Peoples and economies that have lived with limited information and communications resources since human origins will suddenly have access to the best of these available worldwide. Although the culture-shock aspects of this experience cannot be overstated, the resulting opening of opportunities to almost all of the world's inhabitants is a revolutionary event that will remove geographic penalties from much of daily life. The Race Between Trade Wars and Free Trade. Today, some of these World War-era struggles are being replaced by real efforts to create multinational corporations and business relationships. The emergence of efforts to promote real free trade worldwide, most recently shown last week in the Geneva World Trade Organization telecommunications agreements among 60 countries, provides a chance for a world of mutual prosperity something not on the drawing boards just five years ago.
Corporations Exceed Governments in Their Power.
This has been discussed ever since Eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex, but this will be the decade in which it will first hold true for many, and not just a few, companies and countries. Companies will move faster than governments in almost all areas of operations, and on a global scale beyond the reach of individual governments. Many countries have already lost control of their currency values, for example, even as companies have improved their abilities to profit from currency swings by moving plant and production levels. Sustainable Business Models Are No Longer Optional, but Required. Unfortunately for us, we have created massive climatic change through global warming and ozone depletion, at a time in our technical development when we are still not good at predicting even tomorrow's local weather.