Unit 1 Globalization The World Is Tilted

1.For most of the last 50 years, globalization has been a win-win proposition, making America richer while lifting hundreds of millions in the developing world out of poverty and despair.Recently, however, it has begun to operate differently, undermining US welfare while creating imbalances likely to end in a global economic crisis.

2.In this new mode, globalization is tilting the world like a giant sliding board game on which the “flattening” of old barriers is accelerating the transfer of the supply side of the US economy to the rest of the world, especially Asia.Take Boeing as an example.Long America's leading exporter, it symbolizes the kind of high-tech leadership on which the future of the US economy is widely said to depend.After losing market share to the European Airbus in recent years, Boeing responded by developing the new 787 Dreamliner, which is gathering record orders.Yet these sales may not add a lot to the US economy because much of the work—including production of the critical carbon-fiber wings that Boeing always insisted would be kept at home—will be done in Japan.

3.Even more telling is the example of the semiconductor king, Intel.When economists and political leaders say American industry should concentrate on producing very-high-technology products where it has a clear comparative advantage, Intel's chips are what they have in mind.Yet company executives recently told a presidential advisory panel that under present circumstances they must consider building more of their new factories abroad.Over the next 10 years, they explained, the cost of running a semiconductor factory in the United States could be $1 billion more than that of running it abroad.

4.That there is something odd here is not yet widely acknowledged.Indeed, most business, academic, media, and political leaders continue to insist that globalization is proceeding smoothly, making the world rich, more democratic, and more peaceful.President Bill Clinton called globalization America's strategy, and President George W.Bush describes the American economy as the “envy of the world.” Nor is this view entirely unjustified.US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and productivity growth are the highest in the developed economies, while inflation, unemployment, and interest rates are among the lowest.

5.Nevertheless, a closer look reveals a dark side.The US trade deficit is now more than $800 billion, or 7 percent of GDP, and grows inexorably as Americans continue to consume more than they produce.The trade imbalance is of unprecedented size and breadth.Economists typically expect the United States to import commodities and cheap manufactured goods while exporting high-tech products, sophisticated services, and agricultural goods, for which its land and climate are well suited.In reality, the US high-tech trade surplus of $30 billion in 1998 has collapsed to a deficit of about $40 billion.Agricultural trade is now also in deficit for the first time in memory, and the modest surplus in services is declining as global deployment of the high-speed Internet has made it possible for services to move offshore as easily as manufacturing.In short, US exports are declining versus imports across the board, while its growth depends on foreign lenders (primarily in Japan and China) to finance the excess consumption.

6.Two factors explain these unexpected trends.The first has been at work for a long time.It is the gradual construction of the global economy in an asymmetrical form.For the United States, globalization has meant building its economy into a giant consumption machine.Easy consumer credit, home-equity loans with tax-deductible interest payments, markets largely open to imports, policies that emphasize growth through demand management and accommodative monetary policy, and myriad other incentives have led Americans to save nothing while both households and government borrow at record rates.This is often justly criticized as excessive.But it is important to understand that American buying drives most of the world's growth because the United States is virtually the only net consuming country in the world.

7.Second, globalization for most others has meant export-led growth.Particularly in Asia, “catch-up” development policies have focused on creating production and export machines.There are many favors, but most Asian economies are characterized by relatively low consumption, savings rates of 30 to 50 percent of GDP, government intervention in markets, managed exchange rates, promotion of investment in “strategic” industries, incentives for exports and accumulation of chronic trade surpluses along with large reserves of dollars.

8.Indeed, the dollar is the key to this whole lopsided global structure.The dollar, of course, is not only America's money, but also the world's primary reserve currency.As long as others will accept it in payment, America can buy and borrow without concern for saving, investment, or production.Thus, deficits—whether trade or budgetary—really don't matter and America can get away with fiscal irresponsibility.Oddly, the rest of the world can be just as irresponsible.By managing exchange rates to keep the dollar overvalued and their export prices low, other countries can oversave and overinvest because the excess production can be exported to the US market.

9.This structure has grown for so long because it has great benefits for both sides.America gets to live above its means, as cheap imports and foreign capital keep inflation and interest rates down and home values rising.The rest of the world, especially Asia, gets to climb the ladder of technology faster than it would otherwise.By accumulating dollars, Asia also gains strategic leverage over the lone superpower—which, by outsourcing management of the dollar, has ceded a degree of control over its own long-term interest rates.

10.There is a downside, however.By keeping the dollar chronically overvalued and providing investment subsidies to attract strategic industries out of the United States, the Asian export-led-growth approach has long tended to shrink US productive capacity.For some time, this was true mostly of commodity manufacturing, and the significance of the trend was discounted with the rationale that the US economy was moving to the “higher ground” of high-tech and sophisticated services.

11.This argument was never entirely satisfactory because of the exchange-rate management and the investment subsidies used by export-led-growth countries to attract high-tech production to their shores.For instance, Boeing is outsourcing much of the 787's construction to Japan in part because an overly strong dollar reduces yen-based costs, and in part because the Japanese government will provide production subsidies unavailable in the United States while “encouraging” Japanese airlines to buy the planes if the work is done in Japanese factories.For Boeing, this is all of critical importance as a way to offset the launch subsidies provided by the EU to archrival Airbus.

By Clyde Pretowitz

From Newsweek

Nov.28, 2005

Words & Expressions

·tilt 使倾斜，有倾向性

move, or make something move into a position with one side or end higher than the other

·proposition 命题，建议

hypothesis, proposal

·undermine 逐渐削弱，使逐步减少效力

threaten, weaken, diminish, reduce, impair

·sliding board 滑梯，滑板

a structure with a steep slope that children use for sliding down

·comparative advantage 比较优势，相对优势

relative strength or value

·presidential advisory panel 总统顾问委员会

committee having a role of giving professional advice for president

·unjustified 不公正的，无正当理由的

not to prove to be reasonable, not confirm

·inexorable 无情的，冷酷的

relentless, inescapable, inevitable, irrevocable

·unprecedented 空前的，前所未有的

unparalleled, unmatched, unrivalled

·sophisticated 复杂的，精致的

complex, complicated, elaborate, intricate

·trade surplus 贸易顺差，贸易盈余

a situation in which a country's exports exceed its imports

·global deployment 全球部署，全球调度

arrangement or disposal worldwide

·asymmetrical 不均匀的，不对称的

uneven, unbalanced, off-balance

·home-equity loan 资产净值贷款

the loan which is granted on the basis of the equity involved in home

·accommodative monetary policy 融通性货币政策

a succession of decreases in the Federal Funds rate which makes money easier (cheaper) for business to borrow

·myriad 无数的，各式各样的

multitude, a great number, a great quantity

·export-led growth 出口主导型增长，出口导向型增长

development of a country's economy through export

·“catch-up” development policies 赶超发展政策

a kind of development policy to speed up economy

·savings rate 储蓄率

the amount of money, expressed as a percentage or ratio, that a person deducts from his or her disposable personal income to set aside as a nest egg or for retirement

·reserve 储备，储藏

something available to be used in the future or when needed

·lopsided 不平等的，两侧不匀称的

asymmetrical, unsymmetrical, uneven

·primary reserve currency 首要储备货币

one of the national currencies used by a country to hold its foreign currency reserves and gold for settling international trade transactions and other obligations

·strategic leverage 战略杠杆，策略杠杆

planned control, edge, authority

·outsource 外包，外购

subcontract, farm out, assign to others

·cede 放弃，割让

surrender, concede, relinquish, yield

·overvalue 对……估价太高，高估

overemphasize, overstress, overestimate

·investment subsidies 投资补贴

money that is paid by a government or an organization to reduce costs of services

·rationale 根据，基本原理

reasoning, grounds, sense, principle

·offset 抵消，补偿

counterbalance, balance, cancel

·archrival 主要竞争对手

the chief rival of a person, team, or organization

Questions

1.What effects do globalization impose upon the American economy?

2.Why American economy is the “envy of the world”?

3.What is the dark side of the American economy?

4.What are the two factors that explain the unexpected trends?

5.What are the characteristics of most Asian economies?

Buzzwords of Globalization

News Style

What Is News?

It is rather elusive to define the news.Editors, researchers, and news users may maintain the notions from different aspects.Reviewing from the journalistic textbooks and relevant studies, it can be found that there are generally three perspectives from which news is defined.

1) News is information about event with uncommon characteristics.

When a dog bites a man that is not news, but when a man bites a dog that is news.

2) News is information that audience in a community are concerned about.

News is anything which interests a large part of the community and which has never been brought to their attention.

3) News is information that journalists are concerned.

To a journalist, good news is often not news at all.

It can be seen that considerable efforts have been made in exploring the sound definition of news.In view of the fact that the notion of news is ambiguous, Melvin Mencher, American news scholar, provides two general guidelines in defining what news is.

1) News is information about break from the normal flow of events, an interruption in the expected, a deviation from the norm.

2)News is information people need to make sound decisions about their lives.

Melvin's guidelines reflect that two components are needed when an event may turn into news:the deviation from the normal state of life and the targeted group of mass in communication.If an event occurs out of regular state, either an interruption in the expected or a deviation from the norm, this kind of issue has the potentials of becoming news.The target mass is also needed when the event will be covered.If fewer persons care about the event, there will be little worthiness to cover.

Melvin offers the guidelines in defining news in a broad sense, nevertheless, he does not cover the aspect that the media is involved in communication.For this reason, Van Dijk points out the basic properties of media news.

1)New information about events,things or persons.

2)A(TV or radio)program type in which news items are presented.

3)A news item or news report,i.e.,a text or discourse on radio,on TV or in the newspaper,in which new information is given about recent events.

Van Dijk clarifies the notion of news in narrow sense, i.e.what media news is.His definition reflects the essential features of media news.The first attribute of media news is that it is fundamentally information.Thus it possesses the general features of information, basically speaking, it can be adopted for communication.The second attribute of media news is that it is transmitted as news item with certain carriers.It might be the story covered in newspaper, or a news item broadcast by TV or radio.The third attribute of media news is that it is a text or discourse finished for being transmitted on radio, on TV or in the newspaper, or other media.

News Resource

Reuters is an international news agency headquartered in London, which was established in 1851.Reuters operates in more than 200 locations worldwide in about 20 languages, with more than 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists contributing to it.In maintaining the values of integrity and freedom,journalists are required to follow The Reuters Handbook of Journalism and to take “value-neutral approach, ” as Reuters' editorial policy states: “We are committed to reporting the facts and in all situations avoid the use of emotive terms.The only exception is when we are quoting someone directly or in indirect speech.”

Website: cn.reuters.com

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered in London.It is the world's oldest national broadcasting organization and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, providing comprehensive TV, radio, and online services to audience, viewers or readers both in Britain and other countries of the world.

Website: www.bbc.com