Oil scarcity will spell end of globalisation: Report

TORONTO: The world may no longer be flat very
soon.

Contrary to what Thomas Friedman said told us after his analysis of globalisation, the world will indeed become a ‘whole lot smaller” very soon, if a top Canadian economist is to be believed.
Jeff Rubin, who quit as chief economist of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) here Friday to promote his book ‘Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller,’ said the coming oil scarcity will change the world more profoundly than any other crisis.

He added, ‘We have all got our eyes right now on the global financial meltdown, but I believe that oil scarcity will change the global economy even more profoundly and in the process change all of our lives – from where we work to where we live to what we eat.”

The Canadian economist said his analysis of the oil economy for over 20 years led him to believe that its (oil’s) scarcity will be the end of globalisation.

He said,’Though the book grew out of my experience as an economist on Bay Street (financial district of Toronto), this is not a book about financial markets. It is a book about the way the world is about to change.”

The economist said he would travel to deliver his book’s message in as many places as possible so that the world has a grasp of the kind of future stares it.

India Times