When we look at the economics of trading we have to appreciate that thimgs have changed over the last 30 to 40 years.

40 years ago if a bank in the USA sold mortgages to people who could not afford to pay them back it would only be a problem the the borrower and the lender. In the last ten years it has impacted the economies of countries through the world. Economics are more global than ever before, there is now effectively one country of 7.2 billion people. National economics must take a global perspective. As I said in my previous posts if a country is seen as being a good country it will make it easier to trade on global markets.

So I’d like to look at the country which is number 7 in the list, because it is the country where I was born and live, the UK. Here’s a screenshot of a selection of the UK page:

The first thing about the UK entry is that the number one country in the world in the Science and Technology sector, as it affects the rest of the world, is the UK as far as GDP is concerned. Do not be fooled by boasts from Seattle or California.

But I’m not really that interested in where countries are doing well, but where things could be better. Ironically the country with the best goodness score for science and technology has one of the worst scores for internet security. Hmmm.

In fact it is only in the fild of International Peace and Security that the UK is particularly weak. Involvement in International Violent Conflict as in Arms Exports scores the country down. We’re only just above average on peacekeeping troops as well. UK government, fewer involvements in military conflicts and more deployment of troops in peacekeeping roles is a direction that should be taken.

On a better front, I have been hearing a lot in the churches about Fair Trade. A lot of pressure has been brought on companies, particularly supermarkets, to stock fairly traded produce. As a result the UK now has a really good score as far as Fair Trade is concerned. But FDI outflows* are not so good. If we could persuade UK and multinational companies with a presence in the UK to invest in companies in other countries in a way that would benefit the people in those countries then that would be a benefit to the UK and to the recipient country as well. Win – win.

There we are, a couple of ways the UK could be better as a good country.

-o0o-

*FDI = Foreign Direct Investment.