The intimate and warm relationship between customer and shopkeeper, and sense of community has also disappeared with this new phenomenon. In its place are brightly-lit neon hyper stores, which while luxurious and comfortable, lack the human touch of familiar faced shop-owners. Throughout the nation, the livelihood of the owners of these family-run stores has been taken away, and profits accumulated with a few large chains and franchises. Shop owners who previously ran their own businesses have no option but to become employees of these large corporations instead. This situation has arisen because we have opened our society to Western culture and influence. We have stood by and watched small, family-run shops fight a battle against the large chain stores with incomparable financial standing – a battle they are sure to lose. If authorities recognize the importance of the distribution of income as well as the distribution of opportunities, these family-run businesses would be able to continue with their livelihoods, and large multinational corporations could be prevented from overwhelming these small businesses. The process of globalization will bring about access to new technologies, which will help improve the efficiency of our various economic sectors. But in the meantime, the process of globalization opens our economy to the possibility of large multinational corporations taking over local businesses. We should welcome globalization in as much as it helps us enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve competitiveness, in the business which has to compete in the international arena.

Price regulation no longer plays a role as a macroeconomic instrument. The scope of business policy has become more general. The substantial fluctuations in the 1970s and 1980s occurred partly because the Norwegian economy did not have an anchor in the form of low and stable inflation or a stable exchange rate. High and variable inflation countered by devaluations reflected and amplified the swings in the real economy. History shows that low unemployment cannot be achieved through high inflation in the long run. Serious misjudgements have been made in this respect, particularly perhaps in the 1970s. An economic policy that fuels inflation does not generate economic growth. On the contrary, it paves the way for recession and unemployment. The fixed exchange rate policy introduced in 1986 restored confidence in monetary policy and laid the foundations for more stable economic developments in the 1990s. Capital markets have gradually become more international and more closely integrated. It is easier to invest across national borders. Today’s global economy is characterised by extensive cross-border trade in goods and services and large capital flows. For many people, the words open capital markets and globalisation have a negative connotation. Global markets are the scapegoat when jobs are lost or displaced, when the krone increases or decreases in value and when interest rates rise. Are globalisation and the freer flow of goods, services, labour and capital a matter for concern? Globalisation primarily means that countries are closely intertwined. Events in one country have repercussions for developments in others.