Making Globalization Work by joseph e. stiglitz

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

The book's title grabbed my attention, the moment I saw it. And after buying it I tried many times to read it, but I felt extremely bored after reading a page or too.
The book is really boring, and I am not sure if I am going to finish it someday, and my be then I'll change my rating to it here, or it will just stay there on my bookshelf waiting for someone else to read it.

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Yubisoft

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

I read Stiglitz's earlier book on globalization, Globalization and its Discontents, a while back. While that book focused almost solely on what people don't like about globalization, this newer work is a bit more optimistic, suggesting that many of the problems associated with the global economy can be fixed, to most everyone's satisfaction.

While this book is a bit dated (2006) and so doesn't deal with the global meltdown of 2008, it discusses some of the problems that led to that crash, but falls short of being predictive of it. However, since Globalization and its Discontents (2002), Stiglitz has gotten better at writing for a general audience and the difficult concepts discussed here are easier to follow than in the earlier work. I am looking forward to reading his 2016 book on The Euro.

If you want to understand the issues underlying growing inequality, both locally and globally, there are worse places you could start that with this book.

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solxito15

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

TThere are precious few popular-press works on development that size up the problems with real insight (and not just warmed-over conventional wisdom/ Washington consensus) or that offer fresh approaches that could actually make a difference. Stiglitz's book is one of those precious few.

He does a good job of identifying the biggest obstacles to development, the role the rich nations play in perpetuating poverty, how things like the way we measure progress are both inconsistent with what we really want and destructive, and some ways to change the mindset, change approaches, and, at long last, change results.

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Cryptic-senpai

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

AN ECONOMIC EDUCATION

In his latest book "Making Globalization Work", Joseph Stiglitz, chief economist at the World Bank until January 2000, has come up with a series of suggestions for reforming the global economy in the interests of everyone.

Stiglitz's book consists of an introductory chapter ("Another World is Possible") plus 9 other chapters, each dealing with a particular facet of the global economy: Development, Fair Trade, Patents, Primary Resources, the Environment, Multinationals, Debt and Democracy. The strength of the book is that prior to offering policy suggestions in each of those areas, Stiglitz describes the problem in a straightforward and readable manner. So not only is the reader presented with possible solutions (and Stiglitz is rarely proscriptive and offers multiple ideas for solutions laying out the pro's and con's of each), they are getting an education in how the global economy currently functions. The theoretical issues are outlined clearly with ample real world examples to illustrate points.

It would be easy, as some do, to dismiss Stiglitz as an insider turned reformist - a dispenser of sticking plasters - albeit large ones - for a system that has performed in an inherently unfair way over decades, and with particularly miserable results in the last few years. I personally think that there is quite a bit more to him than that. He takes the world as it is, and has looked to radically reform it in a way that would clearly improve the lot of a good deal of those who have been marginalized, particularly in the neo-liberal era of the past four decades. Though I'd personally go further, it is a measure of his radicalism that upon contemplating issues such as the environment, and the problems with regard to getting global agreement, Stiglitz bites the bullet to suggest that what is needed to deal with an intransigent U.S. is sanctions. One can't imagine Gordon Brown, Bono or Geldof, even at their most rhetorical and crowd-pleasing, identifying the problem and the solution in such a blunt manner.

If you have a propensity to pigeon-hole writers the most appropriate nesting place for Stiglitz would be likely be that of Radical Social Democrat along with writers such as Keynes and Galbraith. His book is well worth reading if you have an interest in learning about how the Global Economy actually functions, and if your interested in radical reforms that would help it to function in the interests of the majority of the worlds population. That would certainly be a novelty.

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Knittyboy04

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

I have to say that this is a pretty good book to learn about the complexities of globalization, but the author's policy suggestions, especially now is entirely unrealistic in my opinion. The reason being is that he fails to address the core of human nature (Read Laws of Human Nature), and that these policy proposals will almost never happen unless we change the global culture. The Bretton Woods one size fit all Washington Consensus approach is obviously the reason why we are not seeing Globalization work for all. We do need cooperation between countries, but they will continue to seek increase their end of the deal at all costs in my opinion. I admit that building a Globalization system that is equitable is a difficult task, but we need to have more pragmatic approach then broad policy suggestions.

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indeebug

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

Stiglitz does a good job of breaking down some pretty complex ideas into a fashion that is readable and enjoyable for those of us that are not economists. He offers some potential solutions for far reaching problems and approachs globalization not as an inherently positive or negative movement, but as an imperfect movement. Globalization can work and benefit the masses, but there is a lot of work to be done. Interest in this topic is a prerequisite of course, but this is a good read (as it were) ...

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