In the past decade, one of the major changes in the global markets has been the sluggish rate of globalization which is termed as 1. "Slowbalisation", coined by a Du

In the past decade, one of the major changes in the global markets has been the sluggish rate of globalization which is termed as 1. "Slowbalisation", coined by a Dutch writer", i.e. continued integration of the global economy via trade, financial and other flows, albeit at a significantly slower pace".

2. " A report of the World Economic Outlook projected the average growth rate for 2020 is 3.5% as compared to 3.8% averaged in the 2000s".

There are various reasons for this sluggish growth in the second decade of the 21st Century."slowbalisation" has on the world. Slowbalisation is caused by a lot of factors like political, technological, geopolitical, climate change and global threats.

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Protectionism: the theory or practice of shielding a country's domestic industries from foreign competition by taxing imports;

Policies: Made by the government relating to tariffs and economy and;

Pandemic : (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.

In the past 10 years after the 2008 financial crisis, 3. "there have been around 7000 protectionist measures taken up by the world's top 60 economies". These measures are taken by the countries to make trade barriers which stop "free trade" and prevent globalization. The refugee crisis around the world led to protectionist measures as developed countries don't want to open their borders to refugees because their growth is already slowing down.

Also, in the wake of the rightist movement across the world, the conservatives have taken the reins and are creating trade barriers and leading toward closed economies. During the US-China Trade war, the tariffs increased exponentially which resulted in a loss of $455bn to both countries.

The pandemics such as Ebola and the current pandemic Covid-19 hampered the world economy and the world's share markets crashed and international trade declined immensely. COVID-19 caused approximately a loss of $6 trillion to the world economy and will likely lead to a global recession in 2020. While 4. " The Ebola epidemic had a pronounced socio-economic impact in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. According to 2014 projections from the World Bank, an estimated $2.2 billion was lost in 2015 in the gross domestic product GDP of the three countries". These examples show that the three Ps of "slowbalisation" are interlinked with each other. Policies are a reaction to Pandemics which lead to Protectionism.

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Technology: the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry;

Territory: an area of land under the jurisdiction of a ruler or state.

Trade: the action of buying and selling goods and services and;

The first T(technology), In the past ten years, technology has changed extensively. The new technology became a blockbuster for the investors with the earnings reaching unprecedented heights. Technology trade increases the volume of trade in goods. and increases product variety at the market equilibrium. New technologies like blockchain, automation, machine learning and big data change the global economy in their eloquent way. 5. "However, technology services are especially vulnerable to politics and protectionism, reflecting concerns about fake news, tax-dodging, job losses, privacy and espionage".

The second T(territory), "The Political Decoy of War" such as the nuclear tensions between North Korea and the US are a severe threat to global peace. Another such example is the recent US assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani created a war-like situation in the two countries. This creates fear in the global markets which could lead to economic depression like the "Great Economic Depression" in the 1930s. Brexit, the exit of the UK from the European Union, was born in part of the instinct to throw up barriers against the world. 6. " But within it was an ultra-liberal strand, which regarded the EU as too statist and parochial. Britons will lose the automatic right they now have to live and work across the EU". This is thus a protectionist measure. Similarly, the refugee crisis is also a protectionist measure as mentioned above.

Now with the last T(trade), Business Cartels have always been there in trade and are most prominently present in the oil industry where the Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries(OPEC) controls the oil prices. Recently, there was a turf between Russia and OPEC when Russia flouted its terms with OPEC. 7. "It started when Russia refused to slash production during a meeting with the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna on March 6th. Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s de facto leader, hit back with discounts to buyers and a promise to pump cruder. Shortly thereafter it said it would provide customers with 12.3m barrels a day (b/d) in April, about 25% more than it supplied last month—and a level it has never before attained. Russia said it could raise output, too, adding up to 500,000 b/d to its 11.2m b/d. The price of Brent crude plunged by 24%, to $34 a barrel, on March 9th—its steepest one-day drop in nearly 30 years".

Fiscal Stimulus: refers to increasing government consumption or transfers or lowering taxes. Effectively this means increasing the rate of growth of public debt, except that particularly Keynesians often assume that the stimulus will cause sufficient economic growth to fill that gap partially or completely.

One recent example of this is the economic stimulus bill to alleviate the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak by the US government. 8. "The stimulus package is expected to be worth $2 trillion". These resources will be allocated to various industries to prevent their stock prices from tumbling and rescue the economy from the exodus of funds. Thus, the three Ts and three Ps of "Slowbalisation" are very interrelated and affect the global economy on a large scale.

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The slowbalisation in the world economy is a good boy for the planet while a bad boy for humans and their economy. It is a "bad boy" because firstly, with the slower pace of globalization for most countries it will become difficult to procreate money at the rate they used to do before. Trade tensions will lead to financial turbulence. The trade will become slow or may diminish in the future this will harm the GDP of the countries and lead to higher rates of unemployment. Secondly, it won't fix the problems created by globalization. With automation and AI entering the world arena unskilled workers are at risk and always replaceable. 9." Problems like climate change, migration and dodging taxes are harder to solve without global cooperation". This could also convert into a global economic depression if the economy starts diminishing as all economies are interlinked. In the end, it will only feed the discontent.

While it is mother earth's favourite son "Slowbalisation" is the need of the hour to cope with global warming and reduce the global carbon footprint. Also, it will help the countries to shrink economic inequalities and redirect national economies on the path of local growth.

https://www.pwc.co.za/en/press-room/slowbalisation-is-the-new-globalisation.html

https://in.reuters.com/article/global-economy-protectionism/world-has-racked-up-7000-protectionist-measures-since-crisis-study-idINKBN1DF0IY

https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/history/2014-2016-outbreak/cost-of-ebola.html

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/01/24/the-steam-has-gone-out-of-globalisation

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/nov/28/how-has-brexit-vote-affected-uk-economy-november-verdict

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/03/12/no-one-is-likely-to-win-the-oil-price-war

https://www.investopedia.com/what-s-in-the-usd2-trillion-coronavirus-stimulus-bill-4800882

SLOWBALISATION: GLOBALISATION AT SNAIL'S PACE

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