Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

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Although the process of corporate globalisation actually started early in
the 20th century, big business really went global after World War II, and this set
the scene for a world order favouring such corporations as Coca­Cola, Wal­
Mart, Monsanto, R. J. Reynolds, Mitsubishi and General Motors. In his book
The Post­corporate World: Life After Capitalism, David Korten points out that
corporate globalisation is actually the antithesis of the really free market that
influential economist Adam Smith advocated, which required capital to stay
within national borders, trade between countries to be balanced, and complete
information to be available to all participants with no trade secrets. 3
Critics of corporate globalisation have focused primarily on its destruction of
regional economies and erosion of national sovereignty, and on the contribution
these agencies have made to the meltdown of the world’s ecosystems.
Free Trade
A key ingredient of corporate globalisation is the doctrine of free trade. In his
book Goodbye America: Globalisation, Debt and the Dollar Empire, Michael
Rowbotham says that since every nation allows banks to create the bulk of their
money supply parallel with debt, it is no surprise that all nations are in debt.
This debt is mostly owed to the commercial banks and to the lending
institutions of the world. Rowbotham goes on to state that, as at 1998: ‘The USA
owes nearly $5 trillion, UK owes £400 billion, Germany’s debt exceeds 600
billion Deutschmarks, and the Third World collectively owes $2.8 trillion.’ 4
Debt promotes the growth of global trade, because each nation wants to
reduce its indebtedness, and the way to do this is through exporting more than
they import. The export warfare thus created is more than just sensible trading
for mutual advantage. The past half­century has seen a growing demand for