Making Globalization Work
New York review of books analyzes Stiglitz's new book, Making Globalization Work. I agree with Robert Skidelsky who argues that it is strange to write a book that deals with the concerns of people in rich countries, when globalization impacts poor people in poor countries much more. There are a lot of other issues that the author argues cogently and clearly.
Making Globalization Work is the third of Joseph Stiglitz's popular, and populist, books.[1] Like Jeffrey Sachs, Stiglitz is an economist turned preacher, one of a new breed of secular evangelists produced by the fall of communism. Stiglitz wants to stop rich countries from exploiting poor countries without damaging the springs of wealth-creation. In that sense he is a classic social democrat. His missionary fervor, though, is very American. "Saving the Planet," one of this new book's chapter headings, could have been its title.
Stiglitz is in favor of globalization—which he defines as "the closer economic integration of the countries of the world." He criticizes the ways it has been done. The "rules of the game," he writes, have been largely set by US corporate interests. Trade agreements have made the poorest worse off and condemned thousands to death through AIDS. Multinational corporations have stripped poor countries of their natural resources and left environmental devastation. Western banks have burdened poor countries with unsustainable debt.
Much of this is well said. Although it is not new, it bears repeating. But the main problem at present is not how to make globalization fairer for poor countries. It is how to make it less volatile; and to remove the threat it poses for poor and middle-income people in rich countries—those voters who have the power to derail it. Anti-globalization sentiment is a rich-country phenomenon. It is rather bizarre, therefore, to write a book about making globalization work that pays so little attention to the concerns of people in rich countries.
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thanks to 3QD for the link.
Making Globalization Work is the third of Joseph Stiglitz's popular, and populist, books.[1] Like Jeffrey Sachs, Stiglitz is an economist turned preacher, one of a new breed of secular evangelists produced by the fall of communism. Stiglitz wants to stop rich countries from exploiting poor countries without damaging the springs of wealth-creation. In that sense he is a classic social democrat. His missionary fervor, though, is very American. "Saving the Planet," one of this new book's chapter headings, could have been its title.
Stiglitz is in favor of globalization—which he defines as "the closer economic integration of the countries of the world." He criticizes the ways it has been done. The "rules of the game," he writes, have been largely set by US corporate interests. Trade agreements have made the poorest worse off and condemned thousands to death through AIDS. Multinational corporations have stripped poor countries of their natural resources and left environmental devastation. Western banks have burdened poor countries with unsustainable debt.
Much of this is well said. Although it is not new, it bears repeating. But the main problem at present is not how to make globalization fairer for poor countries. It is how to make it less volatile; and to remove the threat it poses for poor and middle-income people in rich countries—those voters who have the power to derail it. Anti-globalization sentiment is a rich-country phenomenon. It is rather bizarre, therefore, to write a book about making globalization work that pays so little attention to the concerns of people in rich countries.
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thanks to 3QD for the link.
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