On reading "Making Globalization Work"
I was recently in Washington, DC, and wandered into onto one of my favorite bookshops, Kramer Books and Afterwords. I was planning on just window-shopping, but was drawn to Joseph Stiglitz’s new book, “Making Globalization Work.” An ambitious title, to be sure, but having loved his previous book (“Globalization and its Discontents”) I had hope he might ambition.
I came away perhaps a bit disappointed, because perhaps 2/3 of the book is just a restatement of the problems with the current corporate-led globalization, territory well-mined in Stiglitz’s previous book. Perhaps this amount of repetition was inevitable, to make the book a self-contained work that anyone in the lay public would be able to understand.
The remaining 1/3 does contain some tantalizing suggests how to reform the global economic order. Some highlights:
All in all, an excellent book. If I were to offer a mild criticism, it would be that the environment I given only 26 pages out of a 358 page book, even though ecosystem services are arguably the single greatest market failure in the global economy.
I came away perhaps a bit disappointed, because perhaps 2/3 of the book is just a restatement of the problems with the current corporate-led globalization, territory well-mined in Stiglitz’s previous book. Perhaps this amount of repetition was inevitable, to make the book a self-contained work that anyone in the lay public would be able to understand.
The remaining 1/3 does contain some tantalizing suggests how to reform the global economic order. Some highlights:
- He echoes the common World Social Forum phrase, “Another World is Possible.”
- He argues for measures of development other than GDP, what he calls a comprehensive approach to development.
- He argues for the right of developing economies to protect infant industries.
- He argues for looser intellectual property rights in developing countries.
- Most boldly, he suggests that countries cease to hold reserves only in US currency, but instead keep reserves in a basket of investments.
All in all, an excellent book. If I were to offer a mild criticism, it would be that the environment I given only 26 pages out of a 358 page book, even though ecosystem services are arguably the single greatest market failure in the global economy.
