Subject: Greenspan: Globalisation vs Terrorism.
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2001 12:34:27 +0800


Here is a something I found in the Weekend Australian Financial Review that
I thought you people would find interesting:

    Globalisation as a rebuff to terrorism

    The US Federal Reserve Board's chairman, Alan Greenspan, speaking at
George Washington University on December 3.

    The United States has benefitted enormously from the opening up of
international markets in the postwar period. We have access to a wide range
of goods and services for onsumption; our industries produce and employ
cutting-edge technologies; and the opportunities created by these
technologies have attracted capital inflows from abroad.
    These capital inflows, in turn, have reduced the costs of building our
country's capital stock and added to the productivity of our workers. It
would be a tragedy if progress towards greater openess were stopped or
reversed...
    Terrorism poses a challenge to the remarkable record of globalisation. A
global society reflects an ever more open economic environment in which
participants are free to engage in commerce and finance wherever in thw
world the possibilities of increased value added arise. It fosters ever
greater cross-border contact and further exploitation of the values of
specialisation but on a global scale.
    Fear of terrorist acts, however, has the potential to induce
disengagement from activities, both domestic and cross-border. If we allow
terrorism to undermine our freedom of action, we could reverse at least part
of the palpable gains achieved by postwar globalisation. It is incumbent
upon us not to allow that to happen...
    Globalisation, admittedly, is an exceptionally abstract concept to
convey to the general public. Economists can document the analytic ties of
trade to growth and standards of living.
    A far greater challenge for us has been, and will continue to be, making
clear that globalisation is an endeavour that can spread worldwide the
values of freedom and civil contact - the antithesis of terrorism.

------

I wonder what he means by "further exploitation of the values of
specialisation"?
Personally, I don't think the wolf in granny's bed of globalisation is that
different from terrorism.