This fully updated and expanded second edition presents the latest facts to help make sense of the rapidly changing international economy. Illustrated throughout with charts, graphs, cartoons, the book documents new trends, including the foreign “outsourcing” of US service jobs, as well as the increasing influence of mega-firms like Wal-Mart with its exploited labor force in China, the United States and elsewhere. This accessible guide explains how global institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, and the North American Free Trade Agreement affect communities, workers, the poor, and the environment. It dispels the widely disseminated propaganda about current globalization policies and provides an update on the burgeoning movement that is challenging them, from Bolivian water warriors to US student anti-sweatshop activists.