In some areas, such as data privacy, stricter European standards seem likely to prevail, to Ameridcans' benefit. Yet the president of the World Bank warns of a social breakdown because of the very global economic system he is deemed to personify. So there is clearly a problem, and a growing one. Its nature is economic and political. There's a feeling in the population that nobody's in charge.
People are afraid of losing jobs to the whims of multinationals.
We need to bring Wall Street to Main Street. This sharpening of official concern reflects the fact that a decade of globalization has allowed a keener dissection of its characteristics. John D. Clark, a development specialist on leave from the World Bank, has argued that globalization was always a highly selective thing. Advocates of free trade really wanted only an unrestrained market for capital. The result has been to maximize returns on capital, while minimizing returns to labor.