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Globalization and Its Discontents (Paperback)
by Joseph E. Stiglitz
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Globalization, Current affairs, Non-fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 178.00
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| MSL Pointer Review:
Development and economics are not about statistics. Rather, they are about lives and jobs – 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics winner Stiglitz offers a heartfelt but rigorous analysis of globalization. |
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Author: Joseph E. Stiglitz
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Pub. in: April, 2003
ISBN: 0393324397
Pages: 304
Measurements: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00765
Other information: 1 edition
ISBN-13: 978-0393324396
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- Awards & Credential -
A national bestseller and the author Joseph E. Stiglitz is the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics. |
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- MSL Picks -
As a consequence of the great advances mankind achieved in the fields of communication and travel; globalization was not a choice anymore as much as an actual reality. It was not a question of whether to accept globalization or not, but rather a question of how to channel its forces to serve the benefits of all those that are involved. Global institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO had to be brought into existence to regulate the process of globalization. Each institute was given a main directive to pursue, and that for the IMF was the difficult task of ensuring global economic stability.
What makes this book remarkable is that the author, Joseph E. Stiglitz, is not someone to take lightly, but a Nobel prize co-winner in economics who served on the Council of Economic Advisers under president Bill Clinton and later became the chief economist and senior vice president at the World Bank.
Stiglitz begins the book by explaining the specific roles of the global institutions and especially the role of the IMF. From there he describes how many developing (and few developed) nations were let down by the promises of globalization and its institutions. But, he argues, these failures are not caused by the process of globalization itself, but are products of the policies of the IMF.
You would wonder though, how could the IMF with its access to profound expertise and its possession of vast wealth fail so badly in its job. Stiglitz explains that the problem with the IMF is not caused by poor knowledge or lack of funds. The problem is a fundamental one, which is caused by the fact that the IMF is not accountable to the people that are directly affected by its policies, bur rather to the US treasury who in turn is under immense pressure from the US investors. This unfair accountability leads the IMF to unconsciously replace economic science by an ideology that primarily served the interests of the US investors. This ideology is all about markets liberalization, which became an end to the IMF rather than a mean to accomplish economic stability. This change of goal, accompanied with high levels of secrecy, was the cause behind the IMF's failure.
Then the author delves into the cases of the Asian crisis and the failed Russian transformation. He tells in painstaking details how these crises evolved and what role the IMF played at every stage. He gives interesting insights and intelligent suggestions to more sensible alternatives that the affected countries could have pursued. He also gives account of other countries that did not comply with IMF policies and succeeded because of that. Stiglitz is a very intelligent and knowledgeable economist, so you can be assured that you will have access to invaluable economic analysis of those affairs. His writing style is wonderful as well, so you don't have to worry about incoherence or experiencing boredom going through the book.
Finally, he provides more analysis into what causes the IMF to fail the way it does and extends suggestions to overcome its shortcomings and those of other global institutions as well.
This book is a treasure of economic science and analysis, and of economic history as well.This is a very valuable and interesting book. If you are interested in globalization and international finance then this is definitely a must-read.
- From quoting Abdullah Z Jefri
Target readers:
Readers who are interested in globalization and international finance
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Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz holds joint professorships at Columbia University's Economics Department, the School of International and Public Affairs, and the Business School.
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From the publisher
This powerful, unsettling book gives us a rare glimpse behind the closed doors of global financial institutions by the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics.
When it was first published, this national bestseller quickly became a touchstone in the globalization debate. Renowned economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz had a ringside seat for most of the major economic events of the last decade, including stints as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist at the World Bank. Particularly concerned with the plight of the developing nations, he became increasingly disillusioned as he saw the International Monetary Fund and other major institutions put the interests of Wall Street and the financial community ahead of the poorer nations.
Those seeking to understand why globalization has engendered the hostility of protesters in Seattle and Genoa will find the reasons here. While this book includes no simple formula on how to make globalization work, Stiglitz provides a reform agenda that will provoke debate for years to come. Rarely do we get such an insider's analysis of the major institutions of globalization as in this penetrating book. With a new foreword for this paperback edition.
Clearly explains the functions and powers of the main institutions that govern globalization - the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization - along with the ramifications, both good and bad, of their policies. Author has contributed significantly to the debate on this important topic.
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| View all 10 comments |
Douglas Doepke (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-18 00:00>
Had unwashed Seattle marchers said what Joseph Stiglitz says about the IMF, they'd be dismissed as economic illiterates. Pretty hard, however, to dismiss the World Bank's former chief economist and Nobel Laureate as hippie ignoramus. Yet his gentlemanly indictment of international outfits like IMF proves every bit as damning as the sloganeering from Seattle. Stiglitz distinguishes himself from the bean-counter pack by actually caring about what happens to people as a result of IMF policy. From eastern Europe to east Asia to Africa, he shows how havoc has generally resulted from IMF's one-size-fits-all diktats. Throughout, IMF mantra remains the same - privatize, deregulate, open your veins to outside investors, and never mind the unrest that follows; things will work out in the end. Except they don't, at least not for the benighted populations. Countries like Maylasia, Botswana, and Poland trend upward, Stiglitz argues, not because they accepted, but because they refused IMF bail-out. In short, IMF is a flop unless it changes its ways. Oddly, all of this sounds vaguely radical, so one-sided has panacea talk about deregulation and free trade become. Yet his prescriptions for reform - mildly Keynesian and participatory - amount to little more than liberal alternatives to current right-wing monopoly. The dissent itself amounts to a barometer of the times.
Still, I question the prognosis of IMF, et. al. as a failure. Their "crisis management", it seems to me, has worked quite well for the moneyed interests who set it up. Speculators have had a field day. If Indonesia seems a risky investment, never mind, IMF policy guarantees you'll be paid back. Like the looks of that Russian steel plant, hold on, they'll privatize, then you can cherry pick. Worried about an inflated currency (the debtor's dream), sit still, never happen on IMF's watch. Despite the lofty rhetoric surrounding them, these international outfits were never set up to level a playing field for anyone. The results for developing countries are clear even when the talk is not - a subservient role in a new world order that insists on funneling the riches upward. This is not about promoting democratic equality among nations; its about wealth and power and making sure the funnel stays where it is, in the hands of moneyed elites. And in that crucial regard, the bankers and economists of IMF have succeeded grandly. Of course, they may have to become warmer and fuzzier as a result of books like Stiglitz's, or send rock singer Bono on a pr tour, but nothing basic will change. I salute Stiglitz for trying to be a true scientist among a pack of ideologues, but he has yet to really size up the situation. |
John Landon (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-18 00:00>
An inside job, this telling account of the contradictions and failures of globalization by one of its discontents, an expert student of political economy, now usually called an 'economist', is in some ways more convincing than the sloganized hysteria analyses of the various anti-globalizatin activists. The author accepts the great potential of a global economy, but is unsparing of the nearsighted policies of neo-liberals, who seem to have forgotten a man like Keynes once rescued their great toy. The sharp critique of the IMF policies is the core of the book, and written from the author's personal experience. The chapter on 'Who lost Russia?' is chilled and very convincing, and brings home the main suggestion, at least to the reviewer, that capitalism has too long enjoyed its antipodal contrast with some 'alternative economic order', such as socialism, for its argument is with itself, and the multiple alternate versions of its realization, many of which are inherently destructive. The example of Russia suggests that abstract fictions of the 'market' are not enough in practice, anymore than pounding the keys of a piano can produce music. Pirates ahoy, some sanity from the crow's nest. |
J. J. Kwashnak (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-18 00:00>
Globalization so often evokes pictures of rioters in Seattle, Genoa and Washington DC protesting the World Trade Organization or other economic planning meetings. But while one cannot doubt their fervor, they often are not as effective in explaining *why* they oppose globalization, at least to an extent further than the evening news sound bites. But here, Joseph Stiglitz has weighed in and helped explain at least one view as to why the protesters are right to be upset. He looks at the effect that global economic activity has had over the past decade. Stiglitz is unsparing at naming the root of the problem - the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He lays the problems upon the policies and practices of these two organizations and how in his opinion they hinder rather than help especially developing countries. Rather, their "roadmap" of policies only serve to make things worse for these countries, especially when the problems spill over from one country to the next as happened in the Asian economic crisis a few years back.
As a non-economist, I was leery of delving into this book, but found that it was very accessible, and free of too much economic jargon or theory. Stiglitz has written a book for the reader interested in international politics and the world situation today. I may not be the most scintillating thing you read this year, but it can be a very thought provoking read. It's a well argued point of view in a cacophony of world opinions. |
Joseph (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-18 00:00>
This is a very readable book by one of the authors of 'asymmetric information'. The book describes the disastrous consequences of the neo-classical equilibrium rules imposed on the world by the World Bank and IMF, and their reenforcement by the US Treasury and the EU. The book is written in measured, nonideological style by a theorist and practitioneer who understands that the standard model is wrong. That theory, neo-classical equilibrium theory or 'general equilibrium theory', teaches that unregulated free markets are optimal, that they provide the highest efficiency and the best of all possible worlds. When there is a problem then the standard advice (since Friedman-Reagan-thatcher) is to deregulate (even public water supplies are now sold to global industries). But to the contrary, there is not one whit of hard empirical evidence that that viewpoint holds a drop of water. The recent empirical evidence is instead that financial markets in particular, and highly liquid markets in general, are dynamically unstable, do not admit equilibrium of any kind: Adam Smith's regulating Invisible Hand does not exist in liquid markets.
Stiglitz provides us with one practical example after the other of the instability of deregulated markets. That is the value of this book. The author could have begun better by explaining to us just who/what are the supra-national, bureaucratic powers known as the IMF, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, how are they financed and who holds holds the power. This would have been useful, especially as Americans are now told that their democratically-elected (excepting the current occupant) government should adhere to the nondemocratically-imposed rules of the WTO. And ithe EU, the Agiculture Minister announces to us that EU agriculture policies are in violation of IMF rules. Stiglitz might also have explained to us what exactly is the EU, aside from being just one more globalizing, nondemocratic organization. Most Europeans, safe to say, haven't the faintest idea exactly what is the EU, and apparently the bureaucrats who run it want to keep it exactly that way. |
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