Globalization's Peak Year Was 2007

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Feb. 28, 2007Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
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A broad new measure of globalization puts its peak year to date as 2007. Financial flows went into a steep decline when the global financial crisis hit in 2008 and still haven’t recovered, according to the new report by the McKinsey Global Institute. “Goods and services flows have since surpassed their 2007 peak,” the report says. “In contrast, financial flows remain almost 70 percent below their pre-crisis level, falling from 21 percent of global GDP to only 5 percent in 2012.”