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qaphsiel's review against another edition
3.0
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.
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.
dawndeydusk's review against another edition
4.0
Another important text that offers neoliberal solutions--albeit they don't seem particularly plausible, and this was written before the Great Recession of 2008 which leaves several more financial/capital related issues out of the full picture. Nonetheless, I appreciated the broad selection of topics Stiglitz addresses in this work, along with his blunt honesty and mini-exposes/criticism regarding his experience in government and the World Bank (along with general criticisms brought up regarding the IMF, the Washington Consensus, and unfair American foreign policy and trade).
skitch41's review against another edition
4.0
In the past decade or more economists and international observers have gone ga-ga over the perceived benefits of globalization. Mr. Stiglitz shows in this book how this mad euphoria over globalization in recent years has actually produced both winners and losers in the global economy as globalization, as it has been presently managed, has tended to favor the interests of the developed world over the interests of the developing world. Over the course of ten chapters, Mr. Stiglitz points to the fact that the lack of transparency and truly democratic institutions in such international trading regimes as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization has led to poorer growth rates for developing countries and shackled them to ever growing amounts of unsustainable debt that they could never possibly pay off. The problem is compounded by the fact that poor developing countries have to implement austerity measures in order to gain loans from the IMF or risk not only losing the loans, but also scaring off private investors (at least, that is what the IMF and advanced developed nations like the U.S. tell them anyway). He also points out how national policies such as large agricultural subsidies and bilateral & multilateral trade agreements tend to crowd out developing nations from the only markets that could afford to buy from them in large, profitable quantities. Each of his ten chapters lays out these problems and offers solutions to how they can be overcome. The overall theme of his recommendations is that international trade regimes need to be far more transparent and democratic in the way they do business as well as more expressly take the needs of the developing world for real growth and development. He ultimately calls for a global economic government, but stops just short of calling for a truly global government even though that would be the inevitable consequence of what he proposes. For the most part I believe his recommendations are quite sound and I believe that leaders of the developed world, if they really do care about eradicating poverty and helping the Third World actually develop, should take note of them. This book does need a bit of an update as it was written seven years ago and he fingers the Bush Administration with stalling a lot of the international solutions to these problems, particularly their rejection of the Kyoto Protocols dealing with global warming. Still, this is a fascinating read, perhaps a little bit wonky for average readers, but definitely worth the time for those who have their doubts about globalization and its benefits.
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