More Globalization

I am not sure why the authors titled the feature in this fashion other than for purposes of provocativeness.  Globalization never went away.

The Return of Globalization
by Gary Hufbauer and Kati Suominen || Foreign Policy

Read it here.

A Sense of Globalization Is Very Important

Foreign Policy Contributing Editor Christina Larson talks with Google Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt (pictured) about what makes a city smart, how not to lose $1 trillion -- and the one place he's never been. Very interesting read.

Excerpt:

How is information technology changing the world?

When I was growing up, an elite controlled the media. And the majority of the world was very, very poor, both in a resource sense and an information sense. Since then, a set of things have occurred: the digital revolution, the mobile revolution, and so forth -- of which I am enormously proud because they are roughly the equivalent of lifting people from abject poverty and ignorance to a reasonable ability to communicate and participate in the conversation.

Information empowers individuals. And it has a huge and overwhelmingly positive impact on society. Think of someone who can now get information about finance or technology, or they're in school and they can't afford textbooks but access information online. Or imagine medicine -- I mean there's just issue after issue.

Globalization has clearly been responsible for lifting at least 2 billion people from abject poverty to extremely low levels of middle class. As a result, they have greater access to education and opportunity; they are much less likely to attack you, and they're busy trying to fulfill their low-cost version of the American Dream. They're trying to buy a car.

Read the entire interview: "Googlopolis"

Caricature drawing credit above of Eric Schmidt can be found here.

Posted by: The Global Small Business Blog

The Age of Global Urban Expansion

China and India rising.

Half of Asia will become urbanized, and nearly a billion people will shift from countryside to cityscape. Trillions of dollars will need to be spent on roads, trains, power plants, water systems, and social services. And it's going to happen in less than half the time that it took the West. China and India will account for two-fifths of the world's urban growth, but they are pursuing wildly different strategies for managing this shift.

Read more about this here.

How are you positioning your business to catch a portion of the opportunities mentioned in this powerful feature?

Photo credit here.

Posted by: The Global Small Business Blog

China: What Wall?

Interesting post by Elison Elliott for the Foreign Policy "Global Markets" Blog Network (launched February, 2009):

Don't Bet Against China

It's running in line with our predictions No. 4 and 5 here. Elison and I have been in touch via email. I hope to interview him soon on this topic at The Global Small Business Blog.

Also make note of prediction No. 4 in our report talking about China "borrowing our ideas ..." Looks like Google has a short fuse on this. Read more here.

Fascinating. Another interesting piece here.