Reviews
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Globalization And Its Discontents |
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Joseph E. Stiglitz |
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New York: W.W. Norton & Co. (2002) |
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ISBN: 0-393-05124-2 |
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"Renowned economist and Nobel laureate
Joseph E. Stiglitz spent seven years in Washington, serving
as chairman of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers
and as chief economist for the World Bank... Stiglitz had
a ringside seat for most of the major economic events of the
last decade, including the Asian economic crisis and the transition
of the former Soviet economies, as well as the administration
of development programs throughout the world… This book
recounts Stiglitz's experiences, opening a window on previously
unseen aspects of global economic policy. It is designed to
provoke a healthy debate and… shows us in poignant terms
why developing nations feel the economic deck is stacked against
them."
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"The main point of the book is simple: Globalization is
not helping many poor countries. Incomes are not rising in
much of the world, and adoption of market-based policies such
as open capital markets, free trade, and privatization are
making developing economies less stable, not more. Instead
of a bigger dose of free markets, Stiglitz argues, what's
needed to make globalization work better is more and smarter
government intervention. While this has been said before,
the ideas carry more weight coming from someone with Stiglitz'
credentials� In some ways, this book has the potential to
be the liberal equivalent of Milton Friedman's 1962 classic
Capitalism and Freedom, which helped provide the intellectual
foundation for a generation of conservatives. But Globalization
and Its Discontents does not rise to the level of Capitalism
and Freedom. While Stiglitz makes a strong case for government-oriented
development policy, he ignores some key arguments in favor
of the market."
... see review
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"While parts of this book are disappointingly shallow, Stiglitz's critique of the
market-driven 90's still resonates, especially when the business pages are full of stories
about white-collar crime and the stock market seems stuck in a perpetual rut. Even the
United States cannot blithely assume that financial markets will work on autopilot. It is
testament to the salience of Stiglitz's arguments that many economists -- even some
Bush administration officials -- now embrace his view that economic change in the developing
world must evolve more with local conditions, not on Washington's calendar. Without a
thorough makeover, globalization could easily become a quagmire."
... see review |
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"Stiglitz, 58, is hardly the first person to accuse the IMF of operating
undemocratically and exacerbating Third World poverty. But he is by far the most
prominent, and his emergence as a critic marks an important shift in the intellectual
landscape. Only a few years ago, it was possible for pundits to claim that no mainstream
economist, certainly nobody of Stiglitz's stature, took the criticism of free trade and
globalization seriously. Such claims are no longer credible, for Stiglitz is part of a small
but growing group of economists, sociologists and political scientists, among them
Dani Rodrik of Harvard and Robert Wade of the London School of Economics, who
not only take the critics seriously but warn that ignoring their concerns could have
dire consequences."
... see review |
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"Stiglitz's book makes a compelling case that simple-minded economic doctrine,
inadequately tailored to the realities of developing countries, can do more harm than good,
and that the subtleties of economic theory are actually quite important for sound policy advice.
But simplistic political advice -- give developing countries more voice and the institutions of
global governance will be rendered more legitimate and efficient -- is equally problematic.
Political reform is as subtle and complex as economic reform. Evidently, the best minds among
us have only begun to think about it."
... see review |
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