Growth and Globalization Cannot Cure All the World’s Ills

Global leaders and elites, such as those who gathered for the World Economic Forum in Davos, regard economic growth via globalization as the prescription for difficulty or political conflict, suggests Gideon Rachman for the Financial Times. But economic growth, globalization and capitalism do not necessarily curtail inequality, instability, environmental degradation, nationalist rivalries, jihad and the other stubborn quests for power that ignore democratic decision-making. Rachman identifies three areas of the concern: Syria and other places in the Middle East are beyond the fixes of economic rationality. The Chinese-Japanese rivalry intensifies despite the fact that China is “Japan’s largest trading partner and the biggest recipient of Japanese foreign investment” and Rachman points out that “in some respects, China’s growing prosperity is actually driving the increase in international tensions in Asia.” And in Europe and the United States, globalization has enriched many but contributes to wage stagnation and a widening inequality that could lead to more political extremism. – YaleGlobal