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Thomas Friedman's Lexus & the Olive Tree Since the end of the Cold War, new technologies have evolved a new international system known as globalization. In his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas L. Friedman (1999) defines globalization as the ôintegration of capital, technology, and information across national borders, in a way that is creating a single global market and, to some degree, a global village.ö Even if this is a best scenario definition of the emerging global system of democratic institutions and free-market capitalism referred to as globalization, Friedman acknowledges the animosity of those ôbrutalizedö by the process. The animosity stems from those countries whose traditional culture,…

Theories of Karl Marx Marx, Karl. WageLabour and Capital and Value, Marx, Karl. WageLabour and Capital and Value, Price and Profit. New York: International Publishers, 1976. For Karl Marx, the study of philosophy and economics were both inexorably linked. In the study of his works, particularly those of an economic bent, it is necessary to understand a basic outline of the philosophy and ideas which came to be known as Marxism. Initially, one must remember that Marx was clearly a product of his time, and his economic and philosophical ideas are focused toward the perceived evils of industrialization and capitalism. Marx's philosophy is derived from many sources, most notably the…

The Federal Reserve & Economic Theories Friedman was a monetarist of the Chicago school who went against the Keynesian idea that individuals and households adjust their expenditures on consumption to reflect their current income, and showed that instead, people's annual consumption is a function of their expected lifetime earnings (Milton; The Concise). He defied Keynes and most academics in presenting evidence to resurrect the quantity theory of money - the theory that price level is dependent on the money supply. Friedman's solution to the problems of inflation and short-run fluctuations in employment and real GNP was a so-called money supply rule. If the Federal reserve board was required to increase…

Russian Oil Sector & "Dutch Disease" I. Introduction: Natural Wealth and "Dutch Disease" Abundance of natural resources might appear to be inherently beneficial to an economy that has access to them. Primary resources are one of the basic forms of capital (Gylfason, 2001), so low-cost access to them would seem to give an economy not only lower internal costs, but an inherent competitive advantage over other economies. Experience, however, shows that the opposite is often the case. Spain in the 16th century had access to vast quantities of gold and silver from the Americas, but far from booming the Spanish economy went into long-term decline (Benjamin, Devarajan, and Weiner, 1989).…

Productivity and Costs 1) There is a link between productivity and costs resulting in higher costs for lower productivity. To understand this inverse relationship, it is necessary to understand that productivity relates to how effective resources--including human resources, equipment and financial capital--are used. If human resources, for example, are not working at high levels of efficiency, it takes longer for a job to get done, or that more labor must be employed to accomplish the job. That means that more must be paid in salary or overtime than if the workers were able to be more productive. The same is true for equipment. If equipment is operating at a low…

Kikkoman Corporation & US Trade Policy Kikkoman Corporation is a Japanese-based organization best known for making soy sauce. Its history stretches over several hundred years, and its product line includes products well beyond soy sauce. The company has facilities, offices, and subsidiaries located throughout the world which gives it an international presence, but which also protects it from the regulations that "foreign" companies face. Within the United States, the company has avoided problems with federal regulations by operating through its Kikkoman International subsidiary, and the company does not market its pharmaceutical products in the United States. This research examines Kikkoman Corporation and the trade issues it does face in the…

Italy's Macroeconomics According to Italy Review (2007), since the end of World War II, the Italian economy has been transformed from an agrarian to an industrial base and now ranks as the seventh largest economy in the world with an economic structure comparable to that of other advanced Organization for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD) countries. However, Business Monitor International (2008) states that the Italian economy will ease in 2008 due to record energy prices, a strong Euro, and the potential fallout from an autumn 2007 global credit squeeze. Also, the downturn in economic activity is likely to be a longer term winding down of the growth cycle toward historical…