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Title: Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz ISBN: 0-393-05124-2 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: June, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.97 (64 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Memoirs of an irate economist
Comment: "A political economist in a rage is an amusing sight," wrote Walter Bagehot; "his violence is so meagre, and he has no rhetoric or eloquence to cover it with, and make it seem decent." Surely, Bagehot did not have Joseph Stiglitz's book in mind when he wrote that, but it could easily have been a review of "Globalization and its Discontents."
Mr. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize economist and formerly chairman of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist at the World Bank, is uniquely positioned to offer insight into the workings of globalization. Sadly, he has chosen to focus his energies on a very narrow field (how the IMF and the US Treasury Department handled the Asian Financial Crisis and Russia's transition from communism to capitalism) and write about it in a self-righteous tone, so much so that his message is often diluted.
All the same, Mr. Stiglitz raises some valid concerns, primarily about the narrow focus that plagues many Western economists, who favor some policies (particularly macroeconomics) while not paying attention to others (such as property rights and institutions). Mr. Stiglitz's caution against market fundamentalism should be taken seriously by those who wish to maintain a broader picture of globalization.
But in the end, Mr. Stiglitz's tone and bias undermine his own argument. From the outset, he makes clear that the world is occupied by concerned government leaders who care for their people and by IMF economists who care about statistics and financial interests while disregarding human concerns such as poverty and employment. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that the former were always more receptive to Mr. Stiglitz's arguments than were the latter.
When Mr. Stiglitz writes about economics, he is clearly at his prime. But maybe he should have waited a few years and produced a more balanced assessment of his years in the World Bank-then, we would have benefited more from the clarity of his thoughts rather than the opacity of his rage.
Rating: 4
Summary: IMF sucks! but give us a bigger picture..
Comment: Joseph seems to harp primarily about the follies of IMF and the proponents of the Washington Consensus. He presents some good cases of gross social faux pas that could have been prevented if there was greater transparency and more involvement from the developing countries who stood to suffer from the very same 'bad' policies that they assumed were going to be there medicine.
If you are in the rush, read the last chapter and that should be sufficient. The strength of his writings would have been more impressive had he spent some time enumerating some of the 'good' things that have been done by IMF. Also, he could have spent some time giving possible alternatives and how they could have panned out, instead of giving "generic guidelines" whose consequences are unclear given the difficult scenarios (like in Russia or Thailand).
Yet, I think it is a good reading for those people who drink the cool aid mantra of
Globalization = Liberalization = Goodness-for-all
Joseph does a good job of debunking this mantra.
Rating: 4
Summary: Pretty Good Book
Comment: This book does a pretty good job of relating the failures that the IMF has had in its dealings with developing countries. Most of the issues raised are widely acknowledged by the masses in developing countries, but are finally coming to light in the west.
The book criticizes the IMF and US Treasury Department quite liberally, but unfortunately, the World Bank, the author's former employer, is rarely criticized although it has had its share of failures.
Overall, this book is a step in the right direction in acknowledging how the international institutions have sometimes promoted policies that did not have the well-being of developing countries at heart.
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Title: Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen ISBN: 0385720270 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 15 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics by William Easterly ISBN: 0262550423 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 08 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else by Hernando Desoto, Hernando de Soto, Hernando de Soto ISBN: 0465016154 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 08 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Alternatives to Economic Globalization by John Cavanagh, Jerry Mander, Sarah Anderson, Debi Barker, Maude Barlow, Walden Bello, Robin Broad, Tony Clarke, Edward Goldsmith, Randy Hayes ISBN: 1576752046 Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Pub Pub. Date: 15 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade by Joseph E. Stiglitz ISBN: 0393058522 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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