GLOBAL ECONOMIC

FLOWS
TRADE

❑Trade Surpluses and Deficits

❑Global Trade: Economic Chains and
Networks
❑Global Value Chains: China and the US
❑SCRAP METAL
❑WASTE PAPER
❑T-SHIRTS
❑IPHONES
✓ INCREASING COMPETITION FOR COMMODITIES

✓ THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE FLOW OF OIL

Oil Wealth

✓ RACE TO THE BOTTOM AND UPGRADING

Race to the bottom

Upgrading in the Less Developed World?

Industrial upgrading
OUTSOURCING

FINANCIAL GLOBALIZATION
The Great Recession
Sovereign wealth funds

CONSUMPTION
Consumer Objects and Services
Consumers
Consumption Processes
Consumption Sites
Global Resistance
This chapter focuses on global economic flows. Global trade operates through various
economic networks such as supply chains, international production networks, global
commodity chains and, most importantly, global value chains. Global value chains follow the
creation of value through different stages, from the creation of a product, to its disposal after use.
Commodities are often the first link in this chain. Some countries stimulate trade and investment
through low prices and low wages. This often leads to a “ race to the bottom ” among countries
vying for increased investment and export business. However, some theorize that after a point,
there is a move toward industrial “ upgrading. ” Outsourcing is also an important global flow.
Offshore outsourcing involves contracting work to companies located in other countries.
National economies across the globe are highly interconnected through financial markets;
cyclical fluctuations in one country will have an impact on many others. Global economic flows
also include the movement of corporations, people, and ideas, across both geographic and
virtual boundaries. The flow of consumer goods and services is also being expedited.
Hyperconsumption (buying more than one can afford) and hyperdebt (owing more money than
one can afford to repay) are important concepts in this analysis. Not only do people spend more
time in consumption, they are also increasingly defining themselves through their consumption
practices. Consumption sites are increasingly becoming global. Resistance to these sites of
consumption, as well as to hyperconsumption and hyperdebt, is also global.