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GLOBAL BUSINESS DICTIONARY AGENCY PRINCIPLE VIOLATION • Serving self (or corporation) instead of stakeholders (community) • Exploiting agents in business use established success systems (created by government) for self (rather than constituent or community) gain. •Corporate deregulation •Economic & social outsourcing •Lapdog boards & regulatory agencies •Short-term earn & burn tactics •Major political campaign contributions & lobbying •Neo-colonialism BLACK HOLE OF CAPITALISM & GLOBAL BUSINESS (Impersonal) capitalism is sustained by social, economic, technological, & political forces too powerful for corporations & nations to escape or resist. Capitalism runs the ST 21 century world both economically & politically. • Global off-shoring • Global suply chains • Free trade agreements • International Standards organization • Digital technology & “hot money” • Global government organizations BODY & BRAIN NATIONS The global economy is divided into 2 basic categories of nations: Intellectual property creators (brains) & makers (bodies) of global products & services. •Brain strategy = offshoring •Body strategy = using net exporting to turn brains into global debtors BONDED WAREHOUSES Trade stimulus for bordering nations Government helps both cross-border buyer & seller of goods to generate revenue before they have to pay for their business trade expenses. “BRIC” Brazil Russia India China Emerging middle class nonWestern markets using mixed capitalism BULL & BEAR ECOLOGICAL NATIONS Natural resource surplus vs. deficit nations Global footprints Natural resource dependency profiles predict future national & regional economic prosperity, stability, & geo-political dominance Bulls will soon have to develop the capacity to engage in future natural resource rationing & overcome its negative pull on economic growth. Developing a global pricing system for resourcereplacement & renewal CAPITAL ACCOUNT The amount foreign nations invest in your nation minus how much your nation invests in foreign nations The most common ways nations invest in one another: • Job creation via offshoring • Supply chains • Technology-sharing •Corporate joint ventures •Maintaining currency values •Legal & illegal immigrant labor The USA owns/influences more of the world than anyone else due to capital account surplus. CAPITALISM BENEFITS •Material standard of living •Decentralization of economic efficiency •Jobs, technology, financing (psych wants) CAPITALISM EXPLOITATION CYCLES • Non-sustainable income (“sweat shops”) • Currency superiority • Social off-shoring • Economic, political & cultural imperialism To escape the exploitation cycle, developing nations must move up the value added chain. CAPITALISM GLOBAL INSECURITIES Social Darwinism capitalism survival of the fittest • Economies • Industries & markets • Technologies • Corporations • Jobs & careers • Communities & families (via dual career-marriages) • Free trade & protectionism • Trade disputes • Business deregulation • Corporate empirebuilding • Unemployment & business cycles • Job off-shoring • “Creative job destruction” • Business ethics violations • Social outsourcing • Culture conversion • Global footprints CAPITALISM, MANAGING BUT NOT CONTROLLING • Business laws & regulations • National protectionism • Global government organizations • Social Darwinism CAPITALISM RUNS THE WORLD Lack of economic self-sufficiency makes capitalistic trade mandatory for all nations. Impersonal autonomous markets run themselves via the “invisible hand of capitalism” (institutionalized self-interest). Impersonal markets control economic assets: jobs, pay, prices, currencies, & national budgets. CHINA’S COMPETITIVE CHALLENGES • Heavy dependence on low value-added products, Western technology & outsourcing • Lack of middle class consumers & concentrated market zones • Corrupt business practices • Inadequate number of industrial jobs for rural Chinese & Chinese-owned corporations • Many sweat shop operations • Lack of business regulation CHINA SPLITS •Agricultural vs. manufacturing workers •Rural vs. urban Low vs. medium-profit products on the value added chain CHINA’S WEAK INSTITUTIONS Feudal power structure China’s “frontier” economy lacks institutional control & professionalism Weak human rights = weak capitalism CHINESE EMERGING EMPIRE IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD Angola, Brazil, Iraq, Pakistan, North Korea, Albania, Cambodia, relationships established with most African nations CHINESE ECONOMIC STRATEGY Develop China’s economy via foreign money & technology 1.Keep the West on the debt & off-shoring spider web 2.Net-exporting 3. Export-stimulus low currency policy 4. Non-meddling foreign policy with developing world economic partners COMMUNITY CAPITALISM Workers (vs. corporations in industrialized nations) as capitalists in agrarian nations use a less profitable, higher cost distribution system in order to provide a sustainable income for extended community stakeholders. CORPORATE SURFING (flex/speed) The 21st century competitive need to: • Rationalize global operations • Exploit new technology • Invent & innovate • Project management via multi-national virtual teams • Domestic outsourcing & foreign off-shoring • Virtual organizations & assets (a la EBAY) • Flex employees: outsourced; part-time; temp; renewable contracts for finite hours of work CORRUPT FOREIGN PRACTICES ACT 1977 U.S. law that makes it legal for corporations to pay bribes for “facilitating” business services in non-institutional nations (as long as the bribes are reported on the company’s tax statement.) Bribes to government officials are illegal (but can easily be made via independent “consultants.”) CREATIVE JOB DESTRUCTION The jobs lost by nations involved in off-shoring & free trade agreements are gradually replaced by new jobs both higher & lower on the value added chain. • Most manufacturing jobs lost by the USA are replaced by lower-paying service sector jobs. • Some manual labor jobs are replaced by a fewer number of computer jobs. •Some full-time jobs are replaced by parttime jobs. •Some jobs with benefits are replaced by jobs with fewer or no benefits. CULTURE CONVERSION Capitalism thrives best in individualism cultures where community (multiple stakeholders) is minimized to enable people to live their lives around the needs of organizations > family. Traditional, community, family-focused cultures (home to ¾ of humanity) are evaporating as capitalism spreads into the developing world. Capitalism molds culture. CURRENCY MANAGEMENT Governments manipulate (“dirty float”) & maintain currency values by buying & selling large enough volumes in global financial markets to maintain their nation’s currency policy. Maintaining a nation’s currency trading range requires cooperation with key trading partners. By trading, a nation brings in foreign currency reserves needed for “dirty float” domestic currency management. •“Propped up” (overvalued) currencies favor importers (consumers). •Undervalued currencies favor exporters (business). National currency policy: • Economic stimulus based on consumption (consumers) • Eco stimulus based on productivity (corporations), limited in the West by offshoring manufacturing. CURRENCY VALUE Global perception of the nation’s economic & political stability • • Global trade affects currency supply Trade surplus nations generally have higher currency values (due to a lower supply of their currency in the world economy). Vice versa for nations with trade deficits. CURRENT ACCOUNT A nation’s annual exports – imports = trade balance The annual USA negative current account (trade deficit) empowers foreign creditors to influence American foreign policy. DEVELOPING WORLD ¾ of all people live in: •Africa •India •China •Middle East Agriculture-based economies with exports low on the value added chain Social, political, & economic problems stemming from historical exploitation by Western colonialism, religion, racism, disease, & overpopulation Historically bypassed by capitalism because of low profit potential & poor business infrastructure DEVELOPING WORLD BUSINESS CHALLENGES Inadequate business infrastructure: Roads, electricity, sanitation, business professionals, banks, reliable suppliers, technology, political stability, etc. • Weak, corrupt institutions • Untrained manual labor • Civil wars & ethnic cleansing • Scarce middle class DOHA (Qatar) ROUND OF WTO TALKS The World Trade Organization achieved no progress in its Doha 2000-2006 round of discussions over Western nations dropping agricultural subsidies (a violation of WTO free trade regulations) to increase food importing from the developing world. The Global Agreement on Tariffs & Trade (GATT) started the World Trade Organization because of irreconcilable trade agendas (West vs. rest of world). Failure of the Doha WTO round was “déjà vu all over again.” ECONOMIC INTERDEPENDENCY • The interconnected global economy has made nations more economically dependent on one another & more susceptible to global economic trends. • Virtual nations • “Brain” & body” nations • Global supply chains • Manufacturing offshoring • Free trade agreements • Technology uniformity • Debtor & creditor nations ECONOMIC NATIONALISM Protecting domestic corporations •Tariffs •World Trade Organization suits •Tariff tax offsets •Free trade agreements •Neo-colonialism via global government organizations •Corporate subsidies ECO POWER st IN THE 21 CENTURY st 21 •In the century, economic power trumps military power •Japan & Germany • Trade surpluses: production/exporting > consuming/importing • Balanced government budgets or surpluses • Trade surpluses EMERGING MARKETS “BRIC” & Latin America Emerging middle class (disposable income) consumers in large population zones To grow economically, nations must move up the value added chain & become more middle class & less of an oligarchy. The final capitalist bonanza? ETHICS, NEO-LIBERAL CAPITALISM Business community = All stakeholders directly impacted by a corporation: customers, employees, suppliers, local communities, etc. Companies dedicated to community would strive to maximize community benefits & minimize negative community impacts. This is inconsistent with neo-liberal Western capitalism, which views corporate stockholders as the sole group corporations are responsible for. Because community & neoliberal capitalism are incompatible, business ethics is legalistic (a matter of legislation & suits) rather than values-based (“morality”). Corporations in neo-liberal cultures are not responsible for social community. In individualism cultures, corporations have only two ethical duties: to maximize stockholder financial returns & to obey the letter of relevant business legislation (as actively influenced by business lobbying & PAC contributions). MAIN RECENT CAUSES OF COMMUNITYDAMAGING BUSINESS BEHAVIORS • Decline of agency principle & rise of professional exploitation • Business deregulation • Lapdog boards •Business financing of politics •Libertarian ideology: individualism > community EUROPEAN UNION 27 members: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. 17 other regional nations are not currently members. ANGLO-SAXONS: Ireland & Britain CONTINENTALS: France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg MEDITERRANEANS: Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus NORDICS: Demark, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands EU CHALLENGED • Citizen apathy & malaise about the EU “dream” • Standard of living inequalities • Persistent unemployment, government deficits, & economic stagnation • High number of retirees supported by workers & crumbling welfare state • Rigid worker welfare laws & short workweek • No constitution EU CONSTITUTION • Federalism vs. nationalism • Conflicting EU pluralities & divisiveness • Referendum rejections & surrogate treaties •Growing right wing racist fascism in Europe •Voting for politicians of different nationalities? EUROZONE • The 16 of 27 EU members that have adopted (1999) the Euro as their official national currency The “PIIGS”, EU govt. deficit nations: Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain •PIIGS governments are in financial jeopardy due to high social welfare (votebuying) deficits & the high value of the Euro. Their rotten economies endanger the value of the Euro & the existence of the EU. •PIIGS economies are too poor to afford the Euro on their own (like living in New York or Tokyo on a Waco income). •Northern EU nations subsidize their use of the Euro & hence PIIGS social welfare benefits. • Should/can the EU cancel PIIGS membership to halt subsidies & their economic baggage? • Is use of the Euro as the EU’s official currency unrealistic, & hence the EU itself? EXTERNALITIES Externalities = the positive & negative impacts of corporate profit-maximization on nonstakeholders. Positive externalities: • Job creation • Tax revenue • Productive use of technology Negative externalities: • Pollution • Social outsourcing • Unemployment • “Sweat shop” operations • Political bribery (legal & illegal) & lobbying FAILED STATES • Nations which lack a legitimate or functional government; fail to provide basic public services; & often are regional political “pariahs” who can’t coexist with neighboring nations Somalia, Chad, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Haiti, Ivory Coast, North Korea, Yemen, Bangladesh, Congo, Guinea, Burma, Nigeria, Timor-Leste “Failed states” (most in Africa & the Middle East) pose large humanitarian & Western foreign policy th th problems (from 19 & 20 century colonialism & th st involvement in 20 & 21 century regional civil wars). “FAIR” TRADE The “fair” trade (vs. “free” trade) system of extended capitalist stakeholders (vs. stockholders): workers + their families + the local community + members of an alternate value-added chain Worker & community capitalism for sustainable incomes Alternate “FAT” value added chain & distribution system to enable price “premiums” for sustainable incomes FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT Global economy’s $3T daily blood circulation Facilitating global capitalism: • Importing-exporting • Off-shoring operations • Stock & currency exchange markets • Technology transfer FREE TRADE •Maximum corporate access to global markets via permeable national borders •Economic Social Darwinism •No protectionism •Free trade agreements •Western ideological hypocrisy FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS • North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) • European Union (EU) • ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) APEC (American-Pacific Trade) Cooperative) • MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market) • CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement • FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas)? The FTA gamble: • Larger slice of the pie vs. a larger pie • Critical mass foreign direct investment + physical infrastructure & entrepreneurial risktaking • Creative job destruction = Mexico’s NAFTA gamble • Global triangle of free trade? Western single stakeholder capitalism is the most competitive form capitalism global culture conversion FREE TRADE ZONE Designated geographical areas in developing nations where foreign companies can use cheap labor to make tariff-free products to sell in the nation FRONTIER ECONOMIES •Business operations with no regulation, corruption, or institutional support •“BRIC” nations •Business corruption •Booms & busts •Corporate externalities •Oligarchs •Employee abuse GLOBAL BUSINESS DRAMA • Interdependency of economies & the emerging one world economy • Drastic global wealth disparities • Economic nationalism •Economic stagnation of the West & economic emergence of the developing world •Dominance of transnational corporations Neo-liberal (Western) capitalism & culture conversion GLOBAL FOOTPRINTS •Green & red bulls & bears •Natural resource debtors & creditors Global footprints of consumerism GLOBAL GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS (GGOs) Organizations with politicsbased authority over national governments Political Influence: •United Nations •International Criminal Court Economic Influence: • World Trade Organization (WTO) • International Monetary Fund & World Bank • European Union • NAFTA Ideological conflicts over forms of capitalism (individualism vs. community), Keynesian economics (debt-stimulated national economic growth), & neo-colonialism (Western domination via economic GGOs) GLOBALISM, CAUSES •Capitalism •Trade •Universal platform technology •Transnational corporations •Free trade •Global government organizations •Maximizing ROI investors & priceminimizing consumers GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS • A global supply chain consists of all the contributors to a global product, including raw material suppliers, manufacturers, financers, transporters, retailers, marketers, etc. • Major global companies, such as Dell Computer, “big box” retailers, & the U.S. military have “long” geographically extended) supply chains across continents. The lever of global economic interdependency, trade, outsourcing, & control of industry value added chains GLOBAL WARMING STRATEGY CAUSES OF GW: 1. Oil-based global fuel system 2. Permanently underpricing oil 3. Lack of global environmental protection institutions 4. Nationalism, especially among largest oil consuming nations 5. Short-term economic growth politics > environmental health 6. Consumerism-materialism cultures 7. Individualism > community cultures 8. Lack of convenient, efficient mass transit 9. Dangers of nuclear power GW strategy options: 1. Taming libertarian consumerism (maximum materialism at minimum cost) as the primary engine of global economic growth 2. Natural resource replacement & renewal global pricing system (paying the true cost of resource exploitation) 3. Pollution offset global trading markets 4. Need for a new global government organization to spearhead global warming recovery & coordinate disaster relief 5. Chinese economic development: the GW doomsday scenario GODZILLAS TIGERS ZEBRAS Godzillas • Largest global economies • Service sector economies • Consumption > production • Intellectual property • “Brain” nations Tigers • Recently emerging middle class body nations: Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Mexico, Brazil • Mixed capitalism Emerging Tigers •China •India •Russia •Indonesia •Poland Zebras •Least developed + failed states & regions •Africa, Middle East, rural China HOT MONEY ECONOMIC MELTDOWNS • Currency/economic meltdowns occurred twice in the 1990s: Mexico & several Asian nations • Meltdown trigger #1: Shortterm foreign direct investments treated as longterm capital by developing nations & loaned out to business Meltdown trigger #2: Highexpectations global investors panic at some unforeseen political or economic shock in an under-developed nation or region & suddenly pull out their FDI (now tied up in non-liquid business loans). Meltdown trigger #3: Investor panic sets off a sudden currency depreciation: 1. Investors suddenly pull their capital out of the economy, foregoing interest earnings. 2. The nation’s government pays investors back in local currency, causing its global supply to shoot up & its demand (price) to fall 3. The weakened currency greatly increases the cost of imported goods, (especially hurting domestic corporations) & decreases revenue received for exported goods 4. Investors further panic about future prospects for the nation’s economy, prolonging the currency run 5. The government faces bankruptcy & must borrow large sums of money from the IMF & other nations = neo-colonialism ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION ECONOMICS • Illegal cross-border business that companies , consumers, & citizens on both sides of the border use for economic gain. • Because rich nations are so dependent on illegal immigration, they tolerate shadow (underground) economies. The main causes of illegal immigration: • Inadequate profit incentives for capitalism • Lack of national economic development • Weak or corrupt institutions • Significant standard of living differences between nations • Free trade creative job destruction IMPERSONAL AMORAL MARKETS Global markets for goods & services result from innumerable “grassroots” decisions (the “invisible hand” of capitalism) relating to profit-seeking by private interests + impersonal supply & demand factors. Consumers have little knowledge of how prices are derived & how revenue is divided along the value added chain. Worker pay is determined by impersonal competitive factors, various government regulations, & foreign wages. Virtually all capitalistic marketplace behaviors are based on surviving & thriving (self-serving behaviors) in the competitive marketplace. The “amorality” of capitalism is to use the market system for private gain. Impersonal systems are also the nexus of career development (college degrees + job-hopping) & consumerism (credit cards, malls, & online shopping) IMPORT SUBSTITUTION • Importing what is less expensive than producing it at home • International Monetary Fund’s neo-liberal capitalism (individualism culture single-stakeholder corporations) Developing nations complain this eliminates their food self-sufficiency & raises global food prices due to climate change; periodic crop disasters; & st persistent 21 century civil wars. INDIVIDUALISM CULTURE In individualism cultures, most people live their lives around the needs of organizations which employ them. Family & community are subordinate to careers. Key characteristics of individualism culture: • Personal achievement (careers) as the basis for personal identity & status • Producing > nurturing roles for women (unisex culture) • Rule by impersonal institutions INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY •Copyrights •Patents •Pop culture •Software •Franchises •The bread & butter economic asset & export of the developed world •Low cost, high profit products Primary trade agenda of the developed world INTERMEDIATE PRODUCTS Products such as computer hardware, mechanical parts, and textiles sold to manufacturers (mainly in the developing world) who produce the final product sold to consumers. Such supply products are on the middle section of the value added chain & thus generate less profit than the completed product. INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF) & WORLD BANK • Bank to nations • Headquartered in Washington D.C. • IMF loans to the developed world • WB loans to the developing world Rich nations make deposits to be loaned out for ideological reasons: support of neo-liberal capitalism → cutting mixed capitalism; privatizing government-run companies; no trade barriers; import substitution The World Bank has to experiment with many of its large developing world infrastructure loan projects (dams, roads, power plants, etc.) & learn the hard way from experience: • Geographical displacement of people • Altering the social role of women • Unemployment • Shift towards individualism culture INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ORGANIZATION (ISO) Sculpting uniformity in all operational aspects of global business: manufacturing, distribution, safety, shipping, etc. Corporations must be ISO certified in their areas of operation in order to engage in domestic or global business. INVENTION & INNOVATION •Invention = a new core technology (portable computer) •Innovation = new applications of the core technology (PDAs) The “twin I’s” + marketing push companies & nations to the most profitable end of the value added chain The competitive edge of Western business dominance & magnet of future economic opportunities JOKER CARD OF ASIA China’s magnetic booming economy pulls in foreign direct investment flows from Asia & the West, giving rise to many economic & political surprises (like the Joker card in a game of cards): •Off-shoring manufacturing nexus of the global economy • Siphoning foreign direct investment & jobs away from other developing nations to China •Under-valued Chinese currency to stimulate exporting •Chinese economic neo-colonialism around the world KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS Economic policy advocated by British economist John Maynard Keynes after the “Great Depression” of the 1930s to stimulate national economies via government spending & deficits (mixed capitalism) Most common arenas of government spending to maximize economic stimulus: • Social welfare benefits • Military equipping & war • Agricultural & corporate subsidies • Infrastructure building projects Keynesian economic policy has three major drawbacks: • Escalating national debt, a threat to the standard of living of future generations • Compromising national sovereignty via dependence on foreign deficit-financing • Chief re-election strategy for incumbent politicians MERCANTILISM • Using the economic assets of other nations for your nation’s economic growth & stimulus • Win-lose exploitative th mercantilism (20 century & before) • Win-win interdependency st mercantilism (21 century) • Japan’s post-WW2 mixed capitalism & interdependency win-win mercantilism • Japan & China, the West’s “drug pushers”: low-cost, high-quality manufacturing + Western government debt financing Middle income countries with limited disposable income that have recently reached middle class status: China, Philippines, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Indonesia, etc. MIDDLE CLASS Capitalism survives & thrives on people with disposable incomes Middle class, not upper class, people are the core of business success & profit. The largest middle class nations (USA, Western Europe, Japan) are the mecca of profitable global consumerism– the oxygen of business. Middle class consumers are emerging for the first time in the developing world, beckoning a future bonanza for mass merchandising companies capable of dominating global competition. MIXED CAPITALISM • Government ownership of businesses • Subsidies: agricultural, R&D, industry bail-outs, low interest rates, tax write-offs • Tariff protection Western federal debt for economic stimulus (Keynesian economics) Mixed capitalism is the key to Asian economic nationalism: • National industrial planning • Cartel industries • “Sweetheart loans” • Global market placement MOST FAVORED NATION STATUS The strongest incentive nations have for joining the World Trade Organization, “MFN” status guarantees that member nations will always pay the lowest tariffs charged by other WTO members & thus won’t face trade discrimination. MULTIPLE SPEED EU An informal practice in the EU which allows nations to voluntarily adopt various EU regulations & programs when the nation is ready. In the absence of a strong EU government & constitution, this practice encourages member nations to eventually “fall in line” with early adopters. NAFTA • Free trade agreement (begun in the early 1990s) between Canada, Mexico, & the USA • NAFTA has economically affected Mexico much more than Canada or the USA, whose economies dwarf Mexico’s. NAFTA has stimulated trade between all 3 nations; hurt smaller companies in Mexico; hurt Mexican agriculture (due to U.S. farm subsidies); & caused some “creative job destruction” in the USA. NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL PLANNING Japan’s pioneering form of Asian mixed capitalism in which the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) brokers a nationalistic partnership between government & Japanese corporations. Asian corporations favor national interests > investor interests. NATURAL RESOURCE INSTABILITY New red bulls on the loose: China, India, Russia • Lack of a global natural resource conservation & rationalization system • Prospects of natural resource wars & militarybacked colonialism (especially in the Middle East) NEOCOLONIALISM Westernizing the economic & political polices of developing nations through the imposition of neo-liberal capitalism by global government organizations Culture conversion of community cultures to individualism NEO-LIBERAL CAPITALISM •Single purpose business: maximize profits •Single corporate stakeholder: financial owners of the company • “Laissez faire” (leave business alone) government • Free trade (no protectionism) • Social Darwinism survival of the strongest corporations only • Minimum government; maximum catering to business NET EXPORTING NATIONAL STRATEGY IN ASIA Using a mixed capitalism partnership between business & government to maximize national economic success •Consistent trade surpluses •Government policies to limit social welfare benefits & importing (negative trade balance) Using trade surpluses to finance Western nations with federal budget deficits NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGOS) Global social activist organizations that champion environmentalism, human rights, & peace • Sierra Club • Greenpeace • Public Citizen • Human Rights Watch • Peacenet • One World • 25,000 others NGOs oppose neo-liberal capitalism; mass market consumerism; transnational corporations; global business corruption; & the International Monetary Fund. NON-PATRIOTIC CORPORATIONS •Foreign outsourcing of both manufacturing & service sector •Global supply chains OLIGARCHIES (plutocracies) • Nations (mostly in Latin American & the Middle East) with a social structure dominated by a small number of powerful, rich elites who retard economic development & social change •The need for more democratic institutions & middle class •Major cause of political revolutions in Latin America OFF-SHORING • Using cheap labor around the world as a substitute for expensive domestic labor. • Manufacturing & service sector job exporting Hollowing out the blue collar manufacturing sector of Western economies via outsourcing PRIVITIZATION • Selling government owned businesses (mixed capitalism) to (often foreign) private companies • Common loan requirements of International Monetary Fund & World Bank • Main disadvantages: loss of jobs in the privatized company; economic colonialism of foreign companies • Advantages: more efficient & effective operations + lowered government budget PROTECTIONISM •Tariffs •Subsidies •Quotas •Import substitution •Tariff offset tax breaks •Violation of free trade principle •Ignites trade wars •Infant industry protection RATIONALIZATION OF GLOBAL BUSINESS Maximizing corporate profits & minimizing corporate costs using the entire world as an operating arena Tactics of global rationalization: • Manufacturing offshoring • Global supply chains • Social off-shoring • Corporate surfing RISK SHIFT IN GLOBAL BUSINESS • Contracts • Mainstream currencies • Financial brokers (such as factors) • Friend-to-friend networking • Industry oligopolies • Value-add chain control • Bribery • Business lobbying & political campaign funding SOCIAL DARWINISM Darwin’s survival of the fittest law of the jungle applied to business Business Social Darwinists favor: • Corporations > governments • Transnational (large) corporations > domestic • Free trade • Libertarian (no government) political ideology The “uneven playing field” of global business contributes to Social Darwinism: • Protectionism • Mixed capitalism • Business corruption • Neo-colonialism SOCIAL OFF-SHORING Exporting illegal corporate externalities to nations where they are tolerated or laws unenforced: • Pollution • Sweat shops • Bribing government officials • Unsafe products or deceptive marketing SOLDIER OF FORTUNE CORPORATIONS •Global resource rationing •Non-patriotic, noncommunity • Joint ventures with foreign companies SPIDER WEB STRATEGY Win-win mercantilism-setting up a mutually beneficial interdependent trading system between nations: • Foreign outsourcing • Technology sharing • Government deficit financing (Keynesian economics) Pioneered by Japan in the th second half of the 20 century & followed by China & other Asian nations. Nations that need each other economically don’t have to like each other, but they do have to cooperate politically. For the most part, Western nations use Asia for highly profitable manufacturing (cheap, plentiful labor) & borrow large sums of Asian money to finance Western government deficits. Asia receives numerous blue-collar jobs & creditor status with the West. STAKEHOLDERS Individuals & organizations directly affected by corporate profit-seeking activities: stockholders; employees; customers; suppliers; financers; governments at all levels Dueling philosophies: private stakeholders only vs. community stakeholders SUBSIDIES Government payments to agriculture & sometimes high tech businesses to help them compete. A form of mixed capitalism & a violation of fair trade The leading cause of trade conflict between the West & the developing world SUSTAINABLE INCOME • The amount of wages needed by global workers to meet the basic physical needs of their extended families. • Because most corporations serve only financial stakeholders, sustainable incomes are not guaranteed throughout the world. “Fair” trade practices community capitalism by paying workers in agricultural coops a sustaining wage “premium” above & beyond what the impersonal marketplace provides them. “SWEATSHOPS” Low wage manual labor factories used primarily by offshoring companies in developing nations Some capitalists justify sweatshops on the grounds that they are a fleeting phase of a nation’s economic development & are better than no jobs at all. “SWEETHEART” BANK LOANS A form of mixed capitalism used by many Asian nations to encourage banks to make risky loans to corporations, in return for the guarantee that the government will pay off the corporation’s loan if necessary. SYSTEMS EXPLOITATION • Institutions create impersonal systems that are exploited for both good & bad: commercial markets, stock markets, global trade, educational systems, corporations, political offices, etc. • Nations, organizations, and individuals play the “gain game” by exploiting these systems for nationalistic & personal gain. Capitalism is the world’s largest, most exploited, system for both good & bad because of its accessibility and unparalleled financial wealth. • Global business exploits capitalism to a greater degree than any other system on earth. • Professional success hinges on the capacity to exploit corporate systems for career gain. TARIFFS Taxes exporters must pay to sell their products in foreign nations Tariffs are a form of protectionism (violation of free trade) used to give a nation’s companies a competitive advantage over foreign exporters. TRADE AGENDAS Godzilla nations •Intellectual property protection •Trade of services •Import substitution •Neo-colonialism Tiger nations •Tariff protection •Protection from “hot money” economic meltdowns Zebra nations • Elimination of Godzilla agricultural subsidies • Elimination of import substitution & forced privatization • Infant industry protection TRADE DUMPING Outlawed by the World Trade Organization, dumping occurs when a nation sells its exports below actual cost in a foreign nation to quickly grab significant market share or to put local competitors out of business. TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS Mega-large & powerful corporations (financially richer than most nations) that rationalize their global operations via maximum presence in global markets. They view the entire planet as their operating arena. TURBO CAPITALISM • Max political catering to business & corporations in domestic & foreign policy • Politically popular since “Reagonomics” in the 1980s • Maximum business deregulation (chain reaction ethics scandals in 1990s & 2000s) • Corporate political campaign contributions & lobbying (unprecedented political influence of corporations & industries) • Appointment of former industry executives to oversee business regulatory agencies (abandonment of agency principle) • Corporate tax minimization (increased middle class tax burden) • Keynesian economics: stimulating business with federal deficits (mixed capitalism) TWO-EDGED SWORD OF GLOBAL BUSINESS Capitalist gains made at the expense of nonownership stakeholders: employees, local communities, the environment, economies • Off-shoring • Social off-shoring • Political campaign contributions & lobbying • Short-term unemployment The fiscal debt failure of “Reaganomics” in the 1980s and 2000s (under George W. Bush) to reduce dependence on government led American leaders to increase dependence on neo-liberal capitalism for future economic growth. Corporations became the new champions of public policy. This emergent libertarian capitalism has raised 3 new challenges in its emphasis on laissez-faire government, new rounds of business deregulation, and escalation of Social Darwinism: 1. Will expanded business deregulation unleash new systemic corruption such as in the energy industry in the 1990s (Enron-led financial fraud) and the finance industry in the 2000s (especially the catastrophic mortgage debacle)? 2. Will the probable future decreases in government social welfare programs (the byproduct of abandoning Keynesian financial stimulation) neutralize the anticipated gains of libertarian corporate economic stimulus? 3. Will the possible escalation of crime and social problems stemming from truncated government social welfare programs diminish the economic stimulus of consumerism? VALUEADDED CHAIN How revenue is divided between the various contributors to a finished product The marketing activities of most products (branding, advertising, identitycreating) generally capture a much larger share of sales revenue than companies involved in providing material or human resources for the product. Industry value-added chains are typically dominated by companies with the biggest clout (such as Wal-Mart in general merchandise retailing). Value chain leaders play a major role in determining product prices & worker wages globally. VIRTUAL NATIONS •Economic interdependencies •Free trade agreements •Global supply chains WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) •Promotes & regulates trade & settles trade disputes •Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland •Stalemate between rich & poor nation trade agendas •The WTO perpetuates neo-liberal capitalism & hence neocolonialism