Globalization and the Economic Crisis

News of a global economic crisis has dominated the headlines in recent months. Reports of the effects of this crisis come from as far as Iceland, Japan, and Brazil, with reports of unemployment rates spiking across the world. But the roots of this crisis are in the U.S. economy.

In this one-day lesson, students explore a series of political cartoons and consider the relationship between globalization and the economic crisis.

Globalization and the Economic Crisis can be used as a stand alone lesson or to supplement the new Choices curriculum, International Trade: Competition and Cooperation in a Globalized World.

This lesson includes:

Lesson Plan: A one-day lesson in which students consider the concept of globalization, interpret political cartoons and place them in context, identify the techniques used by cartoonists to express opinions and consider the connections between globalization and the current economic crisis.

Handout: Political Cartoons in the Press

Scholars Online: What is globalization? [P. Terrence Hopmann - 1:48]

Additional Resources from the Choices Program

Supplemental Materials for International Trade: Competition and Cooperation in a Globalized World provides links to additional resources related to this topic.

Additional Online Resources

Global Pool of Money Got Too Hungry - National Public Radio
Provides an easy-to-follow audio clip that explains the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States, giving context for the economic crisis that followed. The Choices Program provides a graphic organizer.

Economy - National Public Radio
NPR’s economy page provides up to date articles and audio resources about the effects of the economic crisis around the world.

Global Financial Crisis - BBC News Online
The BBC has a page devoted to its articles, video resources, and analyses of the global economic crisis.

Business - Al Jazeera [English]
Provides articles about the effects of the economic crisis.

Credit Crisis: The Essentials - The New York Times
Provides a page devoted to its resources about the credit crisis, including an overview of the crisis, an interactive media timeline, videos of interviews with people across the United States, and links to articles.