William Greider's article, "Shopping Till We Drop", and Michael Pettis" article "Will Globalization Go Bankrupt", are both articles pertaining to globalization. Greider, throughout his article, reveals the argument that America is eventually going to end up having to reshape its global trade policies, or we will hit rock bottom. He compares the amount of exports, to the amount of imports and basically says that America will have to stop being the buyer of last resort, and quit promising these small countries that we"ll buy their exports in order for them to maintain markets. Pettis" article describes the contraction and restrictions of capital inflows and touches on many of the same points. He argues throughout that globalization is a cycle that contracts when money is there, and restricts when it's not. He argues that capital inflows allow for easy fiscal deficits, and allow industrialists to build new organizations that bring in so much personal money it will calm political elites who would normally oppose. He then expresses that in the past, after any economical "booms", there has been a collapse, or some sort of consequence to the vast expansion, and then after the money builds back up, the process repeats itself.
Greider throughout his article argues that America is simply heading for rock bottom if we do not do something about our financial situation. We are currently spending borrowed money at a greater rate than we can make it. I agree totally with him. If you look at the history of economical "booms", you will see that the majority of them have ended in some sort of collapse of currency or market, or some sort of penalizing consequence. Right now our Net Foreign Obligation to debt is equivalent to 20 percent of our Gross Domestic Product, which basically means the money we owe foreign creditors is equal to 20 percent of what we, as a country, make annually. Ten years ago it was zero, meaning we have basically done nothing but gain debt in the last ten years.
