This is where we are today said Daniel Cohen

When the University pedagogue Daniel Cohen, fifty years is storyteller mixing history and theory, the result is there: a masterful lesson in economy. For the professor at the Ecole normale supérieure, the real novelty of globalization is "the return of China and the India in international trade". The return "Until 1975, Mao's death, these large sets have lived away from the international trade, quasi-autarcie." However, in a short time, these countries changed strategy and opened themselves to global capitalism. "Why this reversal of Cape at the dawn of the 21st century, as decisive as major To understand, Daniel Cohen invites his audience to plunge into the history of... 19Th century. "Finance, migration, transport...". This age has witnessed globalization much more extensive than the one we live in today, combining free trade and liberalism on a much larger scale. Failures were so far-reaching that it barely today to remember. "One example: with the Telegraph, information starts to circulate in 24 hours against three months by letter.

But a fact intrigues: in this world of unprecedented mobility, open to huge potential, inequalities explode. Thus the Indians found early 20th century five times poorer than the English a century earlier. Even worse: in the 20th century, the divergence will continue in the absence of catch-up. Why such a so daunting development through the centuries And why the international division of labour seems be a losing game

Daniel Cohen recalled the "theory of unequal exchange" developed by Arrighi Emmanuel during the 1950s and 1960s. Based on the statistics of the United Nations showing the secular deterioration of the terms of trade at the expense of the countries of the South, this theory is a powerful influence in persuading almost all developing countries to convert to protectionism. More amazing still: we will realize after the fact that the numbers who founded this theory are erroneous because of a bad taking account of the costs of transport. Thus, a deterioration in the terms of trade, it is in contrast to their secular improvement, on a case, because of gains in productivity in the industrial sphere.

What then is the correct explanation of the accentuation of inequalities Daniel Cohen relies on another more modern theory, that of returns to scale, applying it to the nations. "Fort of the investments already made, a developed economy diversified quite naturally its offer, while a poor country tends to specialize to exist." In doing so, he is vulnerable and especially in competition with others. Result: the rich get richer and the poor have become poorer. "Hence the temptation to opt for self-sufficiency. This way leads inevitably to failure: "When it locked in the borders, it undertakes to reinvent everything."

Japan, poor country become rich, provides the only counterexample to this brazen Act. "The country of the rising sun has practiced a form of measured protectionism, particularly through an undervalued yen, while investing heavily in education and infrastructure with a high national savings rate." With the failure of self-centred development strategy, China, the Russia, soon joined by the India, the Brazil, the Turkey will follow suit to the Japan. This is where we are today, said Daniel Cohen. But the story is not over. For the time being, inequalities and gaps in wealth between the cities of Northern and southern suburbs are still enormous. "The international division of labour was slow to spread prosperity, but images of prosperity are, part of the global village, through the channel of television and other means of communication", provisionally concluded Daniel Cohen. Attention, dangerous telescoping!