ABSTRACT
This enormous expansion of worldwide contacts that has come to be called globalization is most pronounced and influential in the economic and financial sectors of most countries. We now live in a global economy in which exports and imports play a prominent role in the shape and growth of nations. Governmental leaders are championing the benefits of more open trade, foreign investment, relaxed corporate regulations, tax incentives for businesses and the benefits of the capitalist market system as the keys to making globalization a success. The United States has been one of the major proponents of globalization, and since the 1980s, during the Reagan administration, it has advocated within governing and business circles both domestically and internationally for a reformulation of the rules of economic development and financial expansion. Often called the Washington Consensus, political leaders, corporate heads, economists, bankers and other advocates of a more liberalized approach to national growth and international integration pushed for the acceptance of a series of changes in the manner in which economies and governments work, which can be summed up as follows:
Establishment of the private sector as the source of economic growth Elimination of tariffs on imported goods (free trade) Expansion of exports and a de-emphasis on traditional sectors of pro-
duction Openness to foreign investment and an end to the nationalization of key
economic assets The movement of work and the production of goods to foreign sites
(outsourcing) Privatization of state enterprises Deregulation of bureaucratic controls on businesses Maintenance of a low rate of inflation Elimination of corrupt practices in public and private sectors Reduction in the number of government workers.2
