The Protesters in NYC

What are the protesters protesting exactly in NYC?  It seems that they have a variety of complaints but, in a sense, it all comes down to one thing, perhaps: powerlessness. The so-called "free market economy" has been taken over by what one economist calls "the financialization" of markets. In other words, the world economy is now governed not by free trade, but by a class of super investors who determine where capital should flow. And all of their decisions affect the lives of ordinary people. Who have no say at all in the direction the economy takes. And even the President of the United States seems to be at the mercy of financial institution which are "too big to fail."  Who says they are too big to fail? Or maybe they are. People wondering whether the failure of Citibank and Goldman Sachs would lead to the total collapse of the U.S. economy. What do you think? Should banks be bailed out at all costs?  Do you agree with the protesters?

Can individual countries solve global problems?
In the last post I reported that German policies and practices helped to stabilized their economy. But does this have any relevance for global issues? Can global problems be solved on the level of national policies? Please think about this question.

 Of course an individual country's economic policy is designed to solve the particular problems of that country. America doesn't make policy designed to help Greece or China- we are concerned with our own economic well being. This shows the importance of nation states even in a highly globalized world.

But is this a bad thing?  One could argue that making one's country healthy economically (and socially) can be good for the rest of the world, too. The case of Europe is obvious- the prosperity of one country will tend to spread to others in the EU (and of course the reverse is true- the decline in wealth of one member state will tend to put economic stresses on others).

Of course one of the central critical problems or questions with globalization is this: in the global economy, do rich countries prosper at the expense of poor ones? What do you think?

Is the German model better?

While the rest of Europe and America and Japan struggles economically, Germany is doing fairly well. Why?

1) they don't fire workers. In hard times sometimes hours are cut back to part-time status, but they are not fired. This means less unemployment. From a social economic point of view, high unemployment is indeed very bad for a society.

2) Germany has a strong manufacturing based of mid-sized industries. This gives stability. 

3) Banks are locally, working closely with local industries. This close relationship improves trust and the quality of investments.

Should we follow the German model, too?

Global Visionaries

This is a new blog by Prof. S. Rosen at the Prefectural University of Hiroshima to get idea from students in America and Japan which will help us design a new future