Emergence of the communications era In recent decades, trade restrictions, “beggar thy neighbor” policies, and the pursuit of a supposed long-run tradeoff between inflation and unemployment have all been called into question and generally rejected.
In part because of the communications revolution and the substantially reduced costs of transacting from great distances, businesses have sought more globally integrated production processes, and investors have required the development of financial instruments to facilitate their demand for international portfolio diversification. Such developments have put enormous pressure on policymakers to loosen their grip or abandon policies that led to the misallocation of resources.