The Economist posted a nice chart this week of the number of mentions of the word “Globalization” in their magazine since 1979 (see Going Global).

It seems that the number of mentions grew briskly through the dawning of the new millennium, with a drop off after the dotcom bust. The number of mentions picked up once again from 2005-2007, but has tailed off since the start of the financial crisis.

In order to see if these numbers were consistent with mentions of the term “Globalization” at large, I checked the number of mentions in Google Trends.

Although the Google Trends data go back only to 2004, somewhat interestingly, it seems that Globalization as a search term has been decreasing steadily from 2004-2009.

I wonder if the differences across charts speak to the differences in interests between the readership of a specialized economics magazine and the general populous, …or if The Economist is missing the boat, dedicating more time and attention to topics that readers are increasingly uninterested in?

Personally, I think Globalization is not only an interesting phenomenon in its own right, but given the global nature of the financial crisis, an especially timely topic for debate. It should not be a surprise where I stand on that debate. I have long been a proponent of Globalization (see Globalization and its Discontents, Globalization Revisited, or Interview in the Effective Executive).

Oops, I may have just answered my own question.

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