Making Globalization Work

by Joseph E. Stiglitz

Paperback, 2007

Status

Available

Genres

Publication

W. W. Norton & Company (2007), Edition: Reprint, 374 pages

Description

[This book] focuses on policies that truly work, offering fresh new thinking about the questions that shape the globalization debate, including a plan to restructure a global financial system made unstable by America's debt, ideas for how countries can grow without degrading the environment, a framework for free and fair global trade, and much more. Throughout, [the author] reveals that economic globalization continues to outpace both the political structures and the moral sensitivity required to ensure a just and sustainable world. And he makes plain the real work that all nations must undertake to realize that goal.-Dust jacket.

Media reviews

In the News

It will undoubtedly infuriate many, but cannot be accused of one of the complaints most commonly raised against Globalization and Its Discontents: This book is thorough and practical, and only rails against economic establishments such as the IMF when this expands and expounds his arguments.

The focus on development and spending to draw economies out of downturns will see comparisons drawn with both Amartya Sen and Keynes. His argument for a global reserve currency to avoid the US dollar's present problems is truly innovative, and will no doubt meet staunch opposition from the same economists and politicians who reject his support for the gradual opening of a country's markets to volatile capital flows.

Show Less

User reviews

LibraryThing member PointedPundit

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.

Penned by the Pointed Pundit
January 8, 2007
9:46:51 AM

Show Less

8 more

LibraryThing member FlyingBarney

A phenomenal book, reviewing the current sad state of globalization and its worldwide impact, as well as offering solutions to truly make it work.

LibraryThing member MrStevens

This was a really great book. I am not too familiar with world politics and economics but this book shed some light on the way it is currently being mismanaged. The author goes further to give his advice on how the system can be improved. This book is a must-read and should be added to all high

school reading lists IMO.

Show Less

LibraryThing member jcbrunner

An excellent introduction to the major economic topics of globalization for general readers. What Stiglitz elaborates, makes so much sense that it is infuriating that the global community (and the United States in particular) have made so few steps towards a better, fairer and more civilized world.

Where the book fails is in the political economy department. Stiglitz ends the book in a typically American sunny optimism without considering that there are powerful forces and interests at work which keep and maintain this unequal world. More transparency, better rules and increased democratic participation are nice goals but the way to achieve them is not mapped out by Stiglitz, making all his prior elaborations mostly a futile exercise in constructing utopia.

Show Less

LibraryThing member cushlareads

Making Globalization Work is his book about how globalization as it is currently managed is failing to improve the lives of many people in many countries, especially developing countries. The start of the book annoyed me, but once he got past the slogans and into some grittier policy it well and

truly exceeded my expectations. There is a lot of very thought-provoking and disturbing material here, especially in his criticisms of the WTO (although he does say that the Uruguay Round's start at an international rule of law for trade is a big step forwards), climate change, too much developing country debt, and the US dollar's (now dwindling) status as a de facto reserve currency. The book was written in 2006, and he really picked what was coming in 2008 and described the problems with great prescience.

If you haven't taken an economics course but are interested, this is still a worthwhile read, but some of it may be hard to follow - especially the bits on debt servicing and the global reserve system. If you *have* done an economics course or 2, these are the best bits. If I were still lecturing, I would be recommending this book to all students taking econ at sophomore level or above, or to bright first years who are curious. I did not agree with all of it, but I did agree with much more than I expected, and have come away with a long reading list.

Show Less

LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind

Thorough and incisive look at the effects of modern globalization, including sections on debt, multinational corporations, intellectual property, free trade, and the environment. Offers an interesting view of the current situation, but also some solutions to counteract the problems. A good view

into Stiglitz's economics.

Show Less

LibraryThing member justindtapp

Nobel winner Stiglitz's first book , Globalization and Its Discontents made a huge impact on me when I worked overseas, it definitely motivated the direction I took with my studies. I'll always remember sitting in Azerbaijan one night reading it and looking up at the TV to see Stiglitz being

interviewed by a Baku station about his book-- he was visiting the country. That was one of those really weird coincidences that you feel have to be from God.

This is his follow-up book that, sadly, is not as good (maybe because I now know better). Stiglitz picks up where he left off in his previous book-- continuing to criticize the IMF and rehashing their ineptitude in East Asia, Argentina, etc. But Stiglitz also rails against the Bush administration and just about everyone else (sometimes without naming who he is railing against exactly). So much so that it seems the only entity he likes is the United Nations-- that wonderfully effective body. As such, there are a lot of inconsistencies and rambling.

The chapter on trade is pretty good, though. "We don't know what the benefits of free trade would be because we've never tried it." He points out all of the problems with trade agreements, particularly how the U.S. and other Western countries tip the playing field in their favor. Here is a favorite example:

U.S. industries will often file a petition alleging "dumping" by foreign countries. Rather than comparing the true cost of production in the offending country, trade officials will use costs in some place like Canada as a proxy. So, if one country is selling a product cheaper than what Canada can make it they can have anti-dumping duties (tariffs) imposed on their products. That hurts the developing world that happens to have cheap inputs due to abundant labor.

As the U.S. opened its markets to Vietnam, Vietnamese catfish quickly took 20% of the U.S. market. Congress passed a law stating that only U.S. catfish could be called "catfish," so Vietnamese exporters re-entered the market with a new name, "basa," which they could market as something high-end and sell it for a higher price. U.S. catfish farmers then charged Vietnam with dumping. Stiglitz witnessed all of this "kangaroo court" action while working in the Clinton administration.

He blasts the U.S. for engaging in bilateral trade agreements and rails that it hurts multilateral efforts. This is highly controversial theoretically (mathematically) but Stiglitz pronounces bilateral agreements as harmful as fact. Stiglitz criticizes the U.S. on one page for not doing as the EU did and unilaterally removing its tariff barriers to the developing world. Then a couple pages later he rants on how ridiculous it was that the EU unilaterally removed its tariff barriers because they kept their agricultural subsidy programs intact so as to render the removal ineffective. This type of inconsistency runs throughout the book.

My favorite quote from the book:

"China knows there would be high costs to it--and little benefit to the United States-- were it to allow its exchange rate to appreciate. And presumably, America understands this too."

America must not include Paul Krugman who is always ranting about China's currency (along with the media in the last year). A yuan appreciation would simply mean the U.S. would import the same amount of goods from other countries. We're a net importer because I > S while China's S > I. Economics 101.

In all, I give this book 2 stars out of 5. The problems he outlines are vast and complicated. His final solutions are to strengthen the U.N. and I.M.F. while making the I.M.F. more transparent and democratic. He proposes a single world reserve currency and to let U.N. representatives vote on who gets the shares. Just imagine how that would turn out...

Show Less

LibraryThing member Acia

All these years later, globalization has not fulfilled its potential.

LibraryThing member qaphsiel

A lot of good points about how globalization has been terribly implemented and ways to fix it. Ways that it would take a whole series of miracles--or disasters--to get the international community in general, and the US in particular, to sign onto.

Also, and perhaps understandably give that the book

is a few years old now, there's no mention of the likely effects of automation, which even mainstream news outlets are waking up to now.

Show Less

Fewer