Globalization is over — at least the version we knew

As The New York Times columnist David Brooks put it back in 2022, globalization meant countries becoming more economically, politically, and culturally interdependent. Trade flowed more freely. McDonald’s opened in Moscow. Factories moved to China. And for a few decades, the world seemed to flatten, culture homogenized — for better or worse — and trade boomed.

However, that model seems to be unraveling.

According to World Bank and OECD data, global trade rose from just 25% of global GDP in the 1970s to over 60% in 2008 — yet has remained flat since, hovering around 59% as of 2023. The long upward trend that defined the early globalization era has stalled for nearly two decades.

See the full article here.