Globalization

Globalization

 

“It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble.  It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so”     

                        Mark Twain

I usually create panic on the first day of class when I tell students in my MBA class on Globalization and the New Economy to clear their desks; we are having our first test.  The relief is audible when I tell them just to holler out when they think they have a reasonable answer to the questions about the 21^st Century global economy I proceed to ask.

Business leaders who lack a reasonable understanding of the economic, political, legal, social and cultural dimensions of the global economy cannot make effective decisions.  Business leaders who believe the world’s population is two billion people and half live in America; that New York is the biggest city in the world; that the world GDP is $5 billion; that only 5% of the world’s output is traded globally; and that only 2% of the world’s population lives in poverty are no more likely to make sound decisions than physicists and astronomers who believe the world is flat; the Sun revolves around the Earth; and the world was created ten thousand years ago.

One of the primary objectives of the Globalization class is to improve students’ understanding of the world in which they will be future leaders.  The introductory part of the course strives to provide the students with an empirical backdrop against which economic, political, legal, and social principles and theory can be meaningfully interpreted, and applied to the myriad of critical problems facing the world today.

What do you know for sure?

1. What is the world population today?  What will it be in 2030?

 

1. Is the world population growth rate increasing or decreasing?

 

1. What country has the largest population?  How many people live in that country?

 

1. What are the world’s five largest cities?

 

1. What percent of the world’s population lives in cities?

 

1. How large is total world output?

 

1. What are the five largest nations in terms of economic output?

 

1. What is the largest country in the EU in terms of population or GDP?

 

1. What nation has the highest income per capita?

 

1. What country is the largest exporter of goods and services?

 

1. Which three countries have the largest trade deficits?

 

1. What percent of total world output is traded globally?

 

1. What is the volume of currency transactions on a typical day?

 

1. What is the annual volume of Foreign Direct Investment today?

 

1. Which country is the largest recipient of FDI?

 

1. What percent of US GDP consist of manufactured goods; services?

 

1. What are the world’s largest five corporations?

 

1. What percent of the U.S. labor force is unionized in the private sector?

 

1. What does WTO stand for?

 

1. What is the name of the current WTO negotiating round?

 

1. What percent of the world’s population lives in poverty – less than $2.00 a day?

 

1. What percent of the US GDP is devoted to official foreign aid?

 

1. What percent of the world’s population lives in a democracy?

 

1. Name four Communist countries today.

 

1. Name two countries that are a theocracy today.

 

1. Who are the Prime Ministers of the UK, Russia, China and India?

 

1. Which nations have the highest ratings on the Human Development Index?

 

1. What are the three least corrupt nations in the world?  The three most corrupt?

 

1. What percent of the world population that belongs to an organized religion is     Christian? Islam, Hindu? Buddhist?

 

1. What is the sacred book of Islam?

 

1. What do Judaism, Islam and Christianity have in common?

 

1. How many nations are members of the European Union?

 

1. What nations are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council?

 

1. What does perestroika mean?

 

1. What are the BRIC nations?

 

1. What does OPEC stand for?

 

1. What does IMF stand for?

 

Twenty reasonably correct (in the ballpark) answers would be impressive.

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