There's no question globalization has its downsides. But it is, on balance, a powerful force for good in the world.

For rich countries, bigger markets and more intense competition have increased productivity, lowered prices for consumers, and raised incomes. In the developing world, globalization has reduced poverty by supporting economic growth. Since 1980, a group of developing countries that are home to three billion people have grown even faster than rich countries and have reduced dramatically the number of people living in poverty – in large part because they opened their economies.

By contrast, poverty is more pervasive precisely in those places that globalization has left untouched. The proportion of poor people is much higher in those countries that participate only minimally in world markets. Many of those countries are in Africa. There, the problem is not globalization...
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HOST INTRO:

AS PRESIDENT OF MEXICO DURING THE SECOND HALF OF THE 1990s, ERNESTO ZEDILLO [ze-DEE-yoh] OVERSAW A PERIOD OF UNPRECEDENTED ECONOMIC GROWTH. HE ALSO BOOSTED SOCIAL SPENDING IN MEXICO TO RECORD LEVELS. SINCE HE LEFT OFFICE IN 2000 HE HAS BEEN A LEADING VOICE IN FAVOR OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION AS A WAY FORWARD FOR THE WORLD'S POOREST COUNTRIES. TODAY HE HEADS THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF GLOBALIZATION AT YALE UNIVERSITY. HE OFFERS THESE COMMENTS AS PART OF "THINK GLOBAL," PUBLIC RADIO'S WEEK OF SPECIAL COVERAGE.

BACK-ANNOUNCE:

THOSE WERE THE COMMENTS OF ERNESTO ZEDILLO [ze-DEE-yoh], FORMER PRESIDENT OF MEXICO AND CURRENTLY DIRECTOR OF THE YALE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF GLOBALIZATION.