Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

Économie Internationale - Coggle Diagram

- - - - The opening of plants coincides with the closure of plants elsewhere, such as Germany
      - An offshoring of the pollution caused by steel production
      - More steel in China means less steel in Mexico : economic slowdown which means migration to the US increases
  - - - Focuses too much on sovereign states
    - - International trade
        
        Cross-border exchange of goods and services
      - International investment
        
        Aquisition of real assets located in other countries by citizens, firms of governments
        
        More than 10% of businesses controlled abroad
        
        Inconsistent with world trade volumes : their own rhythm, and speculation
      - International finance
        
        Cross-border borrowing and lending
        
        Less than 10% of shares of a business
      - International money
        
        Using specific currencies in international transactions
        
        Domination by the US dollar which gives the country special advantages
      - International migration
        
        Movement of people across borders
        
        Not particularly high, as of today
    - - Also the consequence of cultural norms and human institutions which shape the behaviour of agents
      - Institutions : allow agents to foresee the bahaviour of one another, and are always present in transactions
    - - Economic development is limited by the biocapacity
      - Ecological footprints are growing worryingly
    - - Advantages
        
        Greater specialization
        
        Reduction of risk
        
        Expansion of knowledge
      - Costs
        
        Economic constraints and trade wars
        
        Sanitary risks
- - - - International finance : borrowing and lending across borders
        
        An accelerating phenomenon
        
        Increases in (exchanged) debt by governments and companies
        
        Increase in the number of stock exchange transactions
        
        Shareholders hold onto stock for less time on average
      - International trade : buying and elling physical capital across borders
        
        A billion-dollar business
        
        TNCs
        
        Are less hit by sanctions and inflation
        
        Major investment projects with links to contemporary concerns
        
        Atre price-makers
      - Inherently linked to globalization
      - Increase volatility, especially in emerging markets
        
        During financial crises, capital flights from developing markets
        
        Distrust in the stability of institutions
        
        The claims of capital mobility benefits are not pesuasive
      - Host economies
        
        China and the US, top destinations for FDI
        
        Developing countries : lead receivers of remittances
    - - A balance sheet for each country's international transactions, and insertion into the global economy
        
        Different actors
        
        Government
        
        Citizens
        
        Firms
        
        Other organizations
        
        Different flows, to and from the country
        
        Imports and exports
        
        Transfer payments
        
        FDI
        
        Domestic stock and bond purchases abroad
        
        Foreign stock and bond purchases in the country
        
        Revenue from outside of the home country
      - Uses double-entry accounting
      - Based on Keynes' circular flow model
        
        Flows connecting residents of a country to residents of another country
        
        Producrs invest in each other and buy investment goods
        
        Individuals buy goods from producers, and get paid for their labour
        
        The financial sector channels funds from savers to borrowers and sells financial products
        
        The government provides public goods in exchange for taxes, it shifts income, buys goods, and borrows from the financial sector
        
        The sum of every payment and saving necessarily amounts to 0
        
        Showcases interdependence between members of a country
        
        When the rest of the world is included :
        
        Transfers can be made by governments or officials
        
        International financial flows, between the foreign and local financial sectors
        
        When savings inflow is positive, citizens buy less capital abroad than nationals in the country
        
        When savings inflow is negative, citizens buy more capital abroad than nationals in the country
        
        Savings inflow is the equivalent of FDI for financial assets, returning dividends and capital-dependent revenue flows
        
        Return on flows, Rf
        
        Exports and imports link producers to the rest of the world through trade
        
        An important equation : ( X - IM ) + Sf + rf + tr1 = 0
      - An important instrument for international economic policymaking
      - The basics
        
        The BoP : a regular sum of inflows and outflows of international payments
        
        Credit : inflow
        
        Debit : outflow
        
        The current account
        
        Transactions related to the trade of goods and services : ( X - IM )
        
        Payments relative to the returns of factors of production and asets : (rf)
        
        Private and public transfers : Trf
        
        Transactions related to financial assets : Sf
    - - A net exporter of services, but not goods
        
        Why the US pushes for liberalization of services in the WTO
      - Positive primary income
      - Lots of abroad income shifts
      - The country buys financial assets, but sells slightly more : it de facto borrows money, which allows it to pay for its negative balance of imports
  - - - Measures foreign assets owned by residents, minus domestic assets owned by foreign residents
      - In the US : a negative NIIP
        
        However, positive income flows from the outside, because the US owns higher-yielding assets abroad than foreigners own inside
        
        Because American treasury bonds don't have risk
        
        An advantage in supervising global capitalism
        
        However, a paradigm that's meant to last forever ?
    - - Most countries in the world were in favour of liberalizing FDI systems
      - The 2008 subprime crisis
        
        Different gluts
        
        Savings glut : Chinese actors take all the bonds
        
        Banking glut, European banks looked for profit in the US
        
        Profit glut, transnational companies earned profits which were distributed to shareholders and used to speculate
        
        Financial sector inability to create instruments to prevent global crisis
        
        Because of liberalization
        
        Because of insurance instruments which had a moral hazard
        
        Because of incapacity to distinguish between risk and uncertainty, and to accurately measure risks because of future uncertainty
        
        Because of overconfidence on the financial market, when it was crowded with speculation and debt-rolling
- - - - Epistemological derivation of wealth from labour
      - Comparative advantage in production prompts countriees to specialize in a certain production
        
        Unlike absolute advantage in Smith's theory
        
        Relative advantages existing, it must make sense to trade, since everybody wins
        
        Shifting away to free trade makes sense
        
        Which, in turn, is supposed to boost economic growth through the elimination of inefficiency
      - Specialization issues from comparative advantage theory, which means jobs get transferred from low-efficiency industries to high-efficiency ones
      - Protectionism benefits the State and domestic producers, whereas liberalism benefits domestic consumers and international producers
    - - Each country has a specific set of factor endowments
        
        Labour and Capital
        
        Each country should specialize in the production whcih makes most sense, considering its labour/capital division
      - Leontieff paradox : the US doesn't follow the HO theorem
        
        Because its capital-intensive productions are more efficient than its labour-intensive ones
      - The Stolper-Samuelsohn theorem
        
        Free trade remunerates the the industries benefited from specialization, according to the HO theorem
        
        Income rises exponentially in the sectors whose factor endowments are prevalent in a certain country
        
        It makes no sense for developing countries to oppose free trade, since it would necessarily be beneficial for them
    - - The comparative advantage model is based on assumptions
        
        Free market and perfect competition, whereas most of global trade is controlled by transnational cooperations
        
        No transaction, distribution and transportation costs
        
        No learning effects
        
        External immobility of factors, such as FDI, migration, capital flows
        
        We live in an era of unpreceented mobility, which includes offshoring practices and free movement
        
        Contemporary factor mobility means that some countries acquire a heavy surplus which shouldn't exist
        
        No externalities
        
        Stable consumer preferences
        
        Endless consumption
      - Critical assessment of CATT
        
        NEIT : new international economic theory
        
        Opposes CATT
        
        Increasing inputs generates higher returns in capital-intensive productions than in labour-intense productions : imperfect competition
        
        Winners of trade will always be the exporters of manufactured goods
        
        Developing countries can't keep up the pace of globalization
        
        Companies develop their own technologies when they need a production done, which means they don't depend on one another
        
        Historical events determine the distribution of companies along natural resources and international cash flows
  - - - Transnational corporations are firms which take advantage of gains of scale in order to better produce, market, research and distribute
        
        Don't necessarily own assets abroad
        
        Power of coordination in more than one country
      - TNCs harness cost advantages of internalizing transactions, rather than using the market for reaching individual suppliers
        
        They allocate resources in the world on an administrative basis, rather than a market basis
        
        They avoid the hold-up problem of differences between businesses and suppliers
        
        They avoid having to deal with a monopsone, which individual independent businesses particularly dislike since that means they lose leverage power
      - In order to avoid import regulations
        
        Tax avoidance through local production
        
        Health, labour, environment regulations, through production in laxer parts of the world
      - In order to reduce competition and squeeze labour unions
    - - Two configurations
        
        Non-equity modes of international production
        
        Integration of operations without owning operations
        
        Integration of legally independent firms across the world in production, supply and distribution, and subordination to a lead firm
        
        Equity modes of international production, traditional TNCs
      - Spread across the world through FDI
        
        Oops guess capital is mobile now
        
        FDI : international capital flows aimed at controlling at least 10% of another company's equity capital
        
        Transnational corporations : have at least one instance of FDI
        
        15 T USD out of 19 T USD of global trade
        
        6,3 T USD : intra-firm trade, which doesn't go through markets at all
        
        6,3 T USD : extra-firm trade
        
        Two kinds of FDI
        
        Vertical FDI : with the goal of owning distinct steps of a production process across different countries
        
        Horizontal FDI : with the goal of duplicating a specific activity, usually across developed countries
        
        In order to gain better access to local customers
        
        Present mostly in retail contexts
    - - Fortune Global 5000 list
        
        Most of the TNCs with highest revenues are American and private
        
        Most Chinese companies in the list are public
        
        Prevailing sectors : oil and gas, and automotive industries
        
        Their shareholders are the ones which benefit most from globalization
      - The 100 biggest TNCs have about 50% of their activity in foreign countries
        
        Half of the employment in the world's 100 biggest TNCs happens in the home country
        
        More than half of sales and asset purchases happens outside of the top 100 TNCs' home country
        
        The home market is still important for TNCs, unlike narratives about globalization might suggest
      - TNCs in developing economies are less internationally active
    - - Companies change places of production in order to better organize their productive processes
      - However, this generates temporary unemployment, especially as a consequence of big trade deals
      - Creation of jobs in lower-skill low-wage sectors, with few employer protections
        
        Which benefits rich consumers and businesspeople
        
        Which doesn't benefit low-skilled workers in all countries
        
        Health problems, suicide and alcoholism
        
        Structural problems for rich middle classes, which are vital for democracies
      - TNCs use tax havens to evade corporate taxes
    - - The worldwide sequences of value-adding processes regarding a good or service, controlled by TNCs
        
        A complex network of suppliers and buyers, controlled by transnational corporations with market power
        
        Involve outsourcing of production to smaller firms in poorer countries along assembly lines
        
        Makes developed-world firms more exposed to value chain disruptions
      - Historical evolution
        
        Rise in conjunction with non-equity modes of international production (NEM) since the 70s
        
        Intermediary firms assemble products, on leases by TNCs
        
        Stark competition in developing countries for assembling products, which usually leads to cut costs and subhuman working conditions and worker insecurity
        
        Oligopolistic exploitation of developing countries by lead TNCs
        
        Lead firms monopolize R&D, design, marketing and after-sales, posessing patents and leasing them to producers in exchange for high rents
        
        Processes implemented in order to help with cost-cutting
        
        In the 40s : companies retained profits which they reinvested in themselves and in their local communities
      - Puzzling paradigm
        
        Corporate profits in the US and imports from lower-income countries are rising, whereas fixed capital formation in the US is decreasing
        
        Increased incomes in developed-country companies come from the value added in developing countries
        
        The wealth created in developing countries is directly distributed to rich country shareholders, which in turn promote speculation
        
        Obsolete low-skilled jobs in the US get paid worse and worse, since the demand for low-skilled work is in poorer countries
        
        Deindustrialization in the US and rich countries
        
        Lowering labour shares of production in developed countries
  - - - Exposition or shielding domestic businesses from foreign competitors
    - - Events where national sovereignty is put forward, rather than economic liberalization
      - Contrasts with the ongoing liberal agenda
    - - Different policy initiatives
        
        Institutionalized opposition to protectionism
        
        Encouragement of competition
        
        Removal of obstacles
      - Different spaces of liberalization
        
        At the border
        
        Quotas, restrict foreign goods by amount and based on government choices
        
        Quota rent : allowed importers raise prices when demand for a product is high and supply is artificially lowered by the government
        
        A quota of 0 is an import ban
        
        Widespread outside of free trade areas
        
        Tariffs, the most widespread tool when regulating international trade
        
        Voluntary export restraints
        
        A way to keep internal production inside of the country
        
        Phased out after the GATT became the WTO
        
        Export bans
        
        Only concern specific types of goods : military and strategic products, for example
        
        Are used with fertilizers in order to keep agricultural production high
        
        Contribute to ongoing price increases of foodstuffs in the world
        
        Behind the border
        
        Regulation of domestic markets
        
        Promoted by the WTO
        
        Designates the harmonization of market formats, in order to help companies import and export more efficiently (shallow integration)
        
        Can designate the harmonization of regulations across countries in order to promote economies of scale (strong integration)
        
        Health, safety and cultural protection regulations
        
        Specific technical regulations which keep trade flows from existing normally
        
        Legitimate concerns, or hidden obstacles designed to promote sovereignty ?
        
        Buy domestic regulations : American government restricted to purchasing domestically produced goods and services
      - Lerner symmetry theorem
        
        Trade barriers cause price rises because inefficient businesses use all resources, and efficient businesses are left with nothing
        
        Barriers protect national uncompetitive businesses which struggle to exist in international markets
      - Justified trade restrictions ?
        
        Allowed by the WTO, in order to compensate for countries dumping products in markets, or countervaling duties
        
        US sanctions punish countries which enact policies it doesn't agree with, when it comes to the liberalization of trade
      - Liberalization history
        
        During the first globalization : liberal ideas which equate liberalizing trade and reducing conflicts
        
        However, despite recent economic liberalization, an increasing number of conflicts
        
        Montesquieu's theory of Doux Commerce
        
        After the implementation of the Bretton Woods system, creation of the GATT
        
        A multilateral framework to bring together countries around question relating to trade
        
        With a goal of liberalization
        
        Not intended to be an international organization
        
        Key provisions
        
        No tariffs above 1947 levels
        
        Unilateral tariff reductions
        
        Decreases in tariffs after each negociation round
        
        Most-favoured nation status : no preferential treament among GATT members
        
        Non-discriminiation between domestic and foreign competitors
        
        Accompanies the emergence of behind-the-border obstacles
        
        Protections, despite commitments to liberalization
        
        Agricultural tariffs
        
        National monopolies for services
        
        Informational asymmetries mean local producers are still at an advantage when compared to international ones
        
        The WTO
        
        A dispute settlement body
        
        Works towards removing behind-the-border measures
        
        Opposes subsidies towards export-oriented firms
        
        However, didn't manage to end them
        
        However, destabilized small countries which cannot stand the competition
        
        Expands and institutionalizes liberalization
        
        Trade-related investment measures
        
        Authorization of positive TRIMs
        
        Tax deductions to attract foreign investors
        
        Usually benefit richer countries and rich investors
        
        Prohibition of negative TRIMs
        
        Quotas for domestic R&D used by poor countries
        
        Quotas for imported components
        
        Trade-related aspects of intellectual property (TRIPs)
        
        Extension of monopolies on knowledge and technology
        
        Positive impacts for pharmaceutic and electronic companies, poor impacts for developing countries which can't afford them :)
        
        In particular, when it comes to service trade : financial services, transport, communication
        
        Still a work in progress : liberalization as an ongoing processus, which is sometimes overtaken by regional economic integration initiatives
        
        Since bilateral liberalization is more achievable in terms of political resources
        
        Appearance of trade blocs such as NAFTA and the EU
- - - - Countries are unable to guarantee three measures in monetary policy
        
        Because fixed exchange rates and K mobility leave countries exposed to arbitration when interest rates are raised on one side, which valorizes one currency over the other
        
        One corner must always be sacrificed
        
        Fixed echange rates are great for international trade
        
        However, capital mobility increases trade flows (although it favours speculative bubbles)
        
        Which means we end up sacrificing policy independence or fixed exchange rates
      - Three essential corners
        
        Capital mobility and free trade
        
        Fixed exchange rate
        
        Policy independence
      - Remediated by the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944
        
        A restructuring of the international capitalist world
        
        Which allowed trade relations to expand
        
        Which was aimed at preventing isolationism
        
        Based on keynesian economics, idea of common peace and prosperity through trade
        
        Policy autonomy
        
        Controls in capital mobility
        
        Advocated for global currency stability
        
        Achieved through the implementation of pegs
        
        Central banks were tasked with keeping national currencies at a certain level
        
        USD dominance
        
        The currency guaranteed gold exchange rate
        
        Each currency had a fixed dollar peg, which countries had to keep at 1% variation
        
        Creation of the IMF
        
        The last resort for central banks around the world
        
        20% of the votes belong to the US, veto power and influence on other countries
        
        Performance
        
        In the 50s : good functioning, since there was low international trade at the time, which meant countries managed to maintain policy independence
        
        In the 60s : American increases in monetary value to keep interest rates down
        
        In response to deficits linked to the Vietnam war
        
        Inflation in the US because of increased monetary supply, devaluation of the dollar which put pressure on international pegs
        
        American speculators purchased assets in other countries and when the bubble burst, got richer abroad, which led to international government conflitcs
        
        Necessity of international economic integration
        
        Achieved its goals of reversing economic isolation and promoting growth through stability
        
        Despite an uneven distribution of gains
        
        Despite changes in the internatil structure
    - - In 1971 : America abandonds the fixed peg
        
        Between 71 and 73, countries try to find a compromise, new pegs
        
        The 1971 move by Nixon
        
        Raised gold parity from USD 35 to USD 38 : a 8,5% dollar devaluation
        
        Other countries suspend dollar convertibility and allow currencies to float : they increase in value
      - In 1973 : all Western countries introduce floating exchange rates
      - Emergence of the triffin dilemma
        
        Incompatibility between good monetary policy in the US, and good monetary policy for the international economy
        
        The world needs dollars to function, which means America is at a constant monetary deficit
        
        The dollar was pegged to gold, and America couldn't guarantee the gold peg anymore : a crisis in convertibility ?
        
        The worldwide dependance on USD keeps the currency strong, which in turn accelerates American deindustrializaation and losses in well-payin industrial jobs
      - A new paradigm
        
        Rise in unemployment
        
        Slow down of economic growth internationally
        
        Loss of stability and banking crises
        
        Even in high-income countries
        
        Because of cheap money
        
        Hinder growth in developing countries
  - - - Each currency is vulnerable to its own crisis and can jeopardize capital investments across currency borders
      - Investment and trade are subjected to variations in international currency
    - - The over-the-counter market
        
        Retail curency market, for individual travellers across the border
        
        Wholesale dealers : big stocks provide currency for TNCs
        
        Traders mainly located in the US (20%) and the UK (37%)
        
        Forex operations should theoretically mirror each country's share in international trade (however, that's never the case)
        
        90% of forex involves USD
        
        Commodity trade
        
        International loans
        
        Also, a vehicle currency
      - Have evolved a lot over the last 30 years
        
        From 500 M USD to 7 B USD
        
        A non-linear increase, the emergence of the Euro limited forex between European countries
        
        An ongoing centralization of the market
        
        A way to prevent arbitrage
        
        Advantage of centralizing information
        
        Increases the speed of operations
        
        Concentrates stock and guarantees substantial inventories, required for large investment projects
      - Trade and investment amounts to only 5% of the forex market
        
        The rest of forex is basically speculation
        
        Capital gain by voluntary exposure to currency risk
        
        Profit made by investors who anticipate depreciations or appreciations in currency value
        
        Huge amounts of arbitrage
        
        Taking advantages in disparities between exchange and interest rates
        
        Carry trade
        
        Investors borrow low-interest currencies and lend in high-interest currencies
        
        Purchasing foreign assets whose return is bigger than the interests for borrowing money and exchanging currency
        
        A risky business, because if sudden currency depreciations happen, long-term asset returns might dwindle
        
        Hot potato exchange : balancing of inventories, with risks of sudden depreciation
    - - Based in countries with trade surpluses : fundamentalist approach
      - Links to the trust of investors in the currency
      - Influenced by finance
        
        Currencies are exposed to speculation
        
        Exchange rates can be a consequence of portfolio mathematics
        
        Actors focus on short-term profit and make currencies more volatile when instability becomes substantial
      - Must be in countries whose banking system has global reach
      - Benefit from strong soft and hard power in the countries where they're issued
    - - the 1982 experience in the context of deregulating economies
        
        Rises in OPEP oil prices
        
        Surpluses for oil´producing countries
        
        Petrodollars deposited in eurocurrency markets
        
        Petrodollar eurocurrencies borrowed by European oil importers
        
        Eurocurrencies borrowed by European countries lent to developing countries which needed to import energy
        
        An uptick of debt volume in developing countries
        
        Diminishing oil prices
        
        Tightening monetary policy in developing countries in order to keep currency inside after dried supply
        
        However, reversal of capital flows from developing to developed countries
        
        Absence of a necessary surplus in the developing world in order to finance their debt
        
        Rise in foreign debt
        
        Capital flight out of fear of currency depreciation and insolvability, which caused it paradoxically
        
        Renegociation of developing world contracts
        
        Three-party dispute settlement with international banks, indebted countries in the periphery and governments of rich countries
        
        Brady plan : debt write-off and liberalization
        
        Which brought about the implementation of liberalization as recommended by the IMF
        
        Implemented institutional instability in developing financial markets
        
        Widespread implementation of the Washington consensus after the Mexican crisisis
        
        Asymetrial power relations in the international economy : debt is denominated in USD
        
        Brought instability and widespread crises which spread fast
        
        Anticipated a decade of misery and poverty
      - Inherently instable exchange rates
        
        In developing countries, as a consequence of attempts to maintain incompatible policy options
        
        A cause and consequence of structural inequality amid developing-developed countries
      - The Volkner shock : interest rate increases in the US which lead to crises in foreign countries
        
        Originally intended to resolve internal inflation crises
        
        Increases in unemployment, and repercussions on organized labour movements abroad
  - - - Keynesian economics : money can be demanded for three reasons
        
        Transactions are easier in a single currency
        
        It's easier to speculate in the biggest financial markets, which means that their currency becomes a dominant currency
        
        Currency serves as wealth reserves, and reserving in a single currency which is accepted by everyone is safer
      - The USD as an international currency gives America an "exorbitant privilege"
        
        Lower transaction costs for American economic agents
        
        Firms
        
        Banks
        
        Financial corporations
        
        Seniorage : the country has the ability to create low-interest assets it sells to the rest of the world, and to accumulate high-yielding assets from abroad
        
        A 'stability premium'
        
        Possibility of living in chronic debt
        
        The country can borrow money from the rest of the world in its own currency
        
        Which is made feasible since developing countries need huge dollar reserves since the end of Bretton Woods
        
        However, the low interest rates for dollar lending produce bubbles in the American market as a consequence of overconsumption
    - - USD stakeholders become interested in preserving its value, since devaluing the currency would lead to majour capital losses worldwide
      - A currency which retains important power among governments and individuals
        
        Private functions
        
        Vehicle currency when purchasing other currencies
        
        Store of value
        
        Public functions
        
        Unit of account for exchange rate anchors
        
        Store of value in developing countries
- - - - A recent increase in international migration
        
        However, this increase is not meaningful from the perspective of the World's population
        
        Around 3% of the global population has migrated
      - Oceania and America : regions where most of the population isn't national
      - Most migrants in absolute numbers in the USA, Germany and Saudi Arabia
      - India, Mexico and Russia : biggest origin of migrants
      - 78% of migrants : working-age, and come from middle-income countries
      - Different types of migrants
        
        Settlers
        
        Contract workers
        
        High-income professionals
        
        Refugees
      - Different flows
        
        40% : South to North
        
        40% : South to South
    - - Economic factors
        
        Income gaps : explain migration
        
        Migration impacts income, growth and social change on both ends of the flow
      - Non-economic factors
        
        Laws and policy around migration restrict or permit specific flows
        
        Citizenship premium or penalty
        
        Citizens from richer countries are automatically richer
        
        Citizens from poorer countries are automatically poorer
        
        Climate change
        
        Raising temperatures cause population displacement
        
        Richer countries are the best-protected ones from climate change
    - - Migration boosts international economic flows and globalizes economies
        
        Integration of peripheral economies through increased trade
        
        Migrants provide knowledge about different markets, which allows investors to better exploit new frameworks
        
        Preference effect
        
        Migrants carry consumption preferences from their birth country
        
        Migrants in rich country boost their original country's exports
      - Increased finance
        
        Migration reduces transaction costs for FDI : better knowledge of risks associated with the country for foreign investors
        
        Repatriation of foreign earnings by migrants through remittances
        
        However, increased economic flows between countries usually mean northern businesses get richer
      - Brain drain
        
        Emigration entails loss of labour, especially qualified labour in case emigrants are skilled (81% of skilled workers in Sierra Leone emigrate)
        
        Is this impact neutralized through remittances ?
      - Effects on receiving countries
        
        Migration has positive impacts on European economies
        
        A slightly positive effect in the American economy
        
        In Germany : a negative impact at first
        
        The higher the minimum wage is, the smaller the negative impact of immigration on the wages of low-skilled immigrant workers
    - - Happens despite restrictive immigration policy
        
        Border control is not water-tight
      - Labour market segmentation
        
        Migrants work in different market sectors than regular workers
        
        Business owners benefit from the legally unclear status of illegal immigrants in order to ignore safety regulations
    - - Concept of flexible citizenship for rich citizens who can afford visas and residency rights
        
        Diverse investment programs
        
        500.000 USD in Europe
        
        900.000 USD in America
        
        2 to 10 M GBP in the UK
      - Wealthy people circumvent restrictions on movement by using several passports
  - - - The Anthropocene
        
        Designates a geological era whose shift happened because of human activity
        
        A term coined by Paul Critzen in 2005
      - The Capitalocene
        
        A world where growth is the norm
        
        A shift away from historic economic stagnation
        
        An era of capital accumulation, at the expense of southern countries
    - - Out of all the emitted tons of CO2 historically,
        
        22% came from Europe
        
        27% came from North America
        
        Not much came from developing countries
      - Huge disparities among countries when it comes to responsibility for global warming
        
        10% of the wealthist people on Earth emit half of GHG
        
        The bottom 50% of humans by wealth emit 12% of total emissions
      - Elephant curve in emissions growth by wealth
        
        Disadvantaged countries develop, thus emitting more CO2
        
        Wealthy countries have middle classes which emit less and less CO2 as a consequence of responsible policy and development
        
        The top 1%'s emissions keep growing more than all the other groups
      - Idea of ecological footprint
        
        Each individual has emissions, measured in how many GHGs a hectare on Earth can absord per year
        
        The world has a capacity to absorb pollution : biocapacity
        
        With current emissions, each person has 1,6 hectares of biocapacity, and each person emits 2,8 hectares of GHG
    - - Zoonotic spillovers
        
        Animal-to-human transmission of disease as a consequence of habitat destruction
        
        Accelerated by globalization and human land use of wilderness areas
      - Capitalist biomass drain from peripheries
        
        Capitalism transforms material and human flows into capital flows
        
        Concept of Ecological Uneven Exchange
        
        Idea that rich countries asymmetrically lease land in poorer countries through capitalism
        
        Rich countries have technological capital and innovation, which means they can produce more added value with less resources
        
        They in turn use their high value-added production to asymmetrically purchase commodities in poor countries
        
        Shifting of ecological buden, from developed countries to developing ones, which produce and refine commodites
        
        Perpetuates the development of underdevelopment
        
        Locks underdeveloped countries in positions of servility
        
        Destroys the environment in developing countries, which means that sustained, comprehensible development becomes impossible
        
        Developed because of unequal power structures, rooted in colonial history
    - - An imperative in our post-capitalist world : to decouple growth from Umweltverschmutzung
        
        The environmental Kuznets curve : technological development leads to more pollution at first, then less pollution per produced unit ?
        
        A fallacy
        
        How to increase growth while decreasing pollution ?
      - Two kinds
        
        Relative decoupling : slowing the growth of GHG emissions by procuded unit
        
        Absolute decoupling : reducing the GHG emissions of single units
        
        A positive goal, however the scale at which this is possible is not clear
        
        Needs to be global, permanent and sufficiently fast
        
        Is the only way to deal with our dwindling carbon budget
      - Backed by evidence ?
        
        Since 2000 : relative decoupling in developed economies
        
        Especially in terms of energy consumption
        
        Backed by rising energy costs, which push corporations to develop innovative production processes
        
        However, efficiency gains are only a side project of R&D, which means new efficiency gains won't happen too soon
        
        However, too slow : 1% drop in carbon intensity per year whereas 8% is required until 2030 in order to limit warming
        
        Absolute decoupling has been seen in the UK and the US between 2005 and 2015
        
        However : is this due to offshoring or the evolution of technological processes ?
        
        No empirical evidence proves truly that absolute decoupling is possible
        
        Jevons Paradox : a more efficient use of energy means reduced costs, but efficience usually translates to expanded production rather than reduced consumption of materials
        
        Environmental depletion stays the same despite technological advances
        
        An instance of problem-shifting : replacement of an environmental problem by a new one through technological innovation
        
        In contemporary economies : limited recycling potential