Making Globalization Work by Joseph E. Stiglitz Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Making Globalization Work
Book Review: The 'Developing' and 'Developed' divide
Summary: 5 Stars
Stiglitz suggests paths that can reduce the development gaps so that resources are shared more fairly. His documentaton of macro and micro case material provides useful backup for his policy recommendations. His promotion of "reforms to reduce the democratic deficit' is still an idealistic goal that is far removed from today's reality. Control of the natural resource curse for developing countries still dominates capitalist/industrial developments. What say does a developing country have in keeping at bay an aggressive resource extractive company?Book Review: A Blueprint for Successful Globalization
Summary: 5 Stars
In his sequel to his 2002 book, Globalization and Its Discontents, Joseph E. Stiglitz argues globalization is failing the 80 percent of the world's population who live in developing countries and the 40 percent who live in poverty.
The Nobel Prize winner and former World Bank Chief Economist's objection is not to globalization itself; but to how it is managed. Stiglitz argues the United States' exerts excessive influence on the system. When poor countries seek aid, this influence attaches counterproductive economic policies and lending conditions that often undermine the borrower's sovereignty. These requirements include massive privatization, spending cuts, lower import tariffs and exposure to volatile foreign capital. Stiglitz argues these conditions are precisely what developing countries don't need when they're in dire straits.
He proposes:
1. Reform of the dependence on Treasury securities, which he argues, funds U. S. over-consumption.
2. Worldwide regulation to would restrict activities and political instabilities that harm the environment. He would provide recourse when one nation's environmental actions harm other countries and compensation for maintaining their biodiversity, especially those with rainforests that spawn drugs and sequester carbon dioxide.
3. Oversight for Western banks and multi-national corporations. He argues that today's thick corporate veil relieves employees of moral responsibility. Part of the solution, he writes, is more leeway regarding worldwide class-action suits and more enforcement of intellectual property laws.
4. A shift of responsibility. Many of the problems of globalization management lies at the feet of poor countries. They must break the bribery cycle between their governments and international companies, sell their natural resources for a fair price, spend - and save - their money wisely and learn to manage currency fluctuations.
This is a thoughtful book from a thoughtful individual. . It adds debate over the role of governments in the free market by providing insightful appraisals of NAFTA, the WTO, the Kyoto Protocol and other elements of today's globalization debate.
Book Review: Pretty good book if you are in the development business
Summary: 3 Stars
Solid, academic, and a fairly optimistic view of the world. Book Review: Populist guff.
Summary: 2 Stars
If people of influence and those aspiring to such a position want to ensure that the poor stay poor and wilful manipulation of trade is the norm, this book by Joseph E. Stiglitz is the one to read, to know how to maintain this inequality. Terminology abounds which panders to the common misunderstanding of such things as fairness, monopolies, natural resources and wealth, for example. He also has an annoying habit of telling us about what is bad, is going to suggest some remedy, and then skips on to the next thing to criticise.
Natural resources are, by and large, simply the raw material basis from which products are manufactured using capital and intellect in order to create things of value and subsequently wealth through trade. Crude oil and metal ores which are the significant natural resources are of scant direct value to most purchasers. Even crops such as wheat and bananas require much capital and labour inputted into their production and distribution, etc., to be of any significant value to the overall economy of a country.
There is no such thing as a private monopoly. Only a government has the ability to create and maintain a monopoly since government is the sole legitimate power which can use force and the law to prevent others from trading in the market. Microsoft is a favourite to cite, but this is totally wrong since Microsoft can not use force or the law to make computer users use their software or prevent the use of alternatives such as Linux or FreeBSD, for example.
The only fairness that is meaningful in a global economy is the freedom of opportunity which the abolition of trade barriers, government subsidies and regulation, the free movement of people across the globe and the implementation and recognition of private property rights enables. This would also have to include no government printing or minting of money, and central banking would have to be done away with, too, with private banks taking on this role. The private banks would be limited by a return to the gold standard with no fractional reserve banking permitted Simply citing example after example of how the current norm must be further regulated by tribunals and of-the-moment political expediencies such as environmentalism is of no value whatever.
For a proper understanding about what will work in a globalized economy, I would recommend: 'Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics by George Reisman'
Book Review: Another World: Making it work better
Summary: 5 Stars
Professor Stiglitz is an economics big gun - a Nobel Prize in Economic Science for 2001 is sufficient proof. A necessary proof is his scholarly guts to swim against currents, doing so repeatedly, successfully, and with enthusiasm. Such enthusiasm is evident from his two recent books: "The Roaring Nineties", and "Globalization and Its Discontents". With respect to Globalization and Its Discontents critiques have questioned whether or not by lambasting the some theories and practices behind globalization without providing substitutes Stiglitz wants to eat all his cake and save it all as well. This new book - "Making Globalization Work" - is an acceptable response.
The first two chapters describe another possible world in which globalization works better than in the current status quo (Chapter 1), and how development promises to contribute to that new world (Chapter 2). The next seven chapters are about obstacles and prospects that must be addressed to make globalization work. And how does anyone know that globalization is working? Globalization is working when and if it democraticizes the citizens of the world. Democracy is security. Security for the industrialized countries may be as simple as independence from "oil addiction"; for many developing countries it may be as mundane as freedom from hunger and diseases. The two judgments about security are interlinked in their implications for global people. These are issues Chapter 8 deals with.
This is characteristically Stiglitz. During the 1990s-early 2000s he was one of few famous economists who stood up to the Washington consensus, especially to its fundamentalist view of the godly power of markets under the guide of the Invisible Hand. Not only do markets fails to meet efficiency criteria (as when information is incomplete or imperfect); often efficiency is an insufficient condition for a good living. At the peak of their performance the socalled Asian Tigers and Dragons were not particularly efficient, but their rapid growth was accompanied by widespread equity.
"Making Globalization Work" strikes a healthy balance between normative economics and positive economics. This book is fine reading that would help the reader avoid junk economics of globalization and more. I was hooked four pages into the Preface of the book. You must read this book.
Amavilah, Author
Modeling Income Determinants in Embedded Economies : Cross-section Applications to US Native American Economies
ISBN: 1600210465