The series of joint FTE and Liberty Fund colloquium continues in May with:
Understanding Liberty and Choice: Free Trade, Globalization, and Economic Development.
As with the previous colloquium, the unique characteristics of the FTE and Liberty Fund approaches will be integrated. The keynote speaker, Pietra Rivoli will bring her expertise to our discussion which is centered around a number of readings including her acclaimed book - The Travels of a T Shirt in the Global Economy.
Looking forward to our discussions in May. Please feel free to post questions, comments or resources here that are relevant to our meeting.
Click here for a look at the full conference schedule as well as our readings.
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12 comments:
A Feb. 20, 2008 story in the LA Times: The 'Made in Italy' label: Read the fine print extends the thesis of Rivoli's book.
The "Made in Italy" label conjures images of little old men and women in aprons and spectacles, stooped over wooden tables, cutting leather and sewing by hand in workshops that dot the hills of Tuscany.
It certainly doesn't make you picture Chinese immigrants toiling long hours in ramshackle, poorly illuminated sheds, and then sleeping in small rooms behind thin plywood right there in the factories.
These days, the coveted "Made in Italy" label on those Prada bags and Gucci shoes, which can quadruple a price, may not mean what it used to.
Thousands of Tuscan factories that produce the region's fabled leather goods are now operated and staffed by Chinese. Though located in one of Italy's most picturesque and tourist-frequented regions, many of the factories are nothing more than sweatshops with deplorable conditions and virtually indentured workers.
Story at LA Times site
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fg-madeinitaly20feb20,1,7453058.story
Reprinted in the Arizona Republic on Feb. 24
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0224italy-chinamade0224.html
Greg Pratt
Resources relating to The Travels of a T Shirt
From NPR
All Things Considered, February 27, 2008
South China is the world's factory floor. For years, it has churned out cheap products like toys, shoes and clothing. But now rising costs — and shifts in Chinese government policy — are knocking hundreds of smaller factories out of business.
As profit margins disappear, some companies are even moving to lower-cost countries such as Vietnam. In fact, according to China's state-run press, 1,000 shoe factories closed in Guangdong province in 2007.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=65080288
Transcript of an IMF Book Forum
The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
International Monetary Fund
Washington, D.C.
Participants:
Pietra Rivoli, Georgetown University
Brink Lindsey, Cato Institute
Hans Peter Lankes(moderator), IMF
http://www.imf.org/external/np/tr/2005/tr051019.htm
Book Review of Travels of a T Shirt
August 21, 2005
Travels With My Florida Parrot T-Shirt
By ROGER LOWENSTEIN
THE really good writers do not write "about" their subjects so much as use them to tell a story. The topic of free trade would not seem to offer much in the way of storytelling material, but Pietra Rivoli has proved otherwise. In "The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy" (John Wiley & Sons, $29.95), Ms. Rivoli, an economist at Georgetown University, has mined a subject known for dry polemics and created an engaging and illuminating saga of the international textile trade.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/business/yourmoney/21shelf.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
An interesting article in the NY Times on March 2, 2008 I'll Have a Big Mac, Serenity on the Side" that presents one view of the cultural imperialism argument presented against globalization.
The writer describes feng shui in a LA McDonalds as:
"In the evermorphing county, the feng shui McDonald’s, as it has quickly become known, is “a perfect example” of global capitalism’s co-opting people’s cultures, said Gilda L. Ochoa, an associate professor of sociology and Latino studies at Pomona College, who grew up here in the 1970s. “Hacienda Heights,” she said, “is a microcosm of a changing United States.”"
I wonder, rather than global capitalism "co-opting" culture, might this not be an example of culture diffusing as a result of increased globalization?
Liberty Fund
Foundation for Teaching Economics
May 2-4, 2008
Understanding Liberty & Choice: Free Trade, Globalization, and Economic Development
Session II: The Classic Argument for Free Trade
Smith, Adam. An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Volume I, Book I, Chapters 1 and 2 and Book IV, Chapter 2. Liberty Fund, 1982, 13-30, 452-472.
Ricardo, David. “On Foreign Trade.” Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Liberty Fund, 2004, 128-49.
Session III: Protectionism
Bastiat, Frederic. “A Petition,” “An Immense Discovery!”, “Reciprocity,” and “A Negative Railroad.” Economic Sophisms. New York: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996, 56-60, 63-66, 67-69, and 94-95.
Session IV: Globalization
Barber, Benjamin. “Jihad vs. McWorld, ” Atlantic Monthly, March 1992, pp. 53-65.
Bhagwati, Jagdish. “Anti-Globalization: Why?” In Defense of Globalization. U.S. & Gr. Br.: Oxford University Press, 2004, 3 -27.
Session VI –Globalization’s Human Face
Rivoli, Pietra. “Made in China.” The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 59 -108.
Bhagwati, Jagdish. “Women: Harmed or Helped?” and “Wages and Labor Standards at Stake?” In Defense of Globalization. U.S. & Gr. Br.: Oxford University Press, 2004, 123 –134.
Session VII – Globalization and Poverty
Rivoli, Pietra. “My T-Shirt Finally Encounters a Free Market.” The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 173 -210.
Bhagwati, Jagdish. “Poverty: Enhanced or Diminished?” In Defense of Globalization. U.S. & Gr. Br.: Oxford University Press, 2004, 51-67.
Understanding Liberty and Choice:
Free Trade, Globalization, and Economic Development
Marriott Marquis Peachtree Center
265 Peachtree Center Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30303
404-521-0000
Conference Schedule
Friday
3:30 Registration
4:00 – 4:30 pm Welcome & Introduction
4:30 – 6:00 pm Session 1: The Mysteries of Trade
6:00 – 7:00 Reception
7:00 Dinner
Saturday
8:30 – 10:00 am Session 2: Socratic Seminar
The Classic Argument for Free Trade
Readings
• Adam Smith, Book I, chapters 1-2 (division of labor) and Book IV, chapter 2 (restraints of trade), Wealth of Nations
• David Ricardo, “On Foreign Trade”, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation
10:00 – 10:30 am Break
10:30 – 12:00 Session 3: Socratic Seminar
Protectionism
(Focus is on Bastiat’s Sophisms. Participants well-versed in
arguments for protectionism and possibilities for use of satire as
classroom-friendly approach to issue.)
Readings
• Frederic Bastiat, “A Petition”, “An Immense Discovery!”, “Reciprocity”, “A Negative Railroad”, Economic Sophisms
12:00 Lunch
4:00 – 5:00 pm Session 4: Socratic Seminar
Globalization
Readings
• Benjamin Barber, “Jihad vs. McWorld”, Atlantic Monthly
• Jagdish Bhagwati, In Defense of Globalization, Chapter 1, “Anti-Globalization: Why?
5:15 – 6:45 pm Session 5: Speaker Session and Q&A
Globalization and Culture
Dr. Pietra Rivoli,
author of “The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy
7:00 pm Dinner
Sunday
8:30 – 10:00 am Session 6: Socratic Seminar
Globalization’s Human Face
Readings
• Pietra Rivoli, Part II, “Made in China”, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy
• Bhagwati, “Women: Harmed or Helped” and “Wages and Labor Standards at Stake?”
10:00 – 10:30 am Break
10:30 – 12:00 pm Session 7: Socratic Seminar
Globalization & Poverty
Readings
• Rivoli, Part IV, “My T-shirt Finally Encounters a Free Market
• Bhagwati, “Poverty: Enhanced or Diminished?”
12:00 – 1:30 pm Lunch, Program Evaluation & Closing
Economic View
Freer Trade Could Fill the World’s Rice Bowl
By TYLER COWEN
Published: April 27, 2008
RISING food prices mean hunger for millions and also political unrest, as has already been seen in Haiti, Egypt and Ivory Coast. Yes, more expensive energy and bad weather are partly at fault, but the real question is why adjustment hasn’t been easier. A big problem is that the world doesn’t have enough trade in foodstuffs.
The damage that trade restrictions cause is probably most evident in the case of rice. Although rice is the major foodstuff for about half of the world, it is highly protected and regulated. Only about 5 to 7 percent of the world’s rice production is traded across borders; that’s unusually low for an agricultural commodity.
In preparation for the joint FTE/Liberty Fund conference - Free Trade, Globalization, and Economic Development I have been rereading Dr. Rivoli's The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy in which she cites her colleague:
"Does the world really need another book about globalization?" Jagdish Bhagwati asks in the introduction to his recent book on the topic.
The answer, in my view, is yes and in addition to Rivoli's book, we are reading Bhagwati's In Defense of Globalization.
Rivoli writes in the preface to her book:
Later writers -- perhaps most artfully Peter Dougherty -- have argued instead that "Economics is part of a larger civilizing project," in which markets depend for their very survival on various forms of the backlash. My T-shirt's story comes down on Dougherty's side: Neither the market nor the backlash alone presents much hope for the poor the world over who farm cotton or stitch T-shirts together, but in the unintentional conspiracy between the two sides there is promise.
My T-shirt's life suggests, however, that the importance of markets might be overstated by both globalizers and critics. While my T-shirt's life story is certainly influenced by competitive economic markets, the key events in the T-shirt's life are less about competitive markets than they are about politics, history, and creative maneuvers to avoid markets. Even those who laud the effects of highly competitive markets are loathe to experience them personally, so the winners at various stages of my T-shirt's life are adept not so much at competing in markets but at avoiding them. The effects of these avoidance maneuvers can have more damaging effects on the poor and powerless than market competition itself. In short, my T-shirt's story has turned out to be less about markets than I would have predicted, and more about the historical and political webs of intrigue in which the markets are embedded. In peeling the onion of my T-shirt's life -- especially as it relates to current debates -- I kept being led back to history and politics.
Book Excerpt: From Chapter 3
"Backward to Seed and Forward to Denim: Farmer Profits at Every Step"
Cotton growers have also shown an astounding ability to coax value out of cotton production by throwing nothing away and finding somebody, anybody, to eat it or buy it. Out of the 22,000 pounds of raw cotton that leave Nelson's farm in the module truck, only about 5,300 pounds is the white lint that will be turned into T-shirts. Everything else on the truck looks like garbage, and it was once garbage, but not anymore. Even the garbage produced by the garbage is now sold. The reusing, recycling, and repackaging that take place in Lubbock's cotton industry today would shame the thriftiest Depression-era housewives. And often, for Texas cotton farmers, the garbage is the difference between red and black at the end of the year. As with virtually all other aspects of cotton farming, substantial assistance has been provided by the government. While much agricultural research has been devoted to increasing the quality and quantity of cotton production, the USDA at the same time has been actively involved in research to find creative and profitable uses for everything else that arrives in the module.
The excerpt below, from chapter 9 of her book, discusses how the lifting of textile and clothing quotas is expected to lead to greater Chinese dominance -- to the detriment of exports from other developing countries:
When the third tranche of products was lifted from quota in 2002, some of the poorest countries in the world got a frightening glimpse of the future. China had been admitted to the WTO in 2001 and for the first time would be eligible to have its apparel exports removed from quota. Not only did it appear that the Philippines or Sri Lanka or Mauritius would not get a bigger piece of the pie when the quotas were lifted, it appeared instead that China would get everybody's pie. Throughout the regime's history, observers had become used to the gushes that followed when holes had been poked in the dike, but no one had been prepared for the gushes from China.
In the vein of Jagdish Bhagwati's book, Larry Summers writes:
America needs to make a new case for trade
By Lawrence Summers
Published: April 27 2008 18:57 | Last updated: April 27 2008 18:57
While the financial crisis dominates current discussion on the US economy, questions regarding America’s future approach to globalisation are looming increasingly large.
Since the end of the second world war, American economic policy has supported an integrated global economy, stimulating development in poor countries, particularly in Asia, at unprecedented rates. Yet America’s commitment to internationalist economic policy is ever more in doubt. Even before the significant increases in unemployment likely in the months ahead, the indicators are all disturbing. Presidential candidates attack the North American Free Trade Agreement. The Colombian free trade agreement languishes. There are increasing attacks on foreign investment in the US, not to mention growing support for restrictive immigration policies.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0c185e3a-1478-11dd-a741-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
In the vein of Jagdish Bhagwati's book, Larry Summers writes:
America needs to make a new case for trade
By Lawrence Summers
Published: April 27 2008 18:57 | Last updated: April 27 2008 18:57
While the financial crisis dominates current discussion on the US economy, questions regarding America’s future approach to globalisation are looming increasingly large.
Since the end of the second world war, American economic policy has supported an integrated global economy, stimulating development in poor countries, particularly in Asia, at unprecedented rates. Yet America’s commitment to internationalist economic policy is ever more in doubt. Even before the significant increases in unemployment likely in the months ahead, the indicators are all disturbing. Presidential candidates attack the North American Free Trade Agreement. The Colombian free trade agreement languishes. There are increasing attacks on foreign investment in the US, not to mention growing support for restrictive immigration policies.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0c185e3a-1478-11dd-a741-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
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