Globalization Is Just Getting Started

Like it or not, we live in a globalized economy. How you define or measure globalization can vary, but it tends to just mean greater financial integration among countries, as well as more political cooperation, immigration, and trade of goods and services. In all these domains, globalization has been on the rise until recently.

Some economists, pundits and politicians are arguing that globalization has peaked and will now start to reverse. Niall Ferguson sees this period of globalization, thanks to the pandemic, fading away with a whimper. Harvard economist Dani Rodrick is announcing the end of neoliberalism.

But globalization isn’t a phase; it’s a force that can’t be stopped.

There was a concerted push toward more global integration throughout the era following World War II. As the war ended, the global community created several large institutions (the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations and the like) to facilitate more cooperation and trade and avoid the mistakes of the past. But globalization really took off after the fall of the Berlin Wall.