Also at the SMS conference, Pankaj Ghemawat reviewed some of the recession’s impact on globalisation trends, a talk that included a useful warning. Big indicators, like the rate of Foreign Direct Investment, have slowed sharply with the down-turn, but no worse than last time. But he warned of some additional dangers this time:

• a risk of more protectionism due to more widespread job losses and distrust of business
• massive public debt slowing recovery
• shortage of finance

The intriguing content concerned the still remarkably ...