The Long Emergency on the Shoreline of Globalization: It Is Not Their Problem

The global economic downturn that began in 2008 wrought spectacular damage on the global economy. In June 2009 the International Monetary Fund projected a contraction of the global GDP by 2.9 percent for the calendar year 2009. However, if we disaggregate the IMF’s statistics on the global economic downturn, we find its effects are not really global. The only economies that are actually losing value are the “advanced economies,” for example, the United States and the countries of the European Union, which the IMF projected in July 2009 will lose 3.8 percent of GDP that year. The economies in the developing world, along the shoreline of globalization, continue to grow. For example, the GDP of sub-Saharan Africa is expected to increase by 1.5 percent in 2009, after successive years of growth in the 5–6 percent range. While this slowdown is certainly significant, it is also important to note that in the midst of this economic crisis, economic growth is continuing in Africa and other developing areas.1 The 2.9 percent contraction in the global economy is actually a product of a massive downturn in developed economies, not in all economies in the world.