The Series on Global Trade & Manufacturing
Improve your mental model of the world with these articles I have written before
Besides talking about Africa, I also talk a lot about global trade & US manufacturing since there are so many myths and incorrect things when trade is discussed.
Article #1:
In this article I talk about the de-industrialization of the West, from America, New Zealand, and Germany, all of these economies have transitioned from manufacturing economies to service economies.
Article #2 (Click Link Below)
In this article I discuss why exporting commodities doesn’t lead to sustained economic growth, and I explain why commodity dependence has affected South Africa, Brazil, and Russia from not growing as fast as India or China (nations that don’t depend on exporting commodities to grow).
Article #3 (Click Link Below)
In this article, I discuss how Akron, Ohio in the United States went from one of the premier manufacturing hubs to a “rust belt”. The reason isn’t because “we exported labor to China”, the reason was because of losing to foreign competition from Western Europe and Japan in the 70s and 80s.
Article 4 (Click Link Below)
In this article, I attack the African reddit meme “Why are we so poor, we have so many resources?” That meme needs to die because it leads to a fundamental misunderstanding about commodity markets.
Article #5
In this article, I discuss how the world hasn’t really globalized but instead “regionalized”. East Asia & Pacific, North America, and Europe are responsible for 85% of global trade. Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Russia, Central Asia, and South Asia make the up the other 15%.
Article #6:
This article is about Interregional trade. Europe, East Asia, and North America make up 85% of global trade, but also 66% of European trade is within Europe, 50% of East Asian trade is within East Asia, and 40% of North American trade is within North America. The other regions of the world are not nearly as regionalized.
#7
