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Making Globalization Work
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Sales rank 186,458
Customers rating (based on 36 reviews)
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“A damning denunciation of things as they are, and a platform for how we can do better.”—Andrew Leonard, Salon Four years after he outlined the challenges our increasingly interdependent world was facing in Globalization and Its Discontents, Joseph E. Stiglitz offered his agenda for reform. Now in paperback, Making Globalization Work offers inventive solutions to a host of problems, including the indebtedness of developing countries, international fiscal instability, and worldwide pollution. Stiglitz also argues for the reform of global financial institutions, trade agreements, and intellectual property laws, to make them better able to respond to the growing disparity between the richest and poorest countries. Now more than ever before, globalization has gathered the peoples of the world into one community, bringing with it a need to think and act globally. This trenchant, intellectually powerful book is an invaluable step in that process. This paperback edition contains a brand-new preface. .
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| Publisher | W. W. Norton & Company | | Release date | 09/2006 | | Availability | Usually ships in 24 hours | | Edition | Hardcover |
| | List price | $26.95 | | Our price | $17.79 (you save 33.99%) | | Used price | from $3.19 |
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My two cents
An excellent book explaining the negative effects of globalization that is so often left out in discussions. Stiglitz discusses controversial insights into globalization's dark side and proposes steps to counteract the problem with an astounding amount of detail and recent historical examples.
It gets a bit dry toward the end but nevertheless, definitely a book worth reading.
 Not a very interesting read!
This book is repeaing facts that we are already aware of regarding globalization, in a boring manner.
 How Not to Make Globalization Work
Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2001 Nobel Memorial laureate in economics, is already well known for his critique of the current economic policies which shape the development of globalization. In 2002, Stiglitz published Globalization and its Discontents and shifted much of the blame for the "wrong-doing" committed by globalization on such institutions as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and World Trade Organization (WTO). Four years after publishing this work, Stiglitz recompiled his opinions in a new volume, Making Globalization Work. Here, he expounded his opinions on the limitations of capitalism, the political corruption present in international monetary institutions (such as the aforementioned three) and how the First World has consistently maneuvered the market to the disadvantage of developing countries. His arguments contain much merit and should be considered. Unfortunately, Stiglitz uses the book as a platform to attack pro-market economists without reconciling the fact that such classical economists such as Adam Smith had already shattered the myth that government policy represents capitalism.
The first three chapters of Making Globalization Work are spent lambasting capitalism, liberalization and free trade for their handiwork in keeping the Third World from developing into the First World. He actually does little in outlying his own solutions, and instead uses the first part of the book to shape the reader's opinion on existing economic policies and then organizing these policies under the common title of "capitalism". From the very beginning, Joseph Stiglitz proves to be intellectually dishonest, or at least he himself misguided on what capitalism really is and what pro-market economists truly support. He, of course, is correct when putting much of the blame of current world poverty on such institutions as the IMF and WTO, but these are not capitalist institutions. Let us not forget that they came into existence through the legislation of international government, and they operate with the authority of the State. There is nothing remotely capitalistic in any world trade organization or association, for the simple fact that without governmental support they probably would simply cease to exist. In any case, it seems astonishing that Joseph Stiglitz is surprised that these institutions are ripe with corruption--any institution run by politicians and government bureaucrats is bound to be corrupted, as it is within the nature of bureaucracy.
To give a full critique of Making Globalization Work within the confines of a short article is unrealistic. The errors made by Stiglitz deserve a book. Many of the mistakes made are elementary and careless, which is astounding given that it was a Nobel laureate which authored the book. This review will focus on two major inaccuracies. The two erroneous arguments covered are Stiglitz' views on wages in a "globalized economy" and his extremely erred opinions on liberalizations and the effects of. To be fair to Stiglitz, one should also cover his arguments on patents, which at first seems like the most legitimate of all the cases he makes within the covers of Making Globalization Work. Unfortunately, even after analyzing these three positions, this review falls extraordinarily short on offering a complete critique of the book; at least, in the sense that it does not begin to scratch the surface of all of the mistakes committed.
The Nobel laureate attempts to engage the issue of global warming and damage on the environment. Even if the reasons for global warming are still in dispute, it remains unclear whether government-led or regulatory policies will lead to more efficient production (because, only more efficient production can reduce the amount of pollutants emitted over the long-run) and Stiglitz does not make a good case otherwise. Not all environmental problems are relevant to carbon dioxide, the ozone layer or global warming. He also touches upon the problems of deforestation, arguing in support of regulatory political policies which in the past have already proved disastrous. Despite not having the time to objectively analyze Stiglitz' opinions on these matters, they are very relevant and important topics to consider. The short response to pro-government positions is that only through privatization can deforestation be put to a halt. Apart from the environment, Stiglitz also covers the role of the multinational corporation in promoting, and simultaneously harming, world development, as well as the causes and effects of international debt (in regards to international debt, the subject will be treated to an extent in the exposition provided against the notion of the benefits provided by a global currency). These are all important issues which will have to be left for another day, as we have our plate full already.
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 Fine analysis, but I think he knows that our rulers won't accept his reform proposals
In this book, Stiglitz examines the failures of globalisation and of free trade, the intellectual property rights regime that puts profit before people, the pillage of resources, climate change, the multinational corporations' impact, the debt burden, the reserve system, and the attacks on democracy and sovereignty. He claims the problem is not globalisation but the way it has been managed.
He notes of globalisation post-1990, "unchecked by competition to `win the hearts and minds' of those in the Third World, the advanced industrial countries actually created a global trade regime that helped their special corporate and financial interests, and hurt the poorest countries of the world."
He points out, "the pursuit of self-interest by CEOs, accountants, and investment banks did not lead to economic efficiency, but rather to a bubble accompanied by massive misallocation of resources. And the bubble, when it burst, led, as they almost always do, to recession." This contradicts his later, curiously formal, argument, for capitalism: "Markets are essential; markets help allocate resources, ensuring that they are well deployed." No, profitably, not well.
Third World countries have got deeper into debt. Apart from China, poverty in the developing world has increased since 1980: 40% of the world, 2.6 billion people, are poor. The number of Africans in extreme poverty has doubled. In 2001 the USA and the EU agreed to focus on developing countries' needs. But, as Stiglitz points out, they reneged. He needs to ask, why don't proposed reforms ever work?
He observes, "the European Central Bank pursues a monetary policy that, while it may do wonders for bond markets by keeping inflation low and bond prices high, has left Europe's growth and employment in shambles."
He points out that current economic policy serves the interests of the ruling class. "Wealth generates power, the power that enables the ruling class to maintain that wealth."
He exposes the class conflict at the centre of economic life. He asks, "Where will the people of the developed countries and their governments stand? In support of the few in those countries who own and run the rich corporations, or in support of the billions in the developing countries whose well-being, in some cases, whose very survival, is at stake?"
His analysis is brilliant, but his proposals amount to calling on the ruling classes of the world to act against their own interests: he is proposing reforms he knows won't be accepted.
Boring Read
This book is extremely boring and very subjective. If you are looking for an objective well written easy to read book on globalization and the dynamics of our world economy then this is not the book for you. Lots of biased opinion. Also Stiglitz tends to be a master of the obvious at times regarding global economic issues. Nothing new here and no real new going forward insight.
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