Few economic issues have been as controversial recently as globalization. The headlines usually refer to the IMF or international corporations, but actually globalization is more involved.

Globalization means a world market where goods, money, and people cross international borders as freely as possible. Modern transportation and communications, including the Internet, have facilitated globalization.

People participate in the global economy when they buy an imported product; work for a company that exports goods; go to another country as a tourist, student, or worker; or buy stock in an international corporation.

Although the term "globalization" became common in the 1980s, a global economy had developed by 1870. Globalization plummeted during World War I and the Depression but picked up again after World War II.

The nature of globalization has changed recently. In 1980, 75% of exports from developing countries were commodities (minerals or agricultural products). By 2000, manufactured goods accounted for 80% of exports from developing nations. Manufacturing brings prosperity to more people than commodity production, which primarily benefits landowners. Meanwhile, the service and technology sectors have expanded in the industrialized world.

Globalization has shifted manufacturing from high-cost industrialized countries to the developing world. Various companies have been accused of paying minimal wages and offering inadequate working conditions to employees (some of whom may be children) in poor nations. Many activists want future international trade treaties to include international wage standards and to prohibit most child labor.

Globalization's defenders point out that international corporations usually offer workers better conditions and higher wages than local firms. Defenders also say more jobs and increased trade will improve living conditions in poor countries.

Groups such as the World Development Movement and the Jubilee Movement International favor canceling the massive debt owed by poor nations. The partial and gradual debt relief efforts of the IMF, the World Bank, and the seven richest countries are inadequate, according to activists.

However, debt relief is spread out over time because the IMF depends on funding from member nations. To eliminate all debt at once would require huge donations from various countries, tie up money for future aid projects, and even undermine the viability of the IMF. In addition, billions in aid has also been stolen, squandered, or spent on armaments by recipient nations. A common fear is that total, unconditional debt relief will perpetuate bad habits. Therefore donors require financial reform and proof that the money saved will actually be used for health and education projects when granting debt relief.

But activists say the poorest people on earth are being punished for actions they did not commit. Both activists and donors have supported ways to get aid directly to poor people and to recover stolen assets, which are often deposited in the same western banks that made the loans in the first place.

Antiglobalization activists often blame corporations for polluting developing nations that usually have more lax environmental regulations than the industrial world. International standards are needed to level the playing field and to protect wild areas, activists say.

However, large corporations generally use the latest computer-driven technology, which allows economic growth without the pollution of the old smokestack industries. In the 1990s, the U.S. economy grew largely because of nonpolluting computer technology.

Moreover, there has been an increase in pollution awareness around the world; nations appear less willing to tolerate environmental destruction in the quest for economic development. Also, many nations are seeing the commercial value in unspoiled natural areas, which draw ecotourists on excursions such as safaris.

Some people urge more regulation of international financial transfers to prevent tax evasion and money laundering. They fear that internationalization has allowed corporations to avoid accountability. Activists also criticize international economic treaties for regulating the way national governments conduct trade policy rather than targeting the practices of private companies.

Tighter international financial regulations have been opposed by a number of developing countries, especially Caribbean nations with thriving offshore banking industries, as well as the business community.

Immigrants in the U.S. and Europe are sometimes accused of reducing wage scales and causing unemployment.

However, immigrants often take jobs that Americans or Europeans do not want. Immigrants also send billions of dollars to their home countries. For a number of countries, this represents a larger sum than foreign aid.

According to the World Bank, underdeveloped nations that opened their economies in the 1980s enjoyed higher economic growth than poor nations that did not. Gross domestic product increased faster in "new globalizers", such as Botswana, Brazil, China, India, Uganda, and Vietnam than in the world as a whole in the 1990s.

The war on terrorism has slowed the pace of globalization. The UN Commission on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reports that foreign direct investment was 50% lower in 2001 ($650 billion) than it was in 2000 ($1.3 trillion).

The financial crises in Asia, Russia, Argentina, and Turkey in recent years have also made international investors nervous. However, various surveys indicate most international businesses plan to increase their international investments in the future. Plus, Internet growth continues to skyrocket around the world, a clear indication that globalization will not stop.