"The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger"

1. Magnitude of trade: how has it changed over time?
2. Forecast? Will current trends continue?
3. Effects on small local business (define "small"; define "local.")
4. How critical is trade with China to the US economy?
5. Is trade with China primarily by Chinese-owned businesses or US-owned businesses?
6. How are intellectual property rights handled with respoect to trade with China?
7. How does using labor and trade with China reflect on brand name or a business' reputation?
8. Do we sell anything to China?
9. If the system is unhealthy, what should we do?
10. Internet. . . .
11. How are the working conditions in China? How do Americans (purchasers, consumers) justify the poor working conditions?
12. How do human rights play into our trade relationship with China?
13. How are a lot of these companies able to bypass trade laws and quality control standards? E.g. recycling computers . . . melamine-in food products; lead in toys;
14. How are profits split up among labor, management in China, buyers from the US and American consumers.
15. What are the governments' roles in trade? What does China currently do? What does the US currently do?
16. To what extent does the professionalization/unionization of the Chinese work force mean that outsourcing is going to have to go elsewhere (Vietnam, Guatemala, Afghanistan, Pakistan, other paces in Latin America).
17. Can a product be considered environmentally sound if it is consuming all that oil to get product across the Pacific Ocean?

Posted as a Critique to the David Harvey Piece--the author is anonymous (why?); identifies himself as "How the World Works"; in videos where he is talking, he looks like a college-age person.

David Harvey--look for the critique of this one as well

Jeremy Rivkin

YouTube -

This article claims that one of the plotters in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, David Headley, was a) a double agent for the US and b) a member of a militant group created and sponsored by Pakistan's intelligence agency. And that the Mumbai attack was intended to provoke conflict between Pakistan and India, both of which are nuclear armed.

An interesting perspective on what transnational means from the IEEE, world's oldest association of electrical engineers!

A little gross humor. Really questionable taste. I can credit and you can thank Ryan Trutner for finding this one.

Key Ideas from Commanding Heights

Capitalism
Socialism
Communism
Keynesian economics
Reaganomics
Hayek
Collectivist consensus: UK post Churchill,
Privatization
Nationalization
Globalization
Transparency-government agency
Invisible hand
Margaret Thatcher
Stagflation
Industrialization
Commanding heights: = heavyweights of an economy. . . heavy industry, transportation, media, healthcare/ In the 1980s these were: coal, airline industry, telecom, railroads.
Central planning:
Hyperinflation
Investment versus commercial banking
Subprime mortgage


Turning Points
First World War
Great Depression/New Deal
OPEC Embrago 1973
New conservatism (Reagonomics)
Collapse of Soviet Union
Third way: Tony Blair
Glass Steagall Act 1933/ Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act 1999
George W. Bush takes office

Times Topics home page. Background info and links to articles from a variety of sources.

Times Topics main page. Lots of articles from a variety of sources linked on this page.

Constantly changing--this is the channel home page for stories on European nations and the EU

Brussels wants to delve deep into the running of national economies. It should beware of digging too far

Not exactly CoPo, but cool!