Book Description

This classic text has remained a market leader for over 30 years because it covers all the conventional areas of international economics in an easy-to-understand manner.The 11th edition has been thoroughly revised and it continues to be accessible, flexible, and interesting to economics and business majors alike.Like earlier editions, it also places international economics events within an historical framework.The overall treatment continues to be intuitive rather than mathematical and is strongly oriented towards policy. Peter Lindert was recently awarded the University of California-Davis' Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

GREAT BOOK
Doesn't get too technical, but explains everything clearly. This book is one of the best economic books that I ever used.

Good Intro to International Economics
I used this book for my international economics undergraduate course and found it easy to understand; it doesn't use lengthy mathematical formulas but utilizes basic macroeconomic theories. The authors organized this book well; the later chapters build upon the beginning ones. However, it would be best to have taken Intermediate Macroeconomics before using this book because the last few chapters rely heavily on a good understanding of intermediate level material.

Paperback is not the same as hardcover
Hello, If you are looking for a paperback version for the hardcover book with the same name, this is not it. Actually the ISBN Number belongs only to the Study Guide to that book. I got it shipped and I am really upset about that.

It's economics....but, I've read better
I had to read most of this book for my International economics class... I think the book tells you what you need to know but it was very difficult to understand. I usually had to read over the same thing 2 or 3 times before I actually started to grasp it. If I was a professior of this class I would seriously consider changing textbooks. ... Read more

Book Description

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. ... Read more

Reviews (69)

Straight from the Guru
Bretton Woods - 1944. Keynesian economics was put into action in the form of two new global institutions - The IMF and the World Bank. Markets could no longer be relied upon to correct setbacks to economic growth, employment and development. Governmental intervention was found necessary to rebuild economies devastated by the Second World War. An international system to help governments in their fiscal expansions, employment generation, economic growth and stabilization while steering through rough economic weather was found necessary. While the IMF would concentrate on financing short term needs for governmental spending and also to help balance their foreign exchange positions, the World Bank would focus on developmental projects that would largely benefit people below the poverty line. In theory and in all good intentions, everything was perfect for international co-operation in moving towards economic prosperity.

Take a different route now. The financial community in Wall Street has a different set of priorities. This community aims at short cuts to prosperity in the process of playing with other people's money. This community is well entrenched in the Treasury Department of the world's most powerful nation. The Treasury in turn controls the IMF and the World Bank. Suddenly we have Global Institutions serving private interests of the Wall Street. Would there be a better prescription for disaster for the developing countries? It is this vicious circle that has been brought out clearly by Prof Joseph Stiglitz. Who could be a better person to bring out these facts than a Noble Laureate in economics!

Time and again the IMF dictates a "one size fits all" policy of Liberalization and Privatization, with the assumption that the "markets will do the rest". Growth and poverty are not on their agenda. When the prescription fails, its well trained and over paid staff find fault with the Countries' flaws in implementing these policies. The WTO is no exception to this policy of enriching the developed countries at the cost of the poor. Right from page No 1 of the book, Prof Stiglitz is on target in explaining case after case where the IMF has failed. Meanwhile lot of evidence is presented on how countries that have ignored IMF's advice have done better. Thus, we have Poland on the road to prosperity and Russia in a miserable state. Malaysia is better off than Thailand after the crisis of 1998. IMF led "Bailouts" in many cases were to bailout the foreign private banks to recover local debts and not in the interests of the local economy. IMF also forces nations to maintain currency exchange rates at artificial levels with the same objective. This coupled with high interest rates causes a tight monetary policy, cut in governmental spending, once again a straight dive into further disaster. The IMF for example blamed the East Asian economies for lack of transparency for the sudden melt down. But the fact is that the crisis occurred at higher levels of transparency than a decade before, fuelled by the sudden exit of speculative hot money. The dangers of unbridled liberalization (and speculation) proved more lethal than the gains.

The world's most powerful nation and the self proclaimed champion of market economics ultimately protects its own interests when it comes to free trade. It protects itself through its tacit support to cartels ( as in the case of aluminum and steel) and imposition of "anti dumping duties". Trade is good for this country as long as it serves domestic industries.

The pain of unemployment, increase in poverty and suffering due to the misguided directives of institutions like the IMF has led many to believe that Globalization is bad and that these institutions need to be scrapped. The "shock therapy" of market forces hurts. On the other hand we have also seen the collapse of economies and total denial of personal freedom and economic choice under the totalitarian regimes of the Communists. The best choice for sustained economic growth, freedom and eradication of poverty seems to be a combination of market forces with a paternalistic governmental guidance. Let us exercise this choice and make the world a happier place for all.

An excellent book on economics and a must read for Finance Ministers of all developing countries.

Rakes the IMF over the coals
There are actually at least four books published in the last eight years with the title "Globalization and its Discontents," and for Joseph Stiglitz's book the title is probably a bit misleading. This is NOT a general indictment of globalization. When it comes to international economics, Stiglitz is the consummate insider: he was recently the chief economist for the World Bank, for crying out loud! You won't find him protesting on the streets at the latest WTO meeting.

This book contains something better: a tightly argued, detailed critique of the ideologically-driven free-market policies that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been pushing down the throats of developing nation after developing nation. Stiglitz makes the following major points:

* The IMF has a deep faith in the power of free markets to solve all economic woes, and sees the primary historical effect of market intervention as stifling, rather than enabling, the development of truly free markets;

* This position of the IMF is, however, poorly supported by the bulk of economic evidence from the last three or four decades of globalization, and more nuanced models of free-market development (some of which were developed by Stiglitz himself) show that an active government role is typically crucial in the development of healthy indigineous free markets;

* The conditions under which the IMF makes loans to developing countries generally harm, rather than aid, the short- and long-term economic health of these countries for the lower- and middle-class populations;

* IMF-imposed conditions generally ARE good news for foreign investors, whose risk the IMF loans are in effect underwriting;

* The economic ministries and cabinates of developed countries themselves, such as the U.S., generally adopt policies much more moderate such as those of the IMF, casting doubt on whether the IMF is really the source of much economic wisdom at all.

All these points in a dense yet well-written book that covers cases of African debt, Russia after the fall of communism, the East Asian crisis, and more. The book takes some intellectual energy to read but it's well worth it. I learned a great deal about the last ten years of international economic development, and I recommend Stiglitz's book highly.

A must read
I have read over 50 books on topics related to economics, and the socio-political aspects of globalization, free-markets, and their history. This topic has, for years, fueled passionate debate among Keynesians and liaise faire economists to name a few. And today, with globalization affecting everyone of every walk-of-life, this debate is making its way into the local coffee shops and hair salons.
Of the 50+ books mentioned, there is not one that I would direct the general population to. Yet it is ever more crucial for the masses to understand how globalization drives the politicians they vote for, who in turn enact the laws that determine how globalization will affect us all.
Dr. Stiglitz's book requires at least a basic education in economics to follow references to John Smith, Keynesian economics, Marginal Utility, and the interplay of state taxes and interest rates, for example.
For those with a basic knowledge of such things, this book is a must read -- for two important reasons:
1) It was written by Noble Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, former economic advisor to the Clinton Administration and Chief Economist at the World Bank. You can no longer argue the topic as a learned individual if you don't read this book (agree with it or not).
2) Whether you believe Dr. Stiglitz has a bone to pick with the IMF, it is difficult to ignore his passion for doing what he believes is right. The overriding theme is Dr. Stiglitz's insistence that organizations driving developing countries toward globalization, through market liberalization, do so with transparency -- allowing proper and constructive critique and debate to play a democratic role in ensuring that scarce resources and the impoverished of the world aren't taken advantage of.
And finally, after reading this book, you will learn how the IMF, World Bank, and others work to indoctrinate developing countries into the world economy. In Dr. Stiglitz's view, reforms are prematurely accelerated to ensure that financiers receive their expected return on investment -- often at the expense of a heavily indebted nation.
Whether you believe this or not, it is plausible, and demonstrable, through history, that the interests of the wealthy have great potential for abusing resources and the less fortunate. With the stage set in this manner, coupled with secretive closed-door meetings at the IMF, it is a conceivable scenario that the IMF has, at times, made matters worse in a weakened economic and heavily indebted country. In researching my master's thesis on globalization, I have corroborated stories and case histories that support Dr. Stiglitz.
Well, heck, you should see how the creditors came after little-ole me when i lost my house to a flood in the same year that I was laid off from my job due to recessionary conditions! Financiers are not in the mercy business.

Inside the World of International Finance
Of all people Joseph Stiglitz is eminently qualified to write this book. His experience and background make him a clear authority on the issues at hand, those of course being the extreme ineptitude of the World Bank and IMF in handling international development. A little research reveals that these two organizations have not always chosen the best path but Stiglitz shows these economic actions with the background information that highlights a frightening level of incompetence.

Interestingly, this book points out that these two world powers ultimately only represent the interests of the bankers that control them and have consistently failed to help the poor that they were created to serve. In many cases they have even made bad situations worse using extremely questionable economic prescriptions. Stiglitz gives well referenced examples of spectacular ineptitude that make me surprised these organizations can even exist.

However, as the book wears on it becomes clear that Joseph Stiglitz has had a distinguished career as an economist for a very good reason. He knows what's going on and skillfully gives readers access to the seemingly insane inner workings of the World Bank and IMF. The first three chapters are introductory and bring the reader up to speed. This is where the book doesn't do so well. These chapters are boring and essentially repeat the same thing over and over again for three chapters. While I can see the necessity I don't think they work for their intended purpose. I may not have finished the book if it wasn't the only material available at the time.

While it misses in the beginning this book really picks up towards the end, the chapters on Russia and the East Asia Crisis are particularly good. Most importantly Stiglitz offers rational, straightforward ways to solve the problems that he outlines here. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the way international finance works. You may want to skip the first two or three chapters though...

Good critique of globalization
This is a well-argued critique of liberal ideology at the IMF. Stiglitz documents and explains the flaws and the mistakes that happens when ideology replaces proper economic analysis. Stiglitz however at times assumes a self-righteous stance which might be a reflection of his anger at the IMF. Nonetheless, it was a good analysis of present economic situations. ... Read more

Book Description

Slavery is illegal throughout the world, yet more than twenty-sevenmillion people are still trapped in one of history's oldest social institutions.Kevin Bales's disturbing story of slavery today reaches from brick kilns inPakistan and brothels in Thailand to the offices of multinational corporations.His investigation of conditions in Mauritania, Brazil, Thailand, Pakistan, andIndia reveals the tragic emergence of a "new slavery," one intricately linked tothe global economy. The new slaves are not a long-term investment as was truewith older forms of slavery, explains Bales. Instead, they are cheap, requirelittle care, and are disposable.

Three interrelated factors have helped create the new slavery. The enormouspopulation explosion over the past three decades has flooded the world's labormarkets with millions of impoverished, desperate people. The revolution ofeconomic globalization and modernized agriculture has dispossessed poor farmers,making them and their families ready targets for enslavement. And rapid economicchange in developing countries has bred corruption and violence, destroyingsocial rules that might once have protected the most vulnerable individuals. Bales's vivid case studies present actual slaves, slaveholders, and publicofficials in well-drawn historical, geographical, and cultural contexts. Heobserves the complex economic relationships of modern slavery and is aware thatliberation is a bitter victory for a child prostitute or a bondaged miner if theresult is starvation.

Bales offers suggestions for combating the new slavery and provides examples ofvery positive results from organizations such as Anti-Slavery International, thePastoral Land Commission in Brazil, and the Human Rights Commission in Pakistan.He also calls for researchers to follow the flow of raw materials and productsfrom slave to marketplace in order to effectively target campaigns of "namingand shaming" corporations linked to slavery. Disposable People is the first bookto point the way to abolishing slavery in today's global economy. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

The race to the very bottom
"Disposable People" by Kevin Bales is an important book on the topic of slavery in our time. The author intelligently combines original cases studies and third-party research with a solid understanding of global economics. The result is a startling but convincing expose that should be read by everyone.

Mr. Bales describes the major factors driving slavery today. First, the post-WW II population explosion has created a huge and desperate reserve army of the unemployed. Second, the process of proletarianization continues in many so-called "developing" nations as millions of peasant farmers are displaced by mechanization. Third, economic globalization serves to break down the social fabric as materialism and greed substitutes for the communal values that prevail in peasant societies.

Mr. Bales is careful to contrast the "New Slavery" of today with the "Old Slavery" of the past. The New Slavery is clearly embedded within the logic of post-industrial production, where capital avoids its social and environmental responsibilities and ruthlessly exploits human and natural resources for maximum profit. In this light, the New Slavery represents the race to the very bottom of a brutal system that is controlled by speculative investors and is accountable to no one.

Case studies examining prostitution in Thailand and coal production in the Brazilian rainforest help us further understand the dynamics of the New Slavery. Subcontractors do the dirty work of luring and keeping laborers in servitude while shielding owners from justice. Mr. Bales tells us that in the case of Brazil, the landowners who blithely ignore such practices include some of the largest corporations in the world.

The Old Slavery defined by the traditional master/slave relationship has survived into the present as well. Mr. Bales courageously traveled to the police state of Mauritania to gather evidence of slavery at great risk to himself and the locals who assisted him. The author devotes chapters to Old Slavery practices in India and Pakistan, where repressive sexist, class, and religious beliefs enforce an essentially Feudal social order. However, Mr. Bales makes clear that the economic forces unleashed by globalization are effectively breathing new life into these ancient practices. For example, upper caste slave owners in India are heavily dependent on slave labor to support both their privileged social positions and their increasingly Western-style consumerist lifestyle.

As many in the U.S. theorize and debate from their easy chairs about the reasons why industrial jobs may be rotating to low-wage countries, Mr. Bales' book effectively shocks us from our complacency. As amply demonstrated in this book, slavery is an expression of the infinite demands of capital taken to its logical conclusion. Clearly, eradicating slavery is essential to reclaiming our humanity. To that end, Mr. Bales makes a number of policy recommendations and provides resources at the end of the book to help readers get involved in the anti-slavery struggle.

I give this sensitive, perceptive and important book the highest recommendation possible.

A revelation of slavery
I first glanced this book becasue I was in need of information for my school project, and then I fell deeply into this book as it revealed things that I had fuzzy understanding in clear illustrations and explanations. Instead of giving abstract reports that abuses happened in some part of the world at certain time in certain way, the author presented a live descritption of the abuses and analyzed the reason and structure of modern slavery so reader could easily understand how this exploitation machine works.

Read It.
Wow. This *is* a book everyone should read. I'd heard about bits of slavery here and there in modern times. After I heard Bales on NPR and read about his work in Scientific American and the Sun, I was eager to get ahold of this book. But I had no idea that the horror was so widespread.

Bales writes with clearness and imagination, yet is thoroughly scientific and researched. He followed sociological procedures and didn't merely report on other's ideas, but did primary research himself with a set variable questionnaire. All of this work makes his arguments irrefutable.

Disposable People traces the three main types of slavery- old fashioned chattel slavery, debt slavery (the largest) and contract slavery (the fastest growing), in five different empirical countries. The first case of contract slavery in Thailand I found the most horrendous- families selling their daughters into slave-prostitution and death by AIDS, for the price of a colour TV. The case of chattel slavery in Mauritania was the most interesting- Arab Muslims speaking of their black slaves as their children, who need to be guided by a firm hand, but are inferior; who are fed the bare minimum to work and live, and not allowed to go to school. A place where the children of a female slave become the property of the slave owner, whether or not he is the father, and women can be kept as slaves by the claim that they are actually the wife of the slave owner, who has on his side the Qur'an's stipulation that one may have sex with one's female slaves. It was all too reminiscent of the antebellum period. Bales' weakest arguments were in regards to the form of slavery in India. While there is certainly slavery there, and it appears to be the oldest continual slavery in the world, the farming he described seemed to be more sharecropping than slavery- there was little reference to the violence that forced people to remain with their land lord/slave holder.

This book needs to be read because we need to stop this. Twenty-seven million people in the world are in slavery, and many of the products we rely on and use every day are made by them. This should not be. It can not be.

Slavery in our backyard
This powerful informative book cleary examines the slavery in our backyards. Though many every day citizens may be unaware of slavery, our government and big business know what's going on and have systematically denied/ignored it. Most of the slavery involves people of color and women--groups that are repeatedly ingored and abused. If you want to get an idea of what's happening in the US and the world read this book. Become aware, don't invest in companies that do business with societies that accept slavery, and know what you're getting into when you travel abroad. My only regret was that something so horrible is so difficult to fight.

Excellent journalism sparks deep philosophical questions
I concur with the other reviewers, this book was well researched, structured and presented. The information not only worked to educate me as to how various groups of people are being exploited all around the world, but also caused me to re-evaluate my views on the notion of karma and my natural inclination to look for a bargain price. I was also reminded of Swift's classic "A Modest Proposal" [1729], and began to wonder if there will ever be a time when some of the world's inhabitants won't be viewed as "disposable." ... Read more

Book Description

Advanced International Trade is the first major graduate textbook in international trade in a generation. Trade is a cornerstone concept in economics, taught in all departments both in the United States and abroad. The past twenty years have seen a number of new theoretical approaches that are essential to any graduate international trade course, and will be of interest in development economics and other fields. Here, Robert Feenstra steps beyond theory to consider empirical evidence as well. He covers all the basic material including the Ricardian and Hecksher-Ohlin models, extension to many goods and factors, and the role of tariffs, quotas, and other trade policies; recent material including imperfect competition, outsourcing, political economy, multinationals, and endogenous growth; and new material including the gravity equation and the organization of the firm in international trade.

Throughout the book, special emphasis is placed on integrating the theoretical models with empirical evidence, and this is supplemented by theoretical and empirical exercises that appear with each chapter. Advanced International Trade is intended to bring readers to the forefront of knowledge in international trade and prepare them to undertake their own research. Both graduate students and faculty will find a wealth of topics that have previously only been covered in journal articles, and are dealt with here in a common and simple notation. In addition to known results, the book includes some particularly important unpublished results by various authors. Two appendices describe empirical methods applicable to research problems in international trade, methods that draw on (i) index numbers and (ii) discrete choice models. Thoroughly up-to-date and marked by clear, straightforward prose, this book will be used widely--and enthusiastically.

Professors: A supplementary Solutions Manual is available for this book. It is restricted to teachers using the text in courses. For information on how to obtain a copy, refer to: http://pup.princeton.edu/class.html

... Read more

Reviews (2)

The current standard
In my opinion this is the best book currently available for a graduate course in real-trade theory. I have already used it twice in class and my students have invariably preferred it to other recent works available, e.g., K.Y. Wong or Bhagwati et al. Compared to these, this book is better written and focuses judiciously on the models that yield the sharpest conclusions and most relevant insights. Discussions of the significance of gravity models, foreign investments, political economy, free trade areas, and institutional factors in trade (e.g., ethnic networks) are particularly clear and up to date compared with other texts.

The required mathematical apparatus (e.g., envelope and duality results) is introduced naturally, intuitively, and only as and when it is needed. The English flows easily, and the interweaving of theoretical and empirical material is especially novel and welcome.

This book should set the standard for writing graduate texts.

Advanced International Trade: Theory and Evidence
I really expected far more from this textbook. It adds very little to already existing graduate textbooks on trade. It is not useful for graduate students that want to understand the literature of the 2000s. It assumes you already know the material. It debotes a lot of space to the old literature at the expense of the new one. This is a field that has changed significantly. Frankly, I find hard to see its value added. ... Read more

Book Description

Highly acclaimed for its clear exposition and up-to-date policy discussion, Kreinins International Economics: A Policy Approach, 9e offers a simplified yet comprehensive analysis of international economic relations. By providing a proper balance of theory, policy, institution, and empirical materials, the text exposes readers to an excellent foundation. Kreinins text is also considered the best existing International textbook for courses with an emphasis on policy issues. Written for learners with only one or two previous courses in the principles of economics, the book is designed primarily for a one- or two-term undergraduate sequence in international economics. However, it also fits nicely into many MBA and international relations courses. Part One of the book addresses international trade and commercial policy, while Part Two is devoted to international financial relations. The two parts are interchangeable and maybe studied in either order. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Poorly written- Very Confusing.
Not only this book is poorly written but in fact its also written in a very confusing manner. Dr. Kreinin does not provide us with adequate examples for the topic he discusses and furthermore there is not glossary in the textbook, which is crucial for the students to get some quick facts without memorizing the entire terminology used in the book. I was surprised to find this book as part of the required readings for classes at Michigan State University and Northern Michigan University. I recommend that this bok may not be used as part of the curriculum for the students. It is not helpful and its over-priced relative to its limited use.

Good Reference and learing tool
This books provides a very low level understanding of the concepts ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Too Theoretical and Useless!
This book is very difficult to read as far as the main text is concerned. The graphs do help students understand the concepts but the organization is poor. After reading a chapter, I still do not get the "big picture". The authors do not attempt to provide any type of guide or roadmap for us to follow. You cannot learn anything from this book unless you are going to your prof's lectures.

Very good learning medume with a suffecient in-depth covearg
Im a Computer Sceince student. Recently, I took an economics cource titeld "International Trade". This book is the text book for our class. I found it very easy and clear to understand ( there is no doubt that you really need to have a very solid Idea about macro and micro economics befor reading this kind of a book). The book is deep enought to servee as an educational media, it is no to little and not too much. I recommend this book

I do not feel this book is a good educational tool
I have recently taken Macroeconomics and Microeconomics. The subject was difficult, but able to be grasped with some study. (I am an adult student)As for the "International Economics" textbook, I feel it is very poor as an educational medium. If you ever really sit and attempt to read this thing, all you are reading are a bunch of letters. There is no sense to the material and very little attempt to clarify anything. It is confusing enough to learn a difficult subject without having to decipher every letter of the alphabet into a different word or variable. I understand brevity is necessary to avoid repetition, but please! This is to be a learning tool. There should at least be some attempt to 'spell out' the information once. I feel this book was a very bad investment on my part, and would never have been my chosen text for this topic. I wouldn't even give it one star, but that was as low as I was able to select. ... Read more

Book Description

The riot-torn meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999 was only the most dramatic sign of the intensely passionate debate now raging over globalization, which critics blame for everything from child labor to environmental degradation, cultural homogenization, and a host of other ills afflicting poorer nations.Now Jagdish Bhagwati, the internationally renowned economist known equally for the clarity of his arguments and the sharpness of his pen, takes on the critics, revealing that globalization, when properly governed, is in fact the most powerful force for social good in the world today. Drawing on his unparalleled knowledge of international economics, Bhagwati explains why the "gotcha" examples of the critics are often not as they seem, and that in fact globalization often alleviates many of the problems for which it has been blamed. For instance, when globalization leads to greater general prosperity in an underdeveloped nation, it quickly reduces child labor and increases literacy (when parents have sufficient income, they send their children to school, not work). The author describes how globalization helps the cause of women around the world and he shows how economic growth, when coupled with the appropriate environmental safeguards, does not necessarily increase pollution. And to counter the charge that globalization leads to cultural hegemony, to a bland "McWorld," Bhagwati points to the example of Salman Rushdie, a writer who blends Bombay slang and impeccable English in novels touched by magic realism borrowed from South American writers. Globalization leads not to cultural white bread but to a spicy hybrid of cultures. With the wit and wisdom for which he is renowned, Bhagwati convincingly shows that globalization is part of the solution, not part of the problem. Anyone who wants to understand what's at stake in the globalization wars must read In Defense of Globalization. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Liberal in defence of globalization
I never quit understood what the anti globalization movement stood for (except riots), as a matter of fact I saw globalization as the extension of trade. Thanks to this book of Bhagwati book, I now understand a bit more of the discussion going on in the less radical part of the anti globalization movement.

I gave the book only 3 stars because some how the book annoyed me. The arguments against the anti globalization movement, can be helpful, especially because they are in terms anti-globalizers can accept, because Mr. Bhagwati seems to be so close to them. Throughout his book Mr. Bhagwati is very favorable about the influence of the non-elected, non-democratic influence of NGO's and other institutions. But I wonder why these groups are more legitimate than elected officials.

Although he has some interesting arguments in favor of globalization, I found the inconsistent and moral argumentation not always very strong. For example he argues against the enforcements of setting of universal labor standards, because the conditions in each country is different and hence not each country can afford the high Western standards. But than later in his book he praises the influence of the NGO's and media can wield to these same countries to enforce the Western values on them.

Also not quite clear is why he seems to want to make a point that liberals are better than conservatives. In the last pages of the book he even explicitly states that Reagan and George W Bush practicing "make believe" economics, even claming that Clinton saved us from the Reagan politics. But this not widely accepted claim, he seems not to backup with evidence. I wonder how claims like this, helps to build the case for globalization. Maybe it is to appease the anti-globalizers, he hopes read the book?

The new benchmark for books on globalization
How can one resist a book that begins with the phrase, "does the world need yet another book on globalization?" To this saturated topic, Jagdish Bhagwati does not try to force a radical new outlook; rather, he surveys the evidence against each accusation levied by the critics of globalization and ends up producing one of the most elegant, eloquent, and persuasive books in favor of globalization.

One problem that any such book faces is that the anti-globalization movement is rather amorphous, bringing together all sorts of groups that make all sorts of accusations; to get around this, Mr. Bhagwati divides his book into the major themes (the link of economic growth to poverty, of trade to the environment or labor rights, etc), and looks at what the various NGOs are saying against globalization. To his credit, Mr. Bhagwati has considered most of the subtleties, nuances and variations of the NGO arguments.

Having done this, Mr. Bhagwati explains whether and why the NGOs are wrong. Predictably, the NGO fears usually prove exaggerated or simply untrue. To their polemic rhetoric, Mr. Bhagwati answers with anecdotes, news reports and econometric studies. Whether one agrees or disagrees with him, no one can accuse Mr. Bhagwati of brushing aside the critics.

Refreshingly, the book is not an unconditional acceptance of globalization. "In Defense of Globalization" is a defense, but it is not blind to what is wrong about globalization; Mr. Bhagwati is cautious, for example, about uninhibited capital flows; he is also critical about the invasion of intellectual property rights into trade agreements; he is also suspicious of businesses that bribe politicians to alter trade agreements to their favor. And so on.

Yet, his verdict is staunchly pro-globalization. He urges against using trade-curtailing answers to economic problems; he also alerts us that many of the ills identified by NGOs have little to do with globalization ("What has globalization got to do with that?" he writes more than once). More importantly, he offers ideas about how to make globalization better, from managing immigration, to rethinking the trade sanctions, to the role that NGOs ought to play, and many more. Nothing here is new; but he assembles the various ideas that he has pronounced over the years in books, op-ed pieces and academic journals.

There is no doubt that "In defense of globalization" will be the book to beat from now on. No anti-globalization treatise should be published without being able to refute Mr. Bhagwati's arguments. For having elucidated this debate even further, Mr. Bhagwati deserves to be read and to be thanked.

The brighter side of Globalization
Globalization has many faces, and the human face is one among them, according to the author. The fact that this book focuses so much on the human aspect, and argues in every chapter on the beneficial aspects of Globalization, it appears that the author is on a special assignment from some International agency. While I am not an opponent of Globalization ( even after reading Prof Stiglitz's "Globalization and its discontents "- an authoritative report on the darker side of the story), this book by Prof Bhagwati did not impress me since it appears to be highly one sided and rhetorical, that lacks the backing of sound economic evidence. The style, with a rich dose of English literature, is political, bordering on an election campaign, and not a book of substance from a professor of Economics.

However, the best part of the book is that it has helped improve my vocabulary, despite Shakespearean distractions( My copy of the Webster's dictionary was put to good use after a long time). I have absolutely no doubts on the integrity, experience and the academic brilliance of the author. The book devotes one chapter each for discussing important issues ranging from women's rights, child labor, democracy, wages , environment and this makes it a comprehensive coverage of the topic hardly seen in many other books. But most of the arguments are not supported by sufficient data and analysis as one would expect in order to accept the hypothesis of the cases. No doubt, this book has a long list of notes and references from which the author has generously quoted, but again, I was at times a little lost in the maze of quotations.

Despite these shortcomings, the core topic of this book ( globalization with a human face) is bound to be at the forefront of policy formation in most developing countries and also influence discussions and decisions at global institutions like the WTO, IMF and the World Bank. If that happens, the book deserves substantial credit.

Globalization is not a problem, but a part of the solution to usher in an era of prosperity on a global scale with a human face. I have no disputes with the author on this statement.

The Best of All Possible Worlds
In 1964, sociologist Jacques Ellul in his prophetic book THE TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY wrote: "The human being is changing under the pressure of the economic milieu; he is in the process of becoming the uncomplicated being the liberal economist constructed" (pg. 219). Readers of IN DEFENSE OF GLOBALIZATION are certain to recognize in its pages the latest neo-liberal incarnation of that theoretically necessary, but historically implausible construct, "homo economicus" not only in Bhagwati's view of humanity but, perhaps, in Bhagwati himself.

In a nod to those legions of philosophers and writers who over the past two hundred years have attempted to arrest the career of this reductive model of humanity, Bhagwati's updated version of homo economicus is imbued with some non-rational characteristics, envy for one, and, culture, for another. In this Bhagwati, to his credit, is more up to date than his contemporaries from Chicago. He recognizes that not only does man not live by bread alone, but that globalization did not invent bread, ancient non-capitalist cultures did. Eventually, however these concessions to the many critics of homo economicus are revealed as strategic concessions only, because ultimately Bhagwati believes that all humans, though they are not necessarily born to be rational wealth maximizers, must become so. Those who do not comply will hold humanity back from the best form of goodness that can be achieved: economic prosperity through global capitalism. For him other forms of prosperity, such as spiritual or moral prosperity, while noble, are necessary only insofar as they promote and support wealth creation. We certainly have not achieved the best of all possible worlds yet, Bhagwati replies to his critics, and we may never achieve it, he concedes, but of the means at our disposal the neo-liberal economic system is the best there is. Sure, there are "externalities," he admits, but on balance, of all the possible systems that are known, it works best.

The strategic concession is by far Bhagwati's most effective rhetorical strategy. Yes, he agrees, pollution is bad, but, he insists, pollution can be fixed (blithely overlooking the fact it has not yet been fixed, seems to be increasing to the point where it threatens our existence and that those who have power are disinclined to undo the mechanisms that brought them into power). Yes, he acknowledges, people's societies are becoming emptied of their old meanings by the techniques of global capitalism. But, he argues, in this best of all possible worlds the omnibenevolent energies of global capitalism have stimulated the genius of writers like Salman Rushdie who meld the ancient and modern together in a bold new hybrid (a rationale which overlooks the fact that much of modern literature, including Rushdie's, is an attempt to find meaning in a world that is everyday upended through the "creative destruction" of capitalism).

So using the technique of the strategic concession, the critics of global capitalism might say, yes, we agree our standard of living has risen in the past hundred years (but the disparity between rich and poor is wider now than it has ever been, a disparity that means greater influence accrues to fewer and fewer people who have more and more say about how the world economy will be structured.) Sure, we in the United States live as kings could not even conceive of living 200 years ago (and consume 25% of the world's energy and in so doing, endanger the present environment and the lives of generations to come). Yes, the promotion of literacy is a good thing (except that it generally it takes a generation or so for a people to learn that they will never be as prosperous as those who imposed the technique of capital upon them and another generation to understand that their old ways of life have become emptied of meaning, ancient human meanings that can never be fully recovered).

The cultural critique of globalization is particularly difficult for Bhagwati to manage. Indeed, it's a critique that has been around since the early days of the Industrial Revolution in the works of Carlyle, Morris, Dickens, and those other Englishmen of that time whom Bhagwati is perversely fond of quoting. These Englishmen saw the evils of the dark satanic mills in a time before such evils were reclassified as externalities by business schools and their wealthy donors, before the mills and their more distressing byproducts were moved out of sight and out of mind. Yes, he agrees that capitalism can be destructive of community, but maintains that that older beliefs about the nature of humankind can live peacefully together with global capital as in the Rushdie example above. Here he leaves the realm of the disingenuous argument and passes into dissembling. [The] "Technique" [behind globalization] "worships nothing, respects nothing. It has a single role: to strip off externals, to bring everything to light, and by rational use to transform everything into means...The sacred cannot resist." (Jacques Ellul again, pg. 142, The Technological Civilization).

Those wary of globalization have seen enough of its antecedents to know that this newest manifestation of capitalism turns once functioning societies into compost, and sometimes dangerous compost. Perhaps many societies, as Bhagwati asserts, are worthy only of the garbage heap of history. Agreed. There are traditional societies and beliefs which are repressive, cruel, or which have been radicalized to become so when they are touched by globalization. The difficulty lies in the fact that globalization does not make distinctions -- it does not pass over worthy societies and undermine only the less worthy. It is a technique and as such simply cannot understand or go easy on societies where people are defined as other than rational wealth-maximizers. It has no answer for those once culturally rich and fertile cultures which are now only the stilled poetry out of which grows the prosaic apologetics of the neo-liberal economist.

The Best Book on Globalization
I'm not an economist and don't particularly enjoy reading about economic subjects. What made this book so fascinating is that the author is able to wrap sophisticated economics in prose that sings. I must confess that I've been one of the knee-jerk anti-globo's whom Bhagwati criticizes in his book. After reading it, I can at least say that I understand why globalization needs merely to be fixed and improved, not ended. ... Read more

Book Description

Appleyard-Field’s International Economics 4e text is a mid-level International Economics textbook that offers a consistent level of analysis and treatment of the two main subdivisions of international economics—international trade theory and policy and international monetary theory and policy. Comprehensive and clear, the text helps students move beyond recognition toward and understanding of current and future international events. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

best introduction to international economics
I have taken a few international economics courses and of all the textbooks this was by far the easiest to read and understand. The authors do an excellent job of making the models clear by giving detailed examples. This is one book I am definitely not selling back to the bookstore at school.

A great resource
This text book is a wonderful resource for all wanting to learn more about economics in the international arena. It is packed full of facts, graphs, and explanations. One problem I did find in this book is that it tried cover too broad a field. If it would have concentrated on one specific topic like the international economics, and left out the finance, it could be a much stronger work. I grew tired of hearing "as you already know..." It could have not made so many assumtions about what students already knew and used the extra area to cover them. All in all, it was a helpful resource for extra learning, however, I would suggest looking further for a book that will stand alone in teaching an international economics course. ... Read more

Download Description

Globalization is exposing social fissures between those with the education, skills, and mobility to flourish in an unfettered world market-the apparent "winners"-and those without. These apparent "losers" are increasingly anxious about their standards of living and their precarious place in an integrated world economy. The result is severe tension between the market and broad sectors of society, with governments caught in the middle. Compounding the very real problems that need to be addressed by all involved, the kneejerk rhetoric of both sides threatens to crowd out rational debate. From the United States to Europe to Asia, positions are hardening. Author Dani Rodrik brings a clear and reasoned voice to these questions. Has Globalization Gone Too Far? takes an unblinking and objective look at the benefits-and risks-of international economic integration, and criticizes mainstream economists for downplaying its dangers. It also makes a unique and persuasive case that the "winners" have as much at stake from the possible consequences of social instability as the "losers." As Rodrik points out,". . . social disintegration is not a spectator sport-those on the sidelines also get splashed with mud from the field. Ultimately, the deepening of social fissures can harm all." President Clinton has read the book and it provided the conceptual basis for the trade/IMF portions of the State of the Union message in January 1998. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Rodrik gets it right
In his spellbinding account of the economic realities of globalization, Dani Rodrik gets it right. Whether it is his accounting of the increased elasticity in the job market or his discussion of labor as a factor bearing a higher incidence of non-wage costs, today's economy makes Rodrik seem prophetic. It is a book whose time has come, any thinking person should buy this book.

good source of hot topic
It seems that over the past few years, the topic of globilization aond free trade have become hot topics because of events like the WTO protests in Seattle, the World Bank protests in DC and Ralph Nader's run for the presidency in 1996 and 2000.

Has globilization gone too far? is a good source for those people trying to find out more about the issue because it shows what happens under globilization both theoritically and in real life. It presents the arguements against free trade and the problems associated it with it like loss of jobs and capital outflows so it is good to understand the oposing view.

Provides indepth analysis of the issues involved...
This is an excellent book that dwells in to the effects of globalization, related issues and potential solutions. It discusses social issues and policies within the context of globalization. It also dwells in to the issues related to labor standards and income distribution. Rodrik presents good solutions but they are debatable and not easy to implement.

I feel that Rodrik discusses solely from the perspectives of industrialized nations' interests. I would have liked him to explore more from the perspectives of under developed/developing nations'.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON THE TOPIC!
Seldom can one find an economist whose sensitivity to political and social issues coexist in perfect harmony with a technically impecable background. Rodrik is one such rare creature. His book addresses the issue of globalization, defying economic theories and pointing straight to the problem: globalization engenders social instability, that in turn unables financial/economic stability to be sustained. Accoridng to Rodrik, unless attention is given to the "lossers" of this process, protectionism may strike back. Rodrik is successful in showing that globalization is NOT "the end of history", and should not be taken for granted. ... Read more

Book Description

Click 'Additional Materials' for downloadable sample chapter

Understanding Global Cultures, Third Edition presents the cultural metaphor as a method for understanding the cultural mindsets of a nation, a cluster of nations, and even of a continent. This method involves identifying some phenomenon, activity or institution of a culture that all or most of its members consider important and with which they identify closely. Metaphors are not stereotypes; rather, they rely upon the features of one critical phenomenon of a culture to describe the entire culture. The characteristics of the metaphor then become the basis for describing and understanding the essential features of the culture. For example, the Italians invented the opera and love it passionately. Five key characteristics of the opera are the overture, spectacle and pageantry, voice, externalization, and the interaction between the lead singers and the chorus. These features are used to describe Italy and its cultural mindset. Thus the metaphor is a guide or map that helps such outsiders as students, travelers, and managers on short-term and long-term assignments understand quickly what members of a culture consider important.

New cultural metaphors for nations added to this edition:

- The Canadian Backpack and Flag

- The Danish Christmas Lunch

- French Wine

- China’s Great Wall and Cross-cultural Paradox

- The Singapore Hawker Centers

- Australian Outdoor Recreational Activities

- The Sub Saharan Bush Taxi

A unique feature of the third edition is that it develops a cultural metaphor for the base culture of China (the Great Wall), showing how it influenced both a unifying cultural metaphor among the large Chinese Expatriate communities living in various nations (the Chinese family altar) and the cultural metaphor for Singapore (the Hawker Centers). Another unique feature is the description of cultural metaphors for two continents, Africa and Australia. The Third Edition also groups these cultural metaphors by book parts into overriding themes or general types of cultures such as Authority Ranking, Equality matching, Market Pricing, Cleft, and Torn.

There is now a Web site that the instructor can use to obtain over 100 concepts, applications, and exercises that serve to enrich the learning experience associated with the third edition. It is tailored specifically to the Third Edition. Go to: ww.csusm.edu/mgannon

Book Description

Doing Business in 2005: Obstacles to Growth is the second in a series of annual reports investigating the scope and manner of regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.New quantitative indicators on business regulations and their enforcement can be compared across more than 130 countries, and over time.The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.Topics in Doing Business in 2005 include: Licensing and Inspections: Having registered a business, now what?In most countries, firms face a myraid of sector specific licenses as well as inspections to enforce compliance.The Doing Business database constructs two sets of indicators on the regulation of operations.One measures the steps, time and costs of complying with licensing and permit requirements for ongoing.The other assesses the enforcement of regulations through two of the most common types of inspections-labor and tax.Registering Property: Property registries were first developed to help raise tax revenue.What was good for the tax authorities has since proven to be good for strengthening property rights-the registries strengthen incentives to invest, facilitate trade, and expand access to credit.New indicators cover the steps, time and cost to register property.Measures of the legal provisions that strengthen property rights and the efficiency of property registries are also developed.Protecting Investors: Corporate governance issues are often thought to affect only publicly-listed companies in developed countries.In fact, corporate governance is relevant for every large privately-held company that has more than one owner.New indicators examine several possible types of shareholder expropriation, including related-party transactions, guarantees and loans to company managers and directors, mergers and acquisitions, disclosure of ownership information, and treatment of conflicts of interest.Including a new emphasis on gender, Doing Business not only provides insights into business contraints throughout the world but highlights particular barriers faced by women.Doing Business is a comprehensive resource that no investor, economic adviser, business developer, or economic policymaker should be without. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The Future of the Workforce Described for Policy Makers
This book describes the future workforce to policy makers. It gives individuals making career decisions some objective, long-range data about the future. Projections include fastest-growing occupations, ethnic and age mix of the workforce, needs of employers, and income to be expected.

As reviewed in Annotated Bibliography of Learning A Living, A Guide to Planning Your Career and Finding A Job for People with Learning Disabilities, Attention Deficit Disorder, and Dyslexia by Dale S. Brown

Work Force 2020
This book is a masterpiece of research. So much is said very succinctly. It is vast in scope, breath and depth yet very understandable. Everything is supported by research. Numerous charts are extremely well done, informative and simple to understand. If you want to plan your career or help guide someone elses future, you must read this book. It has vital information about job trends, types of jobs, and what they pay. You will not be sorry about reading this book. ... Read more

Book Description

The primary colors of oil today are money (lots of it), technology (basic but demanding) and people (special ones). The colors of the rainbow can be seen in the 100+ oil producing countries. There are a dozen large petroleum producing and exporting countries. Yet most have little in their history that links them to wealth, technology and management. Corruption among the elite and governments, mismanagement and the squandering of the petroleum wealth are endemic. Culture is everything, and no other human endeavor makes this as pointedly obvious as the world of petroleum. ... Read more

Reviews (16)

Best overall view of a powerful industry
Michael Economides and Ron Oligney have taken the world of "big oil" and made all of its components easy to understand and an entertaining read for those with industry knowledge and for those without any oil industry background. From the history to the current politics to technical explanations for exploration and drilling technologies, the entire book brings all of the elements of oil together and logically tells the story of a business that the entire world is dependent upon for survival. A great read considering the current issues with oil prices.

At last! Clear thinking and writing about a murky industry
With a one-two punch of factual data and anecdotal stories, Economides and Oligney peel open the somewhat dark and mysterious ways of petroleum in modern culture and commerce. It was particularly fascinating (and somewhat gratifying) to read how the oil industry's own political self-dealing for the first half of the twentieth-century (always with the more-than-willing assistance of supposedly populist politicians) nearly led to its own demise in the 1970s and 80s... And, the impact of those lessons in the so far relatively laissez faire 90s and 00s and into the next century.

I am somewhat baffled by the assertions of reviewer Stephen Mark, especially about the book's "extremely political" and "ungrammatical" nature. If anything, The Color of Oil exposes the foibles of politics and is an appeal to reason, which of course, is essentially (in the truest sense) apolitical. I found the book well-written and entertaining. Check out the anecdote about Stalin's admonition to his oil minister during WWII: "if Hitler gets one drop of oil, we will shoot you..." I won't give the rest away...

If you're the least bit interested in the oil industry, you are in for a real treat...

Not that interesting
I have been dragging my feet to finish reading this book. It is not well-organized and full of opinions without solid arguments. Therefore, it is dry and hard to read. To the author's credit, a lot is covered in this thin book. If it had been expanded, the reader could have enjoyed it more.

Too Heavy-Handed
Overall this is a decent book about the energy business, but could do with a little more fact and a lot less opinion. The attacks on the environmentalists and other critics of the oil industry are a distraction and add about zero value to ones overall understanding of the business.

A Great Page Turner!
When a colleague suggested I read this book I was expecting a really bland read. Boy, was I surprised! This book is very well written and filled with lots of good and interesting information. A newer book that goes into great detail on oil economics, reserves, etc. and vulnerabilities post-9/11 is Terrorism & Oil by Neal Adams. It's a real eye-opener. ... Read more

Book Description

Understanding Capitalism, 3/e provides an introduction to economics with extensive attention to the global economy, inequality, the information revolution, the exercise of power and the historical evolution of economic institutions and individual preferences. Its 'three dimensional approach' focuses on competition in markets, command in firms, governments and international relations, and change as a permanent feature of a capitalist economy promoted by technical innovation and conflict over the distribution of income.Understanding Capitalism, 3/e, is designed for introductory undergraduate courses in economics and students of political economy throughout the social sciences. ... Read more

Reviews (35)

Very good read but flawed
As we are used from the authors ( The Prize and their work in CERA) we get a very well written and well researched expose. It is by far not as dry as most books on this subject and actually it is quite light reading.

It starts of well by demonstrating the rise and decline of Government dominated economies in the West as well as in other parts of the world. They describe the initial successes and later failures. The transition to the free market economies we have seen in the past two decades is described well. Unfortunately the book does little more than that...description.

In particular the idea that we have fixed everything now with the global free markets radiates from some of the pages on the Chicago/Harvard experts. The questions posed in the introduction on e.g. how to deal in terms of social and moral systems with the new economic order do not get attention. Instead we gate the same feeling as with reading Fukuyama's End of the World History which at that time was pretentious and looks utterly ridiculous today.

It is not only the current economic crisis but also the imbalances the new system has brought ( eg overproduction of commodities, loss of control over currencies, destabilized capital flows) that has not been identified as possible outcomes of the free market policy. This leaves alone the many disasters the world has seen with privatization.

Therefore, a very good and entertaing read but a bit short on the thought provoking side.

Offers insightful understanding of globalization.
Daniel Yergin provides the reader extraordinary insight into contemporary globalization. In a masterful, sweeping work that encompasses economic and social history of the post-war era, Yergin (who won the Pulitzer Prize for "The Prize," his study of the oil industry) and his co-author Joseph Stanislaw help us understand how economies around the world, but especially in the third world, are abandoning the old faith in big government and are embracing the marketplace. But Yergin and Stanislaw also warn that the marketplace -- laissez-faire -- is fraught with perils for countries that don't have sound governance and indigenous institutions and entrepreneurs who are able to function responsibly in an increasingly interdependent world. I found the book's analysis particularly lucid; the chronology at the end, which details the evolution of economic theory as well as cites political trends, should be especially useful to students. This is a book I'd recommend highly for laymen and scholars alike.

Resource Allocation and the Battle of Economic Ideals
In Carl Sagan's "Contact," the unknown entity encountered by Arroway after her journey into the wormhole delivers a scathing critique of the human condition, and goes on to express his concern about Earth's "astonishingly backward economic systems." "Commanding Heights" is a comprehensive account of those "backward" economic systems and chronicles the seemingly amaranthine battle between governments and the marketplace for control of the most important elements of the global economy. The discussion centers on the economic events of the second half of the twentieth century, sandwiched between the establishment of the British welfare state at the conclusion of the Second World War and the Asian financial contagion unfolding at the time of the book's publication.

The theme of "Commanding Heights" is the superiority of resource allocation via free markets vis-à-vis resource allocation by means of government control of strategic business undertakings. Along this free market-government control continuum, there are three fundamental, ideological positions concerning the workings of an economy: economic totalitarianism, strategic intervention, and non-interventionism. Given this backdrop, the second half of the twentieth century is depicted as a colossal experiment in wealth creation and redistribution. Advocates of neoclassical economics such as Friedrich von Hayek pitted their ideas against Keynesians and supporters of the command-and-control system.

World War II and its concomitant cost in human lives and shattered economic potential served as the catalyst for a remaking of the global economic order. Policymakers and politicians began questioning the effectiveness of a purely laissez-faire market system in mitigating the impact of macroeconomic failures and in addressing the issues of equity, poverty, and unemployment. Keynes provided a blueprint for the emergence of the so-called mixed economy, advocating government intervention through fiscal and monetary measures. Nationalization of strategic industries, central planning, and direct regulation were some of the tools made available to administrators.

By the time of the oil shocks of the 1970s, it became increasingly clear that this system of state control over essential economic activities was ill-equipped to deal with market shocks, and that regulatory capture rendered direct government supervision of natural monopolies and fundamental services ineffective and untenable. At the end of the 1980s, concerns about market failure started to give way to belief in the superiority of the market in allocating resources and ensuring that economic actors adhere to the principles of equity and fair play. Government began to take a back seat from managing the commanding heights of the economy, and privatization, deregulation, and liberalization became the norm.

The authors are unabashedly in favor of laissez-faire economics; this is shown by the recounting of recent economic history as a set of multifarious journeys undertaken by various countries that nearly invariably leads to the adoption of neoclassical economics as the sole logical solution to the ills caused by big government.

Ultimately, whether the experiment with 'enlightened' free enterprise and the continuing retreat of government will succeed or not in the long term will depend on a host of factors, such as: (1) is the pursuit of pure profit by erstwhile government-owned entities detrimental to public welfare? (2) will liberalization ensure a fair distribution of wealth? (3) does internationally mobile capital impinge on national sovereignty? (4) is the marketplace inherently superior in price determination, especially in the short term? and (5) will the "balance of confidence" turn out to be in favor of free markets?

GREAT BOOK
Extraordinary ! Hard to write, easy to read ! Academic approach with a non-academic language ! While you are reading this book, you are learning without realizing ! This book makes learning economics enjoyable.
A good look at the battle between government and market forces in the history of economy. New economies, emerging markets, economic thoughts, governments, all of the