Economics in the Global Age
A market economy is to economics what democracy is to government:
a decent, if flawed, choice among many bad alternatives.
—Charles Wheelan, Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science (2002)
Learning Objectives
- D: Explain the continuities and changes in the global economy from 1900 to the present.
Global trade exploded with the end of the Cold War. The new global economy
was part of a renewed emphasis on market-oriented policy advocated by leaders such as Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain. They advocated cutting taxes, regulations, and government assistance to the poor as a way to promote economic growth. As Wheeler pointed out, this was a flawed choice producing greater wealth for many but hardships for others. At the same time, revolutions in information and communications technology led to the growth of knowledge economies in some regions, while industrial production and manufacturing were increasingly situated in Asia and Latin America.
Sections
Acceleration of Free-Market Economies
Economic Change: New Knowledge Economies
Economic Continuities: Shifting Manufacturing
Transnational Free-Trade Organizations
Multinational Corporations
Think As a Historian: THINK AS A HISTORIAN: POLITICAL CAMPAIGN vS. ACADEMIC RESEARCH
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Reflect
REFLECT ON THE TOPIC ESSENTIAL QUESTION
1. In one to three paragraphs, explain how the global economy changed and remained the same from 1900 to the present.
AP Exam Practice
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