Description
In this original examination of business, history and ethnicity, Joel Kotkin shows how "global tribes" have been at the center of the world's economy for hundreds of years - and how they will dominate commerce in the twenty-first century. Though the world's economy is becoming increasingly interdependent, Kotkin shows that as national borders dissolve, the impact of "tribalism" has never been stronger. And he offers some intriguing predictions on how certain "tribes" will adapt to coming economic changes.
Among the "tribes" featured are:
The Jews: The oldest of global tribes, the Jews figured prominently in the origins of modern transnational business. Although small in numbers, and in the face of their millennia-old dispersion, they have produced more Nobel Prize winners - and billionaires - than most major European and East Asian countries.
The British: Although no longer as dominant as they once were, the British and their progeny in North America remain the most important ethnic grouping in the world economy, controlling by far the largest accumulation of foreign investment and most of the world's largest corporations.
The Japanese: The first Asian group to form a truly global ethnic economic network, the Japanese are second in size and scope only to the Anglo-Americans. Their "diaspora by design" now constitutes a one-world city stretching from Bangkok to London and linked by banks, trading companies and media as well as hundreds of special schools that educate thousands of youngsters in the essentials of "the Japanese spirit."
The Chinese: The fifty-five million overseas Chinese are the fastest-growing economic force in the world, controlling an empire that includes the booming regions of coastal China, the high-tech centers of California's Silicon Valley and the most vibrant sections of Manhattan. The three major financial centers of the Chinese - Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong - possess combined foreign reserves twice as large as those of Japan, Germany or the United States.
The Indians: The more than twenty million overseas Indians today represent one of the best-educated, affluent groupings in the world, with strong presences in Britain, North America and East Asia. The Indians may prove to be the next diaspora to emerge as a great economic force.
