global economy

Cultural  

1. The international spread of capitalism, especially in recent decades, across national boundaries and with minimal restrictions by governments. The global economy has become hotly controversial. Critics allege that its props, free markets and free trade, take jobs away from well-paid workers in the wealthy nations while creating sweatshops in the poor ones. Its supporters insist that the free movement of capital stimulates investment in poor nations and creates jobs in them. The process is also called globalization.

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Example Sentences

In 2009, he told me, he worked on a graduate research project on exactly that chokepoint: how critical it was, how catastrophic its closure would be for the global economy.

From Slate • Apr. 1, 2026

On one channel, the war is a high-stakes effort to stabilize a critical artery of the global economy.

From Salon • Apr. 1, 2026

China needs a stable global economy as it is heavily reliant on selling goods around the world as it tries to revive an ailing domestic economy.

From BBC • Apr. 1, 2026

The longer the strait remains closed, the more it will roil the global economy and boost gas prices.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 31, 2026

And the big questions in this era were: Where does my company fit into the global economy?

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman