Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s trade measures are starting to keep Deere & Co. combines and Caterpillar Inc. trucks out of Russian wheat fields and coal mines, dimming the companies’ prospects for expansion abroad. From Bloomberg, April 20, 2009
Several years ago, “the world is flat” phenomenon took hold. A place where every sector and segment of the world would become interrelated and interdependent. 1+1=3 Yet today if you look at the world, it doesn’t feel flat at all. If anything, it feels disjointed and straining at the seams. Trade barriers are being constructed. Tariffs implemented. Domestic policies are trumping international cooperation. It’s as if a huge tectonic plate has shifted, Without Warning.
In this era, China is becoming more vocal, and attempting to yield its new-found power. North Korea is attempting to be relevant. Europe is focused on being unified, yet individual economies are acting secular. And third world countries are fighting for their survival and relevance.
As a reader of this blog, I encourage you to look at the news with a critical eye. Personally, it feels as if the world vision of cooperation is waning. The role of POWER is reasserting itself and taking center stage. And its not pretty. It’s as if the tectonic plates of world economics is in the midst of a major shift. A place where emotions will run high, risks are elevated and the outcomes unpredictable.
The world of commerce and economics survives, thrives and reels from Without Warning events. In coming months, rhetoric will increase and the times we live in fascinating. World leaders have an opportunity to continue the path started during the Kennedy and Nixon administrations. The challenge however is intensified as the new world order is being challenged by the new world powers.
Tags: International Trade, power, Without Warning
