Q5 Spring 2009
Where's the value in globalization?
Online Features






Dialogs





Vignettes

Noteworthy
The second post addresses the concern that funds working in concert could extend their political influence, but conclude that "recent examples of SWF cooperation seem to be based on commercial criteria exclusively."
For additional background, Qn talked with Larry Summers about these concerns and more.
Simon Johnson writes in the Baseline Scenario blog that the "official view" of the global economic crisis is that it was created by an unfortunate confluence of rare events and is best fixed by bailouts and support of the financial sector. Johnson goes on to describe a second view, "If the size, nature, and clout of finance is the problem, then…pumping resources into the financial sector delays the day of reckoning and likely increases its costs. More likely, the Mother of All Bailouts is storing up serious problems for the near-term future."
The Financial Times has an article on rising salaries in the banking sector. "In spite of the troubled environment, market rates for bankers have been running close to the boom-time highs of two years ago." It goes on to explain that the phenomenon is "partly driven by a need to hold on to good staff – and partly to offset the threat of bonus taxes or caps in the US – UBS, Merrill and Morgan Stanley have all increased their basic pay substantially. Citi now plans to do the same."
Comment from Where's the value in globalization?
Various ways of gathering data from cell phones are being developed. The Economist covers a few of the interesting possibilities being explored, including using information extracted from the text messages sent to rural health clinics in the Mekong Bason as real-time disease data that can speed responses to disease outbreaks. Another system tracks the movements of phones and can be used for big-picture urban planning decisions on where to locate rail stations or smaller-scale choices such as where to place emergency exits in a building.
Posted by
Qn Editorial Staff
Read
Where's the value in globalization?
Comment from Has globalization failed in Nigeria?
The Guardian reports that "The oil giant Shell has agreed to pay $15.5m in settlement of a legal action in which it was accused of having ¬collaborated in the execution of the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of the Ogoni tribe of southern Nigeria." The article goes on to say that many believe the settlement may impact decision-making by multinational corporations around social and environmental issues.
Posted by
Qn Editorial Staff
Read
Has globalization failed in Nigeria?
Comment from How do foreign companies market to India?
The pitchman is alive and well in India—and bringing the fruits of globalization to people in the countryside. A feature story in the Wall Street Journal follows Sandeep Sharma as he hawks products in rural parts of the country where traditional advertising mediums such as TV, radio, and newspapers aren't widely available. Whether it is Nokia cell phones, Castrol oil, or Nestle noodles, Sharma has sold it with a mix of showmanship and knowledge of local needs and culture.
Posted by
Qn Editorial Staff
Read
How do foreign companies market to India?
Comment from Where does Africa fit in the globalization puzzle?
Todd Moss is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. For more on these issues, see his book African Development: Making Sense of the Issues and Actors.
Posted by
Qn Editorial Staff
Read
Where does Africa fit in the globalization puzzle?
Comment from Where's the value in globalization?
"As a business leader, imagine trying to manage more than 7,000 scientists from 85 countries around the world—with their own languages, cultures, and expertise—on a 20-year collaboration to create the most complex system ever built." This Businessweek article catalogs the management challenges of running the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland are cataloged in, and the innovative systems the organization has put in place to succeed.
Posted by
Qn Editorial Staff
Read
Where's the value in globalization?
Comment from Where's the value in globalization?
Dani Rodrik, professor of international political economy at Harvard’s Kennedy School, takes on the question of trade liberalization in a blog post. Focusing on the most potent policy steps the U.S. could take on its own, and considering the possibility of adverse movements in income distribution, he proposes “liberalize agricultural trade, and expand visa quotas for highly skilled foreign workers.”
Posted by
Qn Editorial Staff
Read
Where's the value in globalization?
Comment from What can values do for globalization?
The Wilson Quarterly has an article exploding many of the myths of demographic shifts around the world while exploring the likely possibility of shifting populations reshaping the world’s religious landscape in the coming century.
Posted by
Qn Editorial Staff
Read
What can values do for globalization?
Comment from How has trade shaped the world?
For more on William J. Bernstein's work, including the introduction to A Splendid Exchange, visit his website.
Posted by
Q5 Editorial Staff
Read
How has trade shaped the world?
Comment from Do we need a global regulator?
A clear result of the economic crisis: the IMF has been pushed to sharpen its definition of a global recession. The Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Economics blog gives a capsule history of IMF recession standards as well as a chart of what the new standards tell us about past recessions and the year to come.
Posted by
Q5 Editorial Staff
Read
Do we need a global regulator?
Comment from Is globalization endangered?
An essay on McKinsey’s What Matters website puts the impact of the current economic crisis on global sourcing into historical perspective with a quotation from John Maynard Keynes. “The inhabitant of London [in August 1914] could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, in such quantity as he might see fit, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep.” World War I made clear to the Londoner the progress of globalization is not entirely regular and predictable, but it is a lesson many forgot. The authors give advice on how to move forward given our own recent shake-up, with a particular focus on the way political realities impinge on global business activity.
Posted by
Q5 Editorial Staff
Read
Is globalization endangered?
Comment from How does business value human rights?
Christine Bader is profiled on the Yale SOM website.
Posted by
Q5 Editorial Staff
Read
How does business value human rights?
Comment from How does business value human rights?
Thanks for a really interesting article. I think there's been some real progress in this field in recent years. Yale should be very proud of Christine Bader.
Posted by
Matt Stephens
Read
How does business value human rights?
Comment from Has globalization failed in Nigeria?
Christine Bader '00 discusses the relationship between business and human rights with Qn. She offers perspectives from both her work with BP and her current role as Advisor to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Business and Human Rights.
Posted by
Q5 Editorial Staff
Read
Has globalization failed in Nigeria?
Comment from How does business value human rights?
As part of the Faith and Globalization Initiative sponsored by Yale and the Tony Blair Foundation, Christine Bader and Tim Collins, Senior Managing Director and CEO of Ripplewood Holdings, discussed building business practices that are tied to principles of social responsibility.
Posted by
Q5 Editorial Staff
Read
How does business value human rights?
Comment from What is Nollywood?
This is interesting and I'd love to see visual references to the films discussed here to get a sense of the level of production value. I'm not aware of broadband's penetration in Nigeria, but it's interesting to consider the effect something like YouTube would have on this particular industry, and how it connects people in both the home country and the diaspora.
Posted by
Manuel
Read
What is Nollywood?
Comment from Has globalization failed in Nigeria?
National Geographic photojournalist Ed Kashi took the photos of Nigeria that appeared in the book, produced in collaboration with Michael Watts, Curse of the Black Gold. Kashi described what it's like to visit the oil-producing Niger Delta:
"The Delta is an intriguing place. It is verdant — the second largest wetlands in Africa. There is jungle and mangrove swamp run through with streams, rivers and lakes. It is also a place where you turn a corner and there is suddenly a massive flare burning into the sky. It's almost surreal. On the one hand you are in the midst of natural, undeveloped beauty, and then you come upon these industrial works belching black smoke."
See more of Kashi's photographs of Nigeria on his website.
Posted by
Q5 Editorial Staff
Read
Has globalization failed in Nigeria?
Comment from What can values do for globalization?
Find out more about Yale's Faith and Globalization Intiative or the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.
Posted by
Q5 Editorial Staff
Read
What can values do for globalization?
Comment from What is Nollywood?
For more on Nigeria, read Qn's interview with University of California, Berkeley geographer Michael Watts who has researched the oil producing region of the country for some 30 years. Watts has also collaborated with with National Geographic photographer Ed Kashi on Curse of the Black Gold.
Posted by
Q5 Editorial Staff
Read
What is Nollywood?
Comment from Can you say 'Cosmo' in Russian?
For more on Hearst's efforts in international markets, read the Yale SOM case study.
Posted by
Q5 Editorial Staff
Read
Can you say 'Cosmo' in Russian?
Comment from Is there a global literature?
International editions of books often include cultural translation where "pavements have become sidewalks and mums are moms," according to an article in the Guardian. Now because of a proposal to remove import restrictions on books in Australia, those foreign editions may be competing with the original and perhaps limiting writers ability to present material as they intended, even in their homeland. The article cites author Kate Grenville’s experience. "She was effectively forbidden from lapsing into antipodean idiom.
“Disapproving foreign editors would strike words like 'ute,' 'dunny,' and 'chook' from the page, not because they were crude versions of English which Australians proudly call 'ocker,' but because it was as if she was speaking another tongue. They did not understand that Grenville was describing a 'truck with an open back,' 'an outside toilet,' and 'a cooked chicken.'
"'They wanted me to de-Australianise a lot and if I had said no, I would never have been published overseas,' she said. 'There was a blind cultural assumption that American English was English and I was speaking a very different sub-category which needed subtitles.'"
Posted by
Q5 Editorial Staff
Read
Is there a global literature?
Comment from Did the mail shape globalization?
The mail may have laid tracks for later expansions of globalization; it may also have shaped the development of American democracy.
The postal system of the newly formed United States was a marked departure from the norms of the time. The earliest systems were set up entirely for the use of the government, and in times when communication over distance was a significant challenge, expanding access to the general population was commonly seen as a tool that gave too much power to enemies of the state looking to pass secrets. As the American colonies demonstrated, the concern was legitimate; breaking away from the British mail system was a significant step toward fomenting the Revolutionary War. After the war, the new country prioritized an effective postal system as key to having informed citizens. The government heavily subsidized postage on newspapers, which were generally handed around or tacked in a public spot when they reached outpost towns. Access to the mail system was the “the material foundation for American democracy,” according to postal historian Richard R. John, whose book Spreading the News covers the era in depth.
The postal system pushed quickly into the hinterland. At a time when...
Posted by
Q5 Editorial Staff
Read
Did the mail shape globalization?
Comment from Has globalization failed in Nigeria?
The Nigerian film industry, Nollywood, has quickly grown into the largest producer of feature films in the world. Generally shooting direct to video and with low budgets, the homegrown industry reminds one film scholar of the early years of Hollywood. Read Qn’s interview with Dudley Andrew to get a glimpse of another aspect of the Nigerian economy.


Recent comments from the Q5 community