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July 2006
Will Global Competition Destroy the American Middle Class?
“The World Isn’t Flat, It’s Tilted,” Claims New Book
Across the country, a growing number of Americans fear that they could be replaced by someone from a developing country. Recent polls indicate that millions of Americans are preoccupied with the outsourcing of American jobs and the threat of global economic competition. From board rooms to class rooms to kitchen tables and water coolers, globalization has become a hot topic of discussion and debate everywhere. Thomas Friedman’s recent New York Times Bestselling book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, asserts that the international economic playing field is now more level than it has ever been. As popular as the book may be, Friedman’s theories on globalization have brought critics out in droves. “The world isn’t flat as a result of globalization,” says Peter Fingar, noted business expert and author of Extreme Competition: Innovation and the Great 21st Century Business Reformation (MK Press, 2006). “The world is tilted in favor of a fierce new breed of competitors.” These competitors exploit three billion low-paid workers in China, India and the former Soviet Union, countries that have recently adopted capitalism.
“These fierce new competitors are ready to engage you, your company, and your kids in extreme competition,” says Fingar. “They play hardball and dominate their industries. They’ll go to the ends of the earth to employ factors workers for 9 cents an hour and PhDs in science and technology for $20,000 a year. This global search for low-cost labor has already begun to damage, and may even cripple, America’s middle class.” This epic change in traditional business strategies and assumptions has shaken up the way the world does business. The development of the Internet has eliminated time and distance considerations for workers and added fuel to the fire of global competition. Americans are reluctantly facing a shift of wealth and power to the East. “The great dot-com crash of 2000 wasn’t the signal for the beginning of the end, it was a signal that we had reached the end of the beginning,” says Fingar. “The tinkering phase of the Internet was complete, and now it’s time to get on with the real transformation of business and society.”
Fingar stresses that this transformation is not something for us to worry about in the future. The time is now to deal with the reality of the global economy. “We are not on the brink of a great transition,” says Fingar. “We’ve already crossed the threshold to a new economic world order.” Providing the framework and practical strategies needed for action, Extreme Competition acts as a survival guide in this new age of global competition and provides the insight needed to win. “We must be prepared now for extreme competition or lose our standing in the world economy and our standard of living,” he says. Fingar’s message serves as a penetrating wake-up call for governments, businesses and individuals everywhere.
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Ex-Im Bank to Conduct Seminars in Houston, Texas and Los Angeles, California on Exporting to Africa
Ex-Im Bank is scheduled to conduct training seminars in Houston, Texas and Los Angeles California in June and July, respectively. These half-day training sessions are targeted from U.S. exporters interested in exporting to Africa. The focus of the programs will be to explain export credit support available through Ex-Im Bank programs. Ex-Im Bank will cover its initiatives in Africa and specifically review the Short-Term & Medium-Term products.
The training seminars are scheduled as follows....Click Here
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Global Marketing Pitfalls
By Julian Nwokeuku
In this day and age it is not uncommon for entrepreneurs in the marketplace to visualize opportunities when considering the option of expanding their products and services into the Global arena. In fact, most domestic firms understand the paramount importance of introducing their products to countries outside their immediate boundaries and being able to compete aggressively with other foreign entities in their own environments.
Well-exercised entrepreneurs are willing to test the potential for introducing higher quality goods and services that they feel would offer alternatives to the local consumer. Although not totally over, the days of offering last year’s products to countries in need is fast becoming a practice of the past. Numerous countries, with access to the
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A new era in banking begins
Law will eventually end ‘float,’ canceled hand-written checks
By Bob Sullivan
Technology correspondent
MSNBC
Every night, millions of cashed checks fly around the country, headed for their home bank. Starting Thursday, technology will begin grounding many of those flights. And it may ground some consumers, too — those who try to sneak an extra day or two of "float" out of their checking accounts.
A new era in banking has begun as the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, commonly known as Check 21, takes effect. Banks will slowly get away from the business of flying checks around the country each night. Instead, checks will be cleared electronically, and often destroyed when they are cashed.
"We are bringing the industry out of the Pony Express era," said John Hall, spokesman for the American Bankers Association.
Read the rest at MSNBC.com
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