The idea of more open, global trade has been sold as necessary for economic success. Yet today we hear calls to “build a wall” and to break up trading partnerships. Turns out we’ve seen the pendulum swing between free trade and protectionism many times before.
Earlier this week, negotiators from the U.S., China and Mexico met around a table to reopen talks on NAFTA — one of the trade agreements President Trump promised to overhaul during his campaign, along with the rest of the way the U.S. does business with the world. But does all this hostility toward globalization mean the world will see less of it?
Probably not, says Pankaj Ghemawat. He is a professor at IESE Business School and New York University’s business school, and he studies globalization for a living. Ghemawat is the lead author of the DHL Global Connectedness Index, which tracks data on cross-border flows of trade, capital, information and people to paint a picture of globalization and to monitor changes. He joined us to talk about whether global trade is losing steam.
Read the complete interview: marketplace.org
By: David Brancaccio
Host and Senior Editor, Marketplace Morning Report
David Brancaccio is the host and senior editor of Marketplace Morning Report. Airing five times each morning, his reporting focuses on the future of the economy, financial and labor markets, technology, the environment and social enterprises.
In the early 1990s, David was Marketplace’s European correspondent based in London, and he hosted Marketplace’s evening program from 1993 to 2003. From 2003 to 2005, he co-anchored the PBS television news magazine “Now” with journalist Bill Moyers before taking over as the program’s solo anchor in 2005. His feature-length documentary film, “Fixing the Future,” appeared in theaters nationwide in 2012. Among his awards for broadcast journalism are the Peabody, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia, the Cronkite and the Emmy.
He has appeared on CBS, CNBC, MSNBC and BBC World Service Television; his written work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Baltimore Sun and Britain’s The Guardian. David is author of the book “Squandering Aimlessly,” an exploration of how Americans apply their personal values to their money. He also hosts the “Esquire Classic” podcast with Esquire Magazine.
David has a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and a master’s degree in journalism from Stanford University.
David lives in New Jersey with his wife, Mary Brancaccio, a poet and educator. He grew up in Waterville, Maine, and also attended schools in Madagascar, Ghana and Italy. His enjoys public speaking, bicycling and photography.