American History: Globalization

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American History
Globalization is used to refer to the phenomenon of increased global interconnectedness in different ways such as economy, social life and cultural aspects among other ways (Bertho, 2008). Economic globalization is the interconnectedness in the aspects of the economy such as international trade, international lending, international business process outsourcing, foreign direct investment cross border production of goods and services among other economic factors (Bertho, 2008). Economic globalization is the focus here and it entails worldwide trade and exchanges of goods, services, currencies, international travel, migration, information flow through technology in the international economy (Schaeffer, 2009). The twentieth century registered unprecedented economic growth the world over leading to improvements in standard of living in many nations.
The US moved from economic production and self-sufficiency to economic globalization in the late 1990s. Sale of information and services is the primary activity of economic globalization as opposed to production of goods of the earlier age. In the globalization era, companies are more interested in cash flow than they are in production. The level of service providers in 2000 was 1.7 times the level in 1968 and the number of workers involved in production had reduced by nearly half by 2009 (Hoelfle, 2009). In 1979, 20 million Americans were employed in the manufacturing as compared to the 11.9 million people in the same industry by September 2009 (Hoelfle, 2009). Additionally, the number of employment opportunities in the US service sector has continued to drop gradually. For instance, employment in the technology industry peaked in the year 2000 Y2K scam. Employment in the financial, luxury or leisure and retail sectors remains higher than that of 1968 although projections indicate that it shall continue to drop (Hoelfle, 2009). This is because these were creations of the financial bubble. As the service-focused economy continues to fall, many more Americans are rendered jobless in addition to those who previously worked in the manufacturing sector.
Increased trade in currency has characterized the international economy, trade of goods and services and other financial connections. The international financial systems were greatly affected in the recession that began in 2007 that sent spiraling effects on the strength of the currency and in international trade. The reces...