IR-10
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- Number of Multinational Corporations
- 63 Thousand
- MNC's account for what fraction of world output
- 1/4th
- Percent of global trade that is intra-firm
- 30%
- Two Types of Investment
- Foreign Direct Investment/ Portfolio Investment
- Foreign Direct Investment
- Investment tied to ownership and production
- Portfolio Investment
- No direct view of ownership but a view of markets
- Three types of MNC's
- Industrial/Extracting/Service
- 5 Benefits of MNC's
-
-Provide workforce
-Skill
-Multiplier effect (employment increases and spending increases)
-Increases economic interpendence among states
-Entities that transcend narrow nationalist points of view - Marxist view of MNC's
-
"Capitalist ecnomoies must expand and become imperialistic to find new markets"
Widens gap between rich and poor (Economic triangle dominates 75% of all trade) - Economic Triangle
- North America (US), Western Europe, East Asia
- Nationalist view of MNC's
-
"Companies should have loyalty to the homeland from which they came"
-40's and 60's view of MNC's was beneficial, opposed to recent trends which are more nationalistic - Two types of ownership patterns
- Majority/Minority ownership
- Majority Ownership
- "Ownership of outsourced sector by original father firm"
- Minority Ownership
-
"State that sourcing takes place in wants minority ownership so that they retain some deal of say in the matters of the company"
-reduces capital expenditure and nationalism - Profit Repartriation
-
-make a profit in one state and relocate it to another state
-money is not always invested back in outsourced sector or state in which sourcing is taking place - Transfer Pricing
-
-covert mechanism that MNC's utilize in intra-firm trade to reduce tax owed to a host country
-just in time delivery (requires open and fluid system of trade) - Host Country Learning Curve
-
-most MNC's can initially out whit developing nations
-over time countries realize situation and take advantage of elements such as sunken cost - Gunpowder Revolution
- China (1300 CE)
- Military Innovations of Napoleonic Revolution
-
-citizen army as opposed to mass constriction
-embraced nationalism
-warefare based on offense not stalemate - Military Innovation of Industrial Revolution
-
-machinery as a source of energy in production helped replace humans and animals
-aircraft, ships, tanks and trains could be fueled by combustion engine
-enabled "World War" - Military Innovation of Nuclear Revolution
- "We have developed a weapon that can turn everything into nothing"
- Weapons of Mass Destruction
- -have expanded level of killing i.e. Nuclear Bomb/Anthrax
- Methods of countering nuclear weapons (Deterrents)
-
-Assured Second Strike Capability
-Proven Capability (staggering loss of life in any scenario)
-Present Counter Attack
-Must show that an initial attack will not destroy entire country - Assured Second Strike Capability
- "States must be equipped for another attack fro retaliation is almost inevitable
- How Could Deterrents Fail?
-
-False Positives
-Counter Force v. Counter Value
-Launch on Warning (LOW)
-Anti-Satellite Weapons
-Suitcase Bomb - False Positives (deterrent failure)
-
"Nuclear weapons compress space and time; one must make a split decision as to whether or not it is a false alarm"
-newly nuclear states may not have sufficient techonology to judge properly - Counter Fource v. Counter Value - Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV)
-
-Counter Force is much more accurate and much more deadly
-Counter Value is much less accurate and was used early in Cold War - Launch on Warning (LOW)
- "A state gives credible evidence and an ultimatum"
- Anti-Satellite Weapons
- -satellites that can view other weapons (allows states to take out opposition satellites)
- Suitcase Bomb
- -a state is attacked and it cannot tell by whom it was attacked
- Problems w/ Nuclear Treaties
-
-states can cheat proliferation bans (North Korea)
-no answer to suitcase bomb
-many open ended treaties
-do not reduce number of arms simply limits and caps growth - Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties (SALT I & II)
-
-did not reduce number but limited growth
-reconfigured forces of each side so that there would be some predictability - Strategic Arms Reduction Tready (START)
- -US & USSR reduced nuclear arms significantly
- Why Bretton Woods System was adopted
-
"Peace, prosperity, and democracy was best achieved through unrestricted global governments"
-US favored Bretton Woods b/c they needed to close economic gap (1940's) - Benefits of Unrestricted Trade
-
-benefit all
-countries would specialize in products they are best suited to produce - 3 Principle Pillars of Bretton Woods System
- General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT and latter WTO)/World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF)
- Balance of Trade
- "A state is exporting more than it is importing and a balance of trade deficit means a state is importing mor than it exports"
- Balance of Payment
- "Larger concept that includes balance of trade that takes into account other ways money comes in and out of a country"
- Factors of Balance of Payment
- Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)/Interest paid v. interest recieved/Overseas military expenditures/Foreign Aid
- Value of Currency
-
"The value of currency on the international market can have a significant affect on how much it can buy or sell"
-Currency drops can increase a country's exports - Deflation and Inflation
-
-gov'ts have many ways of stimulating economy
- if a state faces inflation a state can increase taxation or increase interest rates - International Monetary (IMF)
-
-states give money on a sliding scale as what a country can afford
-a country can pay in dollars, gold, or local currency
-IMF assumes that if a state borrows money it's economy is in peril
-Very stringent on terms
-Conditionality - particularly bitter measures to terms - Reasons for IMF
-
-to prevent a state htat has a massive balance of payment deficit from defaulting"
-countries go through economic cycles
-if a country faces a balance of payment deficit it must take out another load which IMF will fund - Reasons to Prevent Defaulting
-
-when countries default they have nothing that can be reassessed
-banks will loose money and cannot pay principle interest to investors - Floating Exchange Rate
-
-the value of a country's currency based on supply and demand
-corporations often devide profits in different currencies - Options when a country suffers balance of payment deficit
-
-MUST take out another loan if it needs to repay previous loan
-states may lower currency
-states may force another country to strengthen its currency
-states may increase tariffs - Pre-1971 Economic Market Line
-
-US gold standard
-states fixed their currency to USD
-states' economies did not plummit when they suffered a balance of payment deficit
-USD was most stable currency - Post-1971 Economic Market Line
-
-US experienced first balance of payment deficit in 1971
-abandoned gold standard
-US devalued USD
-US backed out of fixed exchange rate - General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) & later World Trade Organization (WTO)
-
-states produce the goods they have the natural ability to produce
-most favored nation status
-reciprocity (no state gives something for nothing) - Transparency
- "Nations should use a transparent methods of exports/imports (tariffs)"
- Most Favored Nation Status
- "If one member sets a tariff, the same tariff is applied to all states attempting to export to the tariff creating state"
- Problems w/ GATT
-
-Non-Tariff Barriers (NTB's)
-Intellectual Property Rights
-Social Causes
-Voluntary Expert Restraint (VER)/ Orderly Market Arrangement (OMA)
-Agriculture - Non-Tariff Barriers (NTB's)
-
-measures states take to keep out foreign products and cause them to push domestic products
-examples are quotas, environmental standards, and safety standards - Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
- -patents and trademarks only reward innovative and capitalistic individuals and companies
- Social Causes
- -states can establish a tariff through a social cause such as child labor or human rights
- Voluntary Expert Restraint (VER)/ Orderly Market Arrangement (OMA)
- -during a time of crisis states may set a number of units produced to help another state
- Agriculture-related problems w/ GATT/WTO
-
-agriculture economies want tariff barriers reduced but are opposed by developed countries
-service sector economies are pushing for reduced barriers on services - International Bank for Reconstruction (IBR)/ World Bank
-
-International Development Association (IDA)
-International Financial Corporation (IFC)
-created to in order to prevent Soviet advance into crumbled Western Europe
-project lending organization - International Development Association (IDA)
-
-soft loans with lower levels of interest
-World Bank gives money to the poorest of poor (countries that would not be able to attract loaners) - International Finance Corporation (IFC)
-
-REDUCES RISK for MNC's
-encourages foreign direct investment (poor countries do not many FDI's: civil wars, poor living, poor health)
-World Bank assures MNC's that invest in poor countries, that they will not loose money - Criticisms of World Bank
-
-the world bank has been focused on development and not environmental standards
-aid is not affecting actual standard of living
-focused too much on project spending - New International Economic Organization (NIEO)
- "Theoretical revisions of Bretton Woods System"
- 3 Elements of NIEO
-
-southern countreis wanted northern tax money as aid stating that it was in the best interest of the north to have an economically viable south
-Generalized Scheme of Preference: developed countries
-International Commodity Agreement (ICA) - International Commodity Agreement (ICA)
-
"States whose markets are predominantly focused on one material store product until time of crisis when all countries who produce this commodity support whole"
-funded by north - Dependency Theory
- "Markets work to institutionalize; markets tend to trap states and people in certain situations of development"
- Three Groups left by Bretton Woods System
- Core/Semi-Peripheral/Peripheral
- Globalization
- "A level of interdependence that exists where boundaries almost cease to exist"
- Examples of Border indifferent entities
-
-MNC's
-Drug Cartels
-Terrorist Groups
-Migrating Populations - Global Village
-
-Culture has been globalized (particularly US culture)
-Currency trade
-Language is globalized (needed to conduct business) - Effects of Globalization
-
-national governments will loose much of their control (loose control of markets, economies, and social trends)
-cultural homogenization (cultural backlash) - Realist Conception of Morality
- "Morals have no place in policy, there should only be a rational view in the best interest of the state"
- Defense of Morality
-
"If God did not exist anything would be possible"
-morality requires sovereign states to be held accountable
-interfering international community - Catholic Laws of War
-
-an enity must first be attacked and then may attack in defense
-there must be an equal and reciprocal attack (reciprocity) - Utilitarianism
- "An action is moral if it brings the greatest good to the greatest number - suspend all personal interests; very pragmatic"
- Deontology
- "Certain moral principles are RIGHT and if one acts in a certain way they are in effect saying it is correct for all others to do the same"
- Export Platforms
- "A place companies set up labor because it is cheaper"
- Outsourcing
- "Producing goods overseas primarily for export back home"
- Adam Smith
-
-the father of modern economics
-economically liberal view - Comparative Advantage
- "People produce goods which are more efficient and beneficial to produce"
- Collective Goods
- "Security, law, and education"
- Mercantilism
- "The philosophy that economics and politics are related, that politics should come first, and that economic activity should serve the interests of the state"
- Subsidies
- "Money given to industries to allow them to comparitively compare to foreign products"
- Federalism
- "In economic integration there must be at the start a central gov't and lower level political units would retain some powers"
- Functionalism
- "Opposed to a supranational entity which starts with cooperation from the bottom up"
- Neofunctionalism
- "Some centralized political institutions, but states retain sovereignty"
- Moral Relativists
- -argue that moral judgements are just mere opinion concerning which there is no point in arguing"