Including Investment and Labor Movement in Global Management Assessments

In today’s world, international business is a mainstay of everyday commerce and policy.  Products move across the globe and make their way into homes and lives of individuals and families at different places on the planet. Most statistics include the hard goods and services that traverse across borders but may be missing other tangible value. Dr. Predrag Bjelić discusses the inclusion of direct foreign investment and labor flow as important components of economic calculations. 

Even though 2006 IMF data indicated that 75% of international trade is measured in goods the liberalization of trade has also brought with it services, investment and human capital. The latter two being something more difficult to concretely assess but should be included in the overall assessment. Understanding the flow of information along with the intellectual capital encourages a greater conception of global commerce and the antecedents to that commerce.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an important method of pushing up the employment economy. FDI can be defined as “an investment involving a long-term relationship and reflecting a lasting interest and control by a resident entity in one economy (investor or parent enterprise) in an enterprise resident in an economy other than that of the investor (FDI enterprise or affiliate enterprise or foreign affiliate)”(UNCTAD 2007, 245). 

In the past, emerging markets grew from turning investment income into productive output sold on the global market. To be effective in this growth, human capital will also need to develop adequately to use that investment capital to its maximum growth potential. Countries that have excess labor skill inadvertently lose some of that labor skill to countries that provide employment opportunities. 

The author determines that multi-national companies have changed traditional calculations of international commerce. In many cases large firms provide direct foreign investment and emerging economies export skilled labor in a type of loose exchange. New calculations should take into account the flow of investment and the movement of labor across the borders to get a better perspective of global exchange.

UNCTAD. 2007. World Investment Report 2007:Transnational Corporations, Extractive Industries and Development. Geneva.

Bjelic, P. (2013). New approach in international trade analysis due to international factor movements. Zbornik Radova Ekonomskog Fakulteta u Istocnom Sarajevu, 7

Memorial Day-Remembrance of the Past with an Eye on the Future

Union and Confederate Soldier- Cousins, Friends or Brothers?

Memorial Day is a day of vacation, fun, parks, friends, and meat on the grill. It is all of these things as well as much more. Memorial Day also includes the remembrance of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice so that the rest of us may enjoy these sunny days. As you are spending your day in carefree joy, try and keep in the back of your head the essential purpose of Memorial Day. Perhaps you want to drop a few flowers at a war veterans site and spend a moment remembering them.

The history of the Memorial Day is an interesting one. It was proclaimed on May 5^th, 1868 by General John Logan. He issued the ceremony (http://www.usmemorialday.org/order11.html) by laying flowers at the graves of both Confederate and Union graves. To him it was important to honor the dead of the country and the ultimate sacrifice they made to their nation. It was the continuous search for national truth that compelled these solders to lay down their hearts, leave their families, and sacrifice their bodies so that others could live free.

Following suit congress passed the National Holiday Act of 1871 solidifying the concept of a national day of mourning. The Grand Army of the Republic, a union veterans group, supported the event because the flowers would be in full bloom. It would seem that such flowers represent the generation of new life and new beginnings. The day is expected to focus closely only on those who died trying to give that new cycle.

Some of the first national ceremonies were held in Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Arlington’s mansion with Ulysses S. Grant presiding over the affair. The history dates back to 1866 when Confederate women decorated the graves of their soldiers who died at Shiloh. Seeing the bare Union graves they began to decorate them as well (http://www.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/history.asp).

The Civil War was one of the most difficult and causality driven wars of history with nearly a half-million deaths. When considering all of the American deaths through all of the wars reaching approximately 1.2 million the Civil War was almost half. American upon American each fighting over their particular vantage points of life, perception of freedom, commerce and country. Without serious sacrifice the country we know today would cease to exist as the sole nation from coast to coast. Opportunities of the present were built on the past.

As you set upon your day consider the many struggles the nation faced in the past and the many more it will face in the years to come. In some ways today’s threats are battles over international influence, future opportunities, and the very way people make meaning of their lives. America still has a legacy to teach but must overcome its current financial and cultural difficulties to be ready for any challenges the future may bring.

William Herndon, a law partner with Lincoln, stated a number of years after Lincoln's speech, “"Through logic inductively seen, Lincoln as a statesman, and political philosopher, announced an eternal truth -- not only as broad as America, but covers the world.".

Lincoln’s Address:

A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South.

An American Ship in Distress (1841) by Thomas Birch

American Ship in Distress (1841)

Thomas Birch (1179-1851) was considered one of the first American painters to focus on maritime paintings. He completed a number of great works on the War of 1812 and the shipping industry in general. An American Ship in Distress (1841), was a large work depicting a ship that is in a hazard state after a major storm. The mast, sails and the rigging of the ship were destroyed. You can see a lifeboat being dropped into the water and the approach of two ships to help the crew. At this time the American Navy was almost non-existent and could not lend assistance.

Thomas Birch immigrated to American in 1794 with his father William Birch. William made his living as painter and engraver. Both moved to Philadelphia where the family settled. Thomas's works often focused on the cultural advancement and the national economic strength of shipping in the New World. His works were copied by many admirers in the U.S. and Europe. Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had a particular fondness for his work.

During this time Congress passed the Naval Act of 1794 for $888,888 to build the first six frigates of the U.S. Navy. These ships were designed to engage other frigates but be faster than ships of the line which had higher levels of firepower. The Revolutionary War left the country in high debt, and lacking money for ship repairs, the nation sold its last ship in 1785.

Continued harassment of American merchant ships by the Barbary Pirates, France and England put additional pressure to create some counterbalance to the world powers that knew Americans had no way of defending themselves at sea. After Portugal and Algeria made peace, 11 merchant ships were captured. The pressure to act was high. In January 1794 Congress authorized the American Navy and the building of the frigates.

The first civil rights case made national news and importance in 1841. African slaves aboard the Spanish ship La Amistad rebelled against the crew near Cuba and overtook the ship. In 1840 the U.S. Federal Court determined that carrying slaves across the sea was illegal. This led into an 1841 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that the African Slaves were not slaves but actually free men and women. The U.S. provided transportation back to their home country.