, exports dropped by 35% in January; global air cargo traffic fell 23%. After bailing out its automakers, French president Nicolas Sarkozy called on factories to use only French-built parts and bring foreign factories home. In the grip of “deglobalization,” says a former head economist at the IMF, “I do think we'll have a lost decade, an unwinding of labor mobility, of capital, of political will.”
(More global economy stories.)

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