Seventy years ago, the Liberal populist leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was gunned down in downtown Bogotá, Colombia, as the hemispheric nations gathered in the same city to discuss the economic fate of the region as it geared away from the global war economy of the 1940s. His assassination sparked a long civil war that is […]
The reason why my family and I moved to Maine sixteen years ago was not the result of the traditional rational decision making process taught in economics and business 101, it was more down the line of behavioral economics, a theory of economics that contradicted rational assumptions of human behavior, and that recently earned Richard […]
The recent tariffs on imports of aluminum and steel announced by President Donald Trump have shaken the international trade system forcing other nations and economic blocs to retaliate, at least rhetorically. The European Union, for example, said they would study the possibility of raising tariffs on the export of American bourbon and peanut butter.[1] Brazilian […]
This past weekend I was once again lucky enough to attend the 31st Annual Camden Conference, a nonpartisan citizens’ forum that puts our state at the epicenter of global debates. This year’s focus, “New World Disorder and America’s Future” allowed the general public, high school, and college students to reflect on the current dynamics of […]
In past blogs I have highlighted some of the global-local dynamics that impact Maine, including the NESTLE – Poland Spring Water connection and the foreign ownership of our energy grid under Canada’s Emera and Spain’s AVANGRID Inc., owner of Central Maine Power Company. Recently, in my Global Business class we centered on another “Glocal” case that is […]
Data analysts, policy makers, economists, the media, and multiple other political, social, economic, cultural, and environmental stakeholders speculate and debate over whether or not the “glass is half full or half empty.” If you are a local microbrewer from Maine you know that the glass is half full and if you are drinking the beer […]
Opportunism, innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship, first-mover, trendsetter, market expansionism, monopoly, vertical integration; these are some of the basic concepts of global business strategy implemented by corporations across the markets of the world. These are the strategies being implemented by the marijuana entrepreneurs that want to capitalize on the global expansion of this commodity. The emergence of […]
Donald Trump behaves like any other nouveau riche that has reached positions of power as a result of the expansion of capitalism and the neoliberal geopolitical realities that shaped the international system after the Cold War. He is no different then Vladimir Putin or Silvio Berlusconi, living ostentatiously and using power to intimate those around […]
Recently I have been talking to my students about the nature of the nation state and the formation of the international system. We have also been talking about the historical development of capitalism as its ideas and values expanded from Europe to North America. We briefly began to reflect about industrialization, its power structures and […]
Peace movements and human rights organizations have voiced their opposition to the administration’s recent reaction to the threats voiced by Kim Jong-un, several leaders from the Democratic Party have also questioned Trump’s bellicose stance, and some main stream Republicans have done so as well. This has turned the North Korean issue into another opportunity for […]
