The first time the word globalisation was used was in describing the activities of the large American companies during the mid-1990s. The end of the cold war put the US in a conundrum; the arms race with the USSR resulted in financial circles pouring money into the US resulting in an expensive dollar which in turn made the climate for US multi-nationals to export their goods virtually impossible. US Companies found it too expensive to maintain a competitive position overseas when it was costing them so much making the products at home.

Hence cheaper foreign markets had to be found. The setting up of production facilities in a foreign country making use of the cheap labour, with very little labour laws and outright abuse was termed globalisation.

The first nation to be given the globalisation treatment was Russia and what was left of it after the collapse of the USSR. The fall of communism in 1990 and the break-up of the Soviet Union represented a wonderful opportunity for capitalist institutes to transform a huge centralist economy to one that was market orientated. A total of $129 billion poured into Russia with the IMF and the World Bank implementing a number of its development schemes. The Russian economy was opened to foreign investment and industry was sold to foreigners leaving the country vulnerable to swings in world prices. In 1997, due to a loss on confidence in Russia, speculators began to withdraw their money and Russia was unable to defend itself as liberalisation required there to be no restrictions on capital flows. The crisis raised poverty from 2 million to 60 million, a 3000% increase. UNICEF noted that this resulted in 500,000 ‘extra’ deaths per year. Russia is a clear example that globalisation directly allowed the crisis to reach the peak it did.