This post is the first installment in what I envision as an ongoing series.
You might be interested in this article from the Financial Times on an opinion poll take in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and the U. S. on globalization. The graphic above pretty much says it all. There are a couple of things you might want to keep in mind. First, until very recently Germany has run a trade surplus with China. All those new factories are filled with German heavy equipment. Second, as usual the U. S. is an outlier.
Most importantly, over the last 20 years international trade has helped more poor people, particularly in China and India, than any other government program.
That’s such a hard graph to read. If the first graph indicates that about 40% of Americans have a negative view of globalization, I might be surprised at how low that is. Free trade agreements have polled much less popular as of late.
As I read it it says that about 85% of Americans have a negative view of globalization or aren’t sure..