The United States and the World

 True or False? In the United States it would be unusual to ride in a bus made in Japan?  We not only live not just as Americans, but as part of the global economy  Global Integration: Interdependency among the countries of the world, especially within financial markets and telecommunications  Telecommunications: Long-distance electronic communication

 First Transatlantic telegraph completed in 1866  With the invention of the semiconductor- computer-chip telecommunications took off  Other inventions as well: communication satellites, Radio and TV wave, Fiber-optic cables and internet  Before the 1990’s all TV and Radio in the Eastern Hemisphere was state run and state controlled

 Viewers in other parts of the world are changing their habits  India: they buy outfits worn by popular music television performers  More of the world’s people want to learn English as a 2 nd language

 Because of the speed and power of computers and affordability of telecommunications, the world has become one financial market  Started in the 60’s and 70’s when U.S. banks developed worldwide branch networks of loans and foreign exchange trading

 When each country’s stock market is linked worldwide, problems can arise  Stock Market Crash of 1929: Great Depression  Stock Market Crash of 1987: Dow Jones fell 508 points, largest one loss in U.S. History  Less than 7 hours more than $500 billion corporate value disappeared  Global financial market causes everybody everywhere to feel affects of panic

 Nothing seems more American than Burger King now owned by the British  Japanese own over 30% of office space in downtown Los Angeles  Indonesian firm owns Chicken of the Sea Tuna  German company owns Aldi’s  British company owns French’s mustard  Germany company owns Reebok  Japanese company owns 7-Eleven

 Direct Foreign Investment- purchase by foreigners of real estate and businesses in another country  Some Americans want to restrict it  Great Britain was the biggest foreign investor in the American railroads in the late 1800s and early 1900s  Many people argue against foreign ownership of American companies because they are worried about foreign control

 Foreigners own about 27% of all U.S. government securities (short and long term debt)  Does the U.S. government have more control over foreigners?  Yes, because they own 27% of U.S. public debt, they are subject to U.S. policy  Government could wipe out the real value of the U.S. debt that foreigners own by creating tremendous inflation