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Summary
Summary
This powerful, unsettling book gives us a rare glimpse behind the closed doors of global financial institutions by the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics.
When it was first published, this national bestseller quickly became a touchstone in the globalization debate. Renowned economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz had a ringside seat for most of the major economic events of the last decade, including stints as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist at the World Bank. Particularly concerned with the plight of the developing nations, he became increasingly disillusioned as he saw the International Monetary Fund and other major institutions put the interests of Wall Street and the financial community ahead of the poorer nations. Those seeking to understand why globalization has engendered the hostility of protesters in Seattle and Genoa will find the reasons here. While this book includes no simple formula on how to make globalization work, Stiglitz provides a reform agenda that will provoke debate for years to come. Rarely do we get such an insider's analysis of the major institutions of globalization as in this penetrating book. With a new foreword for this paperback edition. Those seeking to understand why globalization has engendered the hostility of protesters in Seattle and Genoa will find the reasons here. While this book includes no simple formula on how to make globalization work, Stiglitz provides a reform agenda that will provoke debate for years to come. Rarely do we get such an insider's analysis of the major institutions of globalization as in this penetrating book. With a new foreword for this paperback edition.
Author Notes
There are few people better positioned than Joseph E. Stiglitz to weigh in on the debate over globalization. A leading academic economist whose work has dealt extensively with growth and development in the Third World, he has also seen global economic policy making firsthand, as a cabinet member in the Clinton administration and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and as senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank. Stiglitz shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economic Science and is currently professor of economics at Columbia University
Reviews 3
Publisher's Weekly Review
Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winner and Columbia University economics professor, sees globalization's unrealized potential to eradicate poverty and promote economic growth. In recent years, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization have promoted world financial stability, prosperity and free trade, yet Stiglitz wonders why so many revile these organizations' programs to the point of rioting in the streets. Casting a dispassionately analytical eye at East Asia's and Russia's financial turmoil, he argues that the IMF imposed austere policies that only exacerbated each area's problems. When he finds a similar policy pattern for other countries in crisis, Stiglitz asks how a public institution can ignore growing evidence of a flawed policy and not take action or be held accountable. In answering his own question, Stiglitz blames the "market fundamentalism" that endorses the view that a "free" market solves all problems flawlessly. As Stiglitz authoritatively indicates, one-size-fits-all economic policies can damage rather than help countries with unique financial, governmental and social institutions. He calls for public institutions to reform and become more transparent and responsive to their constituents. Stiglitz shares inside information from cabinet meetings when he served on Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers and from his years as chief economist at the World Bank, divulging debates in Washington's conference rooms, naming names and raising his eyebrows at those who refuse to question certain IMF policies' repeated shortcomings. This smart, provocative study contributes significantly to the ongoing globalization debate and provides a model of analytical rigor concerning the process of assisting countries facing the challenges of economic development and transformation. (June 10) Forecast: Stiglitz's impassioned, balanced and informed book is a must-read for all interested in understanding globalization. Professors, economists and students should respond to his author tour and national media interviews, making this a strong business seller. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Stiglitz, noted economist in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 2000, posits that that "the level of pain in developing countries created in the process of globalization and development as it has been guided by the IMF and the international economic organizations has been far greater than necessary." He observed the debates, knew ideas mattered, and saw his role as convincing his colleagues that good economics was also good politics. However, when he moved for three years to the international arena at the World Bank, he found a decision-making process--especially at the International Monetary Fund--that was based on ideology, bad economics, and policy that often favored interests such as Wall Street over the needs of poorer nations. This critique is presented to open a debate on how globalization is managed, which the author hopes will include representatives of poorer nations directly affected. His aim is for better policies on globalization and, hence, better results. --Mary Whaley
Choice Review
Stiglitz has always been in the center of things as a Nobel Prize-winning academic, as chair of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, and recently as chief economist at the World Bank. Globalization and Its Discontents is mainly a book of reflections on international economic policy, with a special emphasis on the errors made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Indeed, he might have titled the book "The IMF and Its Discontents." Stiglitz's analysis of the problems caused by shock therapy in formerly communist states develops in practical terms some theoretical themes found in his early book Whither Socialism? (CH, May'95). His relentless critique of IMF policies during recent economic crises is interesting to contrast with Paul Blustein's The Chastening (CH, Mar'02). Both Stiglitz and Blustein provide "inside views" of these crises; it is interesting to read them together to gain a perspective on how international economic policy is made in practice. Stiglitz concludes that global economic institutions need to be rethought and that they need to adopt a single-minded strategy to assure that the benefits of globalization reach the world's poor. This controversial, thought-provoking, and lucid volume is must reading for anyone interested in international economics. General readers; students, lower-division undergraduate and up; and faculty and professionals. M. Veseth University of Puget Sound
Table of Contents
| Preface | p. IX |
| Acknowledgments | p. XVII |
| 1. The Promise of Global Institutions | p. 3 |
| 2. Broken Promises | p. 23 |
| 3. Freedom to Choose? | p. 53 |
| 4. The East Asia Crisis: How IMF Policies Brought the World to the Verge of a Global Meltdown | p. 89 |
| 5. Who Lost Russia? | p. 133 |
| 6. Unfair Trade Laws and Other Mischief | p. 166 |
| 7. Better Roads to the Market | p. 180 |
| 8. The IMF's Other Agenda | p. 195 |
| 9. The Way Ahead | p. 214 |
| Notes | p. 253 |
| Index | p. 269 |
