Exercise 13. Read the text. Put the verbs in brackets in the past simple or the present perfect / present perfect continuous

Globalization’s Biggest Threat – Slow World Economic Growth

For years, globalization – the increasing integration and interdependence of local and national markets – and economic growth ____________________(support and reinforce) each other in a virtuous cycle. Globalization ________________ (help) economic growth by lowering the cost of doing business around the world for local producers, on the one hand – and by expanding business opportunities for the world’s large multinational corporations like Apple, Cisco Systems, Intel, Samsung Electronics, Applied Materials, and Sony Corporation – to mention but a few.

Economic growth, in turn, ________________ (set) the world economy into a virtuous cycle¹ of income and employment gains, which ________________ (pacify) opponents of globalization, and ________________ (help) the expansion of free trade agreements which ________________________ (support and reinforce) globalization.

High growth, for instance, ________________ (provide) support for the expansion of EU and the creation of NAFTA² and APEC³. This ________________ (reinforce) globalization in key regional markets around the world – especially since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, which ________________ (mark) the end of the old ideological wars (nationalism and communism) and the ease of nationalist tensions.

But in recent years, slow economic growth fuelled by mounting sovereign debt ________________ (threaten) globalization. And this ________________ (revive) the old ideologies of nationalism and communism, pitting sovereign borrowers against sovereign lenders, and anti-global forces against pro-global forces.

The current situation in the EU region is a case in point. Mounting sovereign debt in Southern Europe ________________ (pit) Southern countries against Northern countries, reviving old animosities that go back to the two World Wars.

That in turn is fuelling the rise of extreme political regimes, which threaten European economic integration and survival of the Euro, undermining overall European economic growth and worsening the debt situation for the Southern countries.

That’s certainly bad news for the economic future of Europe. And for the global economy. The Asian region is another case in point. A two-decade long stagnation of the Japanese economy, which ________________ (take) its toll on the lives of Japanese people, provides fuel to the nationalist mill. Nationalism usually rises during periods of economic stagnation, as trade between countries is considered an economic threat rather than an economic opportunity.

Compounding the problem, Japan’s precipitous devaluation of its currencies ________________ (exert) competitive pressures on both China and Korea, threatening currency and trade war in the region – not to mention reviving of territorial disputes between Japan and China over a few rocky islands. And that is also bad news for the economic future of the Asian region and the global economy.

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¹ virtuous cycle – a recurring cycle of events, the result of each on being to increase the beneficial effect;

² NAFTA – North American Free Trade Agreement;

³ APEC – Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation.