When America was attacked, so many questions did come up, and one of them concerned the dangers for the new world economy. Is terrorism on the dim side of globalization? This question came after realization of the irretrievable progress towards globalization. The main problem was to determine who would control the “commanding heights” of the economy-central governments or free markets.
The emergence of the industrialists indeed fueled up the age of globalization. Richard Cheney, the Vice President of the U.S, stated that globalization is very significant and if not put under control, it can do a lot of damage, especially to ordinary people. Creating a new rule on globalization seemed to be very hard in regards to the number of speculations that were constantly.
The third episode of the Commanding Heights series entitled “The New Rules of the Game” does examine the history and development of globalization from 1990 till the present day. The rate of globalization moved at a speed of lightening in the 1990’s, and it greatly boosted the expansion of trade in the history of the world.
Such development never occurred in the recent past. This unprecedented intensity of trade creates a lot of opportunities for wealth creation while on the same note it does create conflict or crises among the nations of the world which intend to have full monopoly of globalization.
After the communist regime collapsed, many nations started to tie together their wealth to the global open market. So many countries were at the forefront in stiff struggle to draw the urbanized world’s savings capital. Every country wanted to monopolize the free market that had been allowed among the nation states across the border of U.S. However, as advancement in technology takes place and new ideas arise, economic changes on the same note do occur with a lot of things coming into existence.
The economic recession of Mexico became a threat to Bill Clinton. This happened due to internet linked financial markets, unlimited capital flows and floating currencies, which led to a tentative venture that interfered with trade in terms of goods and services.
In Thailand, the massive pool of available funds seemed to be a great luck at its initial stages. Later on, it turned into a total catastrophe. Sooner all the Asian countries were overwhelmed with economic crisis. Everything changed to be violent towards those who write the rules that will control globalization. Poverty was increasing day by day. As a matter of fact, globalization seemed to be an interesting process that would promote trade and increase international relations.
Indeed, free trade that had been in use for a long period of time (capitalism) started to vanished. The global market came to a reality, and it showed a lot of demerits of the American side, since it had strong competitors like Japan and Germany. America had to do something to keep investment at home. George Bush allowed unrestricted trade with Mexico and Canada.
So many people supported the idea of trading as it creates wealth, it also brings nations together, and it makes nations secure and successful in various areas. After this agreement, many foreign companies were built in Mexico; they exported goods to the American market. This increased employment opportunities along the border of Northern Mexico. Problems emerged since America was really taking control of everything, globalization was changing to be called Americanization.
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was approved in 1993. It started to work in the countries that signed the agreement, in the United States, and even the intact land of Mexico. North American Free Trade Agreement was indeed progressing during the presidency of George H.W. Bush after it had been drafted.
It was later implemented under the leadership of Bill Clinton who was the next president of the United States of America. NAFTA was in every businessman’s mind. It was well received by the business leaders and the Wall Street. On the contrary, it was criticized by the U.S leaders to a greater extent. The majority of the U.S leaders did oppose it, since they knew it had more disadvantages than advantages.
The labor leaders, especially the members of AFLCIO, viewed NAFTA as a weak organization, since it was giving a lot of power to international corporations and not enough power to the individual workers. These leaders on the same note were afraid that NAFTA would lead to the economic recession in the United States and its bordering countries like Mexico.
This fear was caused by the fact that a lot of companies were just based on the borders of U.S in Northern Mexico. At the end, it really became very hard to decide who was to write the rules that would stop all sources of crises pertaining to globalization. It seemed impossible to impose rules that would control the era of the global game. It became hard to come up with the necessary rules, since everyone was skeptical about the globalization.