The case for corporate globalization depended on world (international) trade expanding faster than domestic (internal) trade, making it the ‘engine’ of greater prosperity everywhere. But between 2007 and 2009 world trade slumped – for the first time since World War Two – much faster than domestic trade, making it the engine of recession in those countries most reliant upon it. Empty ships at anchor littered the world’s coastlines. Unemployment soared at record rates. The entire system came to rest on guarantees, bailouts and ‘stimulus’ packages – perhaps amounting to $15 trillion in all – provided by governments. The globalization ‘paradigm’ was well and truly wrecked.
Between 2007 and 2009 manufactured exports fell more sharply than at any time on record since the 1930s.
