Speculate to accumulate, by Serge Halimi

Farmers in Mali would rely on more highly mechanised, more productive producers in the Beauce or the Midwest for grain supplies. The farmers would pack up, move into town and get jobs in some western firm that had relocated to take advantage of cheaper labour than it could find at home. The countries on the East African seaboard would lighten their load of foreign debt by selling their fishing rights to the factory ships of wealthier countries. The Guineans would import tinned fish from Denmark or Portugal. Never mind the additional pollution generated by transporting all these goods. A life of bliss was guaranteed and so were the profits of the middlemen – wholesalers, shippers, insurers, advertisers.

One could beg to differ -- surely globalisation could be a positive thing, provided all the costs are factored in. If means of transportation (whether freight or passenger) are taxed based on their carbon emissions, and market-distorting subsidies that benefit mostly large agricultural combines are axed, we should see more local production, while still avoiding the autarkic extremes of North Korea and communist-era Albania.