Globalization Isn’t Over. It’s Changing.

Globalization Isn’t Over. It’s Changing.

International and Arab News

“Deglobalization” is a word on many people’s lips these days — and understandably so. Russia has been largely cut off from the West for its appalling invasion of Ukraine. The economic marriage of convenience between China and the United States (“Chimerica”) is unraveling. And there’s more and more talk about “re-shoring” — producing more stuff at home — either for national security reasons or to avoid future supply-chain disruptions such as those caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Rather than the cheapest, easiest and greenest sources, there’ll probably be more of a premium put on the safest and surest,” Howard Marks, co-founder of the investment firm Oaktree Capital Management, wrote to shareholders recently.

Wait, though. Maybe globalization isn’t dead after all. I talked to experts on both sides of the debate over “globalization: dead or alive?” and came away with the impression that globalization is changing shape but not going away. For example, the bottlenecks at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., have been caused largely by enormous demand for imports — a conspicuous sign that globalization is very much still at work.

Jeffrey Kleintop, the chief global investment strategist at Charles Schwab, is among those who argue