I would argue that financial liberalization created great difficulties for Thailand at this time; however, in today’s world it’s very difficult to imagine Thailand without the giant foreign hotels and tourism market. The other issue that Thailand demonstrates here is that liberalization linked multiple countries and now our economies are intertwined. If one country's currency suddenly depreciates or even crashes in the longer term, countries other than the source will be affected.

After reading this article I would argue that free trade policies were quite damaging to countries in Asia on the pretense that they experienced similar occurrences to countries like Russia, Brazil, and Thailand. I have to note an important internal factor that I would assume was true for countries in Asia at the time. The three countries I noted had poor banking practices. However, the Clinton Administration that pushed very hard for financial liberalization and freer capital flows allowed too much foreign money into the listed countries and thus local money moved out. At the time the countries were open and excited about this change in foreign economic policies because it was thought that it was the path to economic development; however, we now know that quick and sudden liberalization can possibly lead to banking system failures and financial crises.

The occurrences of the modern day market are remarkable. Today, the true thing is that anyone can be an investor. The trend among social media is that anyone can become an investor, something that for a long time individuals started away from due to lack of understanding. Further, it is remarkable how the financial markets are putting more money into the hands of individuals (like the article was saying). However, something I was thinking about is that because all of the value is based on the supply and demand for the shares and with the increase of users in the market demand is increasing and prices are shifting up. However, there will be a point where people will start to cash out and realize their winnings. This means that the market is susceptible to crashes and if the “financial markets are driving our real economy” this may be problematic for instance in 2020 from February 19th to March 23rd, the s&p 500 index lost a third of its value, but quickly recovered as news that the Fed would buy corporate bonds, helping big firms finance their debts.

In the article published by the The Program on Science, Technology, America and the Global Economy and the U.S. Agency for International Development, Neil McCulloch, a senior poverty economist for the World Bank Group within Indonesia found in their research that trade liberalization had a generally positive effect in stimulating economic growth and that growth often had the effect of reducing overall poverty. He then argued that the impact of trade was much greater and much more effective if the sound governmental institutions and basic investments in infrastructure and education were in place. This is great news because as policies begin to shape up and more control trade policies get set in stone, poorer nations in Asia will now have infrastructure.

This passage relates to a paper written by Candice L. Odgers from the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke and published by the US National Library of Medicine. Odgers explores the connection between Income Inequality and the Developing Child. Odger then finds that Children embedded in countries, states and (sometimes) schools with high income inequality experience worse outcomes than their peers in more egalitarian settings because she noted in her study that A strong linear association between income inequality within each country and child wellbeing was observed, such that as income inequality increased, young people’s wellbeing decreased. Therefore, this passage reminded me that the effects of inequality reach far beyond just the examples in class. Low-income children and adolescents, who had no say in the situation they were born into, appear to be especially vulnerable when they are embedded in unequal nations, states, neighborhoods and classrooms.

In these examples, the results of migration for Mark were not entirely positive. For many who have to migrate, they often face a gap between their skills or qualifications and the returns they get to these skills. For example (from IFS Deaton review), migrants in the UK tend to have high levels of qualifications (such as Mark who previously worked at an unionized steel mill) but work jobs that don't require as much qualifications (such as Mark working in the non-unionized factory) upon arrival to your new location.

The power dynamics between countries has shifted due to Covid-19. The United States demonstrated weakness that is not generally contributed to them while China although hit first by the pandemic reportedly acted swiftly and eliminated the virus. BBC News, reporting a yearly report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, has written that China’s response to the pandemic will “boost its relative growth compared to the US and Europe in the coming years.” Further, they predict “China will overtake the US to become the world's largest economy by 2028, five years earlier than previously forecast.” The rivalry for global economic prowess has often been between between the US and China, but due to the effective management of Covid-19 and “aggressive policymaking targeting industries like advanced manufacturing, said CEBR deputy chairman Douglas McWilliams.”

The globalization of the international economy has given rise to many economic trends. Outsourcing, FDI, and trade are all products of globalization. Trade more specifically has had a profound impact on development. With the goal of increasing trade to further economic development, various countries have carefully designed trade agreements with each other in order to remove trade barriers and protectionist policies such as tariffs and taxes on imports. One of the most prominent trade agreements signed in 1994, NAFTA, between the US, Mexico, and Canada stopped all traffic on trades between the three countries. The impact of this policy is that goods, services, individuals, and even ideas are now able to travel freely throughout the countries, promoting development. An example commonly demonstrating globalization is HSBC a prominent bank in the world. HSBC originated stood for Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation which was founded with the idea of promoting trade between China and the UK, and now HSBC has its headquarters in the UK.

In the article The Environmental and Socioeconomic Effects of Overfishing Due to the Globalisation of the Seafood Industry, Elizabeth Jones, an Environmental Sustainability professor, presents the harms of overfishing on economies but also the environment. We learn that as the number of aquaculture operations increases, the risks of rapid environmental degradation and resource depletion occurs as well. Further, the continuous improvement in aquatic technologies as well as economic incentives created by trade created global demand for seafood. One example that comments upon the highlighted phrase in the textbook is the conversion of mangrove swamps to profitable fishing pods. Although this increases the economic output (therefore growth) of their resources (their land) for the community/country, it has led to the cultivation of shrimp as well as fish at a level that completely disregards the carrying capacity, the maximum population size of a species that can be sustained in one specific environment, of the mangroves. In turn, the economic growth caused by the cultivation threatens the health of the entire mangroves and the environment as a whole.

Increasing economic growth requires increasing economic output. Generally, in order to increase economic output, resources are depleted which in turn affects the environment. This paragraph refers to fishing as an example of economic growth at the cost of depleting resources. Fishing is a common source of income for many communities, and in turn leads to growth in communities. However, the trend (presented in Figure 20.3) generally points that dependence on resources deteriorates the environment by depleting commodities.

Economic growth and development is largely tied to the decisions a nation’s leaders make as well as its institutions. Although this explanation is not perfect, it generally beats out the geography and culture explanation that fails to explain how nations so close together can experience different economic prosperity. Proper policies that focus on eradicating poverty generally show more prosperity than policies aimed to create economic well-being (which is usually the case).