Chapter 24- Accelerating Global Interaction Since 1945

Chapter 24 starts off with an interesting concept. It talked about how Barbie and Ken dolls showed the power of global commerce. On the other hand, in Iran it did not seem to represent the same thing. “I think every Barbie doll is more harmful than an American missile.” They thought that Barbie and Ken dolls were a bad influence on the growing children of Iran because it did not represent the right values that a child should portray. The dolls “revealing clothing, shapely appearance, and her close association with Ken, her longtime unmarried companion, were all foreign to Iran’s culture. In response to this, Sara Dara dolls were created in replace of Barbie and Ken. Sara Dara dolls represents a brother and sister who help each other solve their problems and in return look at their parents for guidance. It was the total opposite of Barbie and Ken, but the one thing that the two set of dolls had in common was the fact that they were both made/manufactured in China. This particular situation with the United States, Iran, and China showed the integration of world economics with cultures as well as the many problems and conflicts it includes as well.

Technology was a key factor in the acceleration of globalization. Transportation such as containerized shipping, huge oil tankers, and air express services lowered transportation costs by A LOT. Later when Internet became available, it provided communication for global interaction. The shape of the economic globalization was a single market, which is known as neoliberalism. This was a great approach for our economy because it lowered the reduction of tariffs, free global movement of capital, provided a workforce, had privatization of many state-run enterprises, curtailing of government efforts to regulate the economy, and both tax and spending cuts.

After World War II, a reglobalization of the world economy took place following the contractions of the 1930’s. This process took a quick circulation of goods, capital, and people. The thing I found most interesting is that the world trade went from $57 million in 1947 to $7 trillion in 2001. That’s a HUGE acceleration. Money was very mobile globally such as foreign direct investment, short term investment in foreign currencies/stocks, and international credit cards which allowed people to transfer money to other countries very easily. People that lived in poor countries traveled to seek better lives in richer countries such as South Asian and West Indians seeking work in Britain, and Algerians and West Africans in France. Many many people traveled to seek better things in life, and MANY were recruited into sex trafficking.  A huge issue that we still have in everyday lives, and it’s a huge issue that we discuss about in class all the time.