The Future: six drivers of global change

Chapter 25

58 all in the time span of sixteen minutes-for no apparent reason

"Dow Falls 1,000, Then Rebounds, Shaking Market," New York Times, May 7, 2010.

59 "P&G plunged to $39.37 from more than $60 within minutes"

Ibid.

60 "it was almost like "the Twilight Zone" "

Ibid.

61 algorithmic echo chamber that caused prices to suddenly crash

Graham Bowley, "The New Speed of Money, Reshaping Markets," New York Times, January 2, 2011; Felix Salmon and Jon Stokes, "Algorithms Take Control of Wall Street," Wired, December 27, 2010.

62 offers to buy or sell must remain open for one second

Personal conversation with Joseph Stiglitz.

63 would bring the global economy to its knees

Ibid.

64 corrupted and captive ratings agencies, then sold around the world

" "Robo-Signing" of Mortgages Still a Problem," a.s.sociated Press, July 18, 2011, a practice that"s been popularly labeled "robosigning"

Alan Zibel, Matthias Rieker, and Nick Timiraos, "Banks Near "Robo-Signing" Settlement," Wall Street Journal, January 19, 2012.

66 increasing since 2000 at an average of 65 percent per year

Mark Jickling and Rena S. Miller, "Derivatives Regulation in the 111th Congress," Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, March 3, 2011, Table I, and campaign contributions to prevent them from being regulated

"Why Derivatives Caused Financial Crisis," Seeking Alpha, April 12, 2010, are continuing to grow at a rate half again faster than global production

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, "Divided We Stand."

69 others that linked Europe to the New World and to Asia

Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O"Rourke, "Commodity Market Integration, 15002000," in Globalization in Historical Perspective, edited by Michael D. Bordo, Alan M. Taylor, and Jeffrey G. Williamson (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).

70 Middle East, trade flows that were largely controlled by Venice and Egypt

Ibid.

71 Europe and Africa-revolutionized the old pattern

Ibid.

72 nineteenth century prior to the First Opium War, which began in 1839

"h.e.l.lo America," Economist, August 16, 2010 (citing Angus Maddison).

73 Then, when the East gained more access to the new technologies

Derek Thompson, "The Economic History of the Last 2,000 Years in 1 Little Graph," Atlantic, June 19, 2012.

74 "make macro inventions highly productive and remunerative"