First, some very good posts on "Economic Globalization" nice work and many key and essential points to be noted and built into our "calculus."
Now, lets look at the influence in a deeper way, of what Garreau observed and was writing about, his more cynical side aside for the moment. Is it that Garreau saw what the world was becoming? Did he embrace (wittingly or not) the work of FM2030?
Picture a nation, something approaching 90% of the world's most pre-eminent innovations were developed in this nation, the nation has among the highest standards of living on the planet, the nation appears to be more embracing of externalities than many if not most others, and then through of series of "sharing events" (technology transfer and other strategies employed) seems to be eroding its own competitive advantage, to the advantage of arguably "competitor" nations ... in the name of profits, of sharing, of global improvement, technology transfer and expansion, et al.
Obviously, there are "benefactors" and then there are net "losers" by some measure or measures to such a strategy. In a context (contrive as it may be) of "getting beyond the nation-state" this seems positive and noteworthy. But if same is just a fallacy and unachievable, then the resulting paradigm shift is in a way a sort of "self destruct" mechanism for a thriving nation, and an enhancement to seemingly impoverished nations that seek to grow, expand and benefit from such a strategy.
Where does Garreau take us?