But, two different developments make globalisation different - free trade and modern technology. And all economists agree that free trade increases wealth, because it allows individual countries to focus on what they do best. Computers and telecommunications have linked together the world's financial markets. And transport costs have fallen, so that factories can now be located wherever wages are low or resources are cheap. Today the biggest companies are truly multinational.
Large companies control the world of business.
They're major players on world markets. They increase their power through mergers - the joining of two or more companies together. Sometimes there's a lot of wheeling and dealing involved in the absorption of one company by another. We're talking about downsizing - this happens when the size of the company goes down. Downsizing is really a euphemism for dismissals or redundancy.