Book Description

Andre Gunder Frank asks us to ReOrient our views away fromEurocentrismto see the rise of the West as a mere blip in what was, andisagain becoming, an Asia-centered world. In a bold challenge to receivedhistoriography and social theory he turns on its head the worldaccording toMarx, Weber, and other theorists, including Polanyi, Rostow, Braudel,andWallerstein. Frank explains the Rise of the West in world economic anddemographic terms that relate it in a single historical sweep to thedecline ofthe East around 1800. European states, he says, used the silverextracted fromthe American colonies to buy entry into an expanding Asian market thatalreadyflourished in the global economy. Resorting to import substitution andexportpromotion in the world market, they became Newly IndustrializingEconomies andtipped the global economic balance to the West. That is precisely whatEast Asiais doing today, Frank points out, to recover its traditional dominance.As aresult, the "center" of the world economy is once again moving to the"MiddleKingdom" of China. Anyone interested in Asia, in world systems and worldeconomic and social history, in international relations, and incomparative areastudies, will have to take into account Frank's exciting reassessment ofourglobal economic past and future. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

ReOrient: sure to be an instant classic in world history
Andre Gunder Frank challenges us to thoroughly reevaluate our understanding of the world economy between 1400-1800, and provides us with enough evidence to command a reorientation of our perspective on this period. Gunder Frank's ReOrient will prove an instant classic, rating among those great books that come along once in a generation, such as with Arnold Toynbee's The Study of History, William McNeill's The Rise of the West, and Immanuel Wallerstein's The World-System as seminal works in world history. For scholars researching the onset of industrialism and the West's eventual dominance, they will be introduced to a whole new set of questions found in neither Marx nor Weber that require exploration if they are to plumb the depths of this historical terrain. Political Science, History, Sociology, and Economics professors should place ReOrient at the center of their class reading lists for courses in political economy and world history. Secondary Education teachers will find their world history teaching revolutionized by ReOrient's important thesis on the centrality of Asia in the global economy between 1400-1800. This book will give world history a research agenda for a generation. Original, contentious, challenging, yet accessible, this is Frank at his best. Agree or disagree with his thesis, if you don't know it, for the next generation you won't be able to knowledgeably discuss world history. Don't miss it!

First World History Association [WHA] Book Award 1999
THIS IS THE CITATION BY THE WHA BOOK AWARD COMMITTEE, which is posted here but NOT WRITTEN BY THE BOOK'S AUTHOR

WORLD HISTORY ASSOCIATION FIRST BOOK PRIZE 1999:

This book has just won the 1999 World History Association Book Award, which was presented at the WHA conference in Victoria, BC, Canada, on June 26, 1999. The choice was unanimous, because we regard this book as being in a class by itself. Its breadth of vision, courageous analysis and apt warning not to let ethnocentrism deter historians from pursuing a global perspective on the past, all make Gunder Frank's book exceptional and a must read for historians, teachers and students of world history. The book argues that European hegemony in the modern era did not really emerge until the nineteenth century, and that before that Europe was a rather marginal player in the Eurasian world economy that was centered on China. Only the windfalls of American silver and the Atlantic slave trade enabled Europe to buy its way into the existing world economy and industrialize. Its holistic approach forces historians to look beyond Europe to understand the making of the modern world, and Frank's attention to historiographic issues is outstanding. David A. Chappell, Book Review Editor JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY

How Asia Once Won (And Could Again)
Andre Gunder Frank wrote ReOrient to demonstrate that the present Western predominance in the world economy is fairly new. It began when Europe gained control of the New World's natural resources, particularly silver, and used it to "buy a ticket on the Asian train" (Gunder Frank's apt metaphor).

Gunder Frank also speculates that East Asia's present economic growth and potential will eventually help it regain economic hegemony in the not too distant future.

A New Frame in Which to View World History
I confess. I was Eurocentric. Despite a degree in International Economics from an east coast school known for its School of Foreign Service, I firmly believed Max Weber that the Protestant work-ethic was the source of western prosperity. I also believed in American exceptionalism. Frank's book cured me of both those false notions.

A couple points I'd like to add to Frank's thesis explained in other reviews.

1) I work for one of the major trans-Pacific ocean shipping companies. The company was founded in California in 1848 and sold to the Singapore government in 1997. (Shipping going East)

2) US-bound shipments are full of manufactured goods. Asia-bound ships are filled with wastepaper or are largely empty. The West continues to produce nothing that Asia really wants. Where in times past, most of the Asian-bound shipments from England and the Netherlands were boats filled with silver and gold, today we "ship silver" to Asia in the form of electronic fund transfers. Given the trade deficit the US alone has with China and the rest of Asia, it seems only a matter of time before the Chinese start buying Manhattan and US assets the way the Japanese did in the 1980s.

3) Frank's book adds an interesting background to the history of the Roman Empire. After subjugating Europe, Rome moved eastward under Constantine the Great. First, Constantinople provided a more defensible position for the New Rome (indeed where the western capital - Rome -- fell in the 5th century, the eastern capital - Constantinople -- continued until the 15th century, despite being "on the way" as it were for invading Huns and other invading armies). But perhaps more importantly, all the commercial action was centered in the East. Moving the capital eastward took it out of the backwater of Italy and moved it closer to the overland trade routes with the Asia).

4)That the East was far wealthier than the West can again be seen in microcosmic perspective during the 4th Crusade. Western soldiers had never imagined a city as wealthy as Constantinople. When they saw it they had to have it. The West, especially Venice, did to Constantinople in 1205 as the British did to Bengal in 1857 and the Americans have been doing to the Native Americans since they got here. They took by force, not by superior ethic, religion, tradition, or racial superiority.

The book itself, despite its "must read status" and historical importance, is very poorly written and highly repetitious. If you read the concluding few pages, you will have the main points of the argument. Read the rest of the book if you want the details. And Frank provides plenty of detail, footnotes, references, etc.

All in all, this book is important for understanding the world's past as well as the contours of the future. I wonder how long it will take for the pendulum to swing back to Asia. Chinese-US relations are getting interesting, aren't they?

A fundamental book for the 21st century
Since Kondratieff (1970s) discovered economy was affected by up and down cycles that could be traced back across centuries, historians studied the structure of economy at different stages of World history, the succession of hegemonic states in the West, why a certain state became the hegemon and why others failed, etc... Apparently innocent, those questions concerned preservation of US supremacy, how to maintain and prolonge it, who were the possible challengers and when and where could a clash emerge.

The revolution brought by Franck is to destroy Eurocentric views adopted since 1800 bit by bit to reveal how the economic system has been working since the last 2000 years and especially the last 500 years. What it shows is that the global economy was centered around China until 1800 AD, that the main economic players of those 2 millennia were China, India and Japan assisted by Russia, Persia and the Ottoman Empire. The West was only minor and it is only because we achieved the conquest of the Americas and the exploitation of its silver deposits that we obtained a ticket in the global economy and gradually rose to proeminence. Britain was global hegemon from 1800 until 1914, displaced by the United States from then until present. Some forecasts predict that Chinese economy could outpace the US between 2013 and 2049.

Author detailed and argumented study is confirmed by current reality. 4 of the 5 largest foreign currency deposits are already in East Asia: Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong. While US current account balance is at -$393 billion and EU current account balance is at -$14 billion, Japan current account balance is at $128 billion, Russia is at $30 billion and China is at $17 billion. Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia are all in positive waters. Most strategic technological monopolies are in Japan (Blindside from Eanmon Fingleton, 1995). 9 of the 10 largest harbours in the World are East Asian, leaving Rotterdam as the single exception. 70% of the World software production is in India. Most of the largest national GDP annual growth are in East, South-East and South Asia, making US robust growth of the last decade look pale and Europe's 2-3% definitly meaky.

The book is fundamental because it explains the basics of this Asian economic advantage, how post-1800 Westerners could delude themselves while their ancestors (Adam Smith being the most famous) dedicated pages of study to record and analyse why Asia was so superior to the West in almost everything and why the West has risen and is maybe falling beyond again (Only a blind could not notice that 1/3 of all US supermarket shelves are filled with Made in China or that the content of high-tech products is mostly Made in Japan, Taiwan or Korea and that Pokemon, Nintedno and Playstation are kids favorite).

An essential book for anyone to understand the global economy, to have an acurate look on current situation and evaluate the decisions made in the West to face Asian return to global power. A Chinese proverb says: There are no failures, only experiences. And another one: The 10.000 miles trip begins with one step. Make the first step of the next millennium and buy this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Several years have passed since the 'store wars' over barriers to foreign products at Japanese distribution firms. Yet among English-speaking readers, how these firms operate remains a puzzle. In this book, the best Japanese scholars in their fields attempt to unravel that puzzle. Avoiding culture-based explanations, they employ a systematic and rigorous economic logic---yet, since they also avoid mathematical notation, the argument remains accessible to generalist readers. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A useful elaboration of the distribution process
The traditional stereotype of a "Mom and Pop" store continues to pervade generalist analysis of the Japanese retail sector. This book provides a welcome insight into the mechanics of distribution, as structural change is forced on the sector by external pressure - and by the changing demands of a younger generation whose values have metamorphasised away from the standards of their parents. Some of the retail systems (for example auto distribution) are shown to be more sophisticated and less inefficient than trade protectionist caricatures would have international observers believe. Inevitably, this is a book that is likely to date fairly rapidly given the changes pervading Japan's corporate economy and general society. Nonetheless, it is a useful snapshot of what was happening to an important sector in the midst of powerful forces for change. ... Read more

Book Description

This excellent book, newly available in paperback, addresses the growing dissatisfaction with the neo-liberal post Washington consensus. The concern of the contributors in writing this collection was that this consensus has established itself as a new orthodoxy, more powerful and widespread than its predecessor. This broad-ranging critique explains that without a much broader political economy the consensus is unlikely to provide a coherent framework for successful development policies. ... Read more

Book Description

Financial intermediation is currently a subject of active academic research on both sides of the Atlantic. European financial integration raises major policy issues about the risks of banking competition and the appropriate regulation of banks and other financial intermediaries.The choice of Anglo-American vis-à-vis Continental European forms of financial markets is also central to Eastern Europe's transformation.This volume contains theoretical papers at the forefront of academic research that shed light on banking and security markets and banking competition. ... Read more

Book Description

Hardbound. This Handbook adopts a traditional definition of the subject, and focuses primarily on the explanation of international transactions in goods, services, and assets, and on the main domestic effects of those transactions. The first volume deals with the "real side" of international economics. It is concerned with the explanation of trade and factor flows, with their main effects on goods and factor prices, on the allocation of resources and income distribution and on economic welfare, and also with the effects on national policies designed explicitly to influence trade and factor flows. In other words, it deals chiefly with microeconomic issues and methods. The second volume deals with the "monetary side" of the subject. It is concerned with thebalance of payments adjustment process under fixed exchange rates, with exchange rate determination under flexible exchange rates, and with the domestic ramifications of these phenomena. According ... Read more

Book Description

From plain vanilla swaps to swaptions to circus swaps—heres the most comprehensive, practical introduction to the global world of swaps Understanding Swaps Financial personnel, corporate treasurers and professional cash managers seeking a practical, hands-on introduction to swaps—sophisticated financial instruments used globally to control interest payments, manage debt, and enhance investment portfolios—need look no further than Understanding Swaps.

"Jack Marshall and Ken Kapner have done a superb job of providing a complete, easy-to-read primer to derivative products. Using clear language and concise examples, it lays out the world of swaps for the practitioner, student, accountant, lawyer or regulator." —Robert J. Schwartz EUP and Chief Operating Officer Mitsubishi Capital Markets, Inc.

"Marshall and Kapner have produced an exceptionally cogent description and analysis of the swaps market along with its essential technical and theoretical underpinnings. This book should be number one on the reading list for any student or practitioner of contemporary financial techniques." —J. Michael Payte Senior Managing Director Bear Sterns & Co., Inc.

"Understanding Swaps details the complete world of swaps: the basics (interest rate and currency swaps), the vogue (equity and commodity swaps), and the future (macroeconomic swaps). Indeed, Understanding Swaps is the book I would recommend to someone for a comprehensive and very readable primer on swaps." —Carolyn Jackson First Vice President Banque Indosuez ... Read more

Book Description

Elaborating on the concepts first introduced in Global Public Goods, this book addresses the long overdue issue of how to adjust the concept of public goods to today's economic and political realities. The production of global public goods requires the orchestration of initiatives by a large number of diverse actors across different levels and sectors. It may require the collaboration of governments, business and civil society, and in most cases it almost certainly calls for an effective linkage of the local, national, regional, and global levels. In light of today's new realities, this book examines a series of managerial and political challenges that pertain to the design and implementation of production strategies and the monitoring and evaluation of global public goods provision.As participatory decision-making enhances the political support for - and thus the effectiveness of - certain policy decisions, this volume offers suggestions on a number of pragmatic policy reforms for bringing the global public more into public policy making on global issues. Nine case studies examine the importance of the global public good concept from the viewpoint of developing countries, exploring how and where the concerns of the poor and the rich overlap.Providing Global Public Goods offers important and timely suggestions on how to move in a more feasible and systematic way towards a fairer process of globalization that works in the interests of all. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Perfect Follow-up
Global Public Goods and Multilateralism must intertwine in order for progress and provision to come about. This is an idea that is so often neglected and forgotten. This book places an importance role that nations must carry out...it also provides recommendations for issues that arise in the midst of GPG provision. This book does not negate the global issues that exist within and surrounding the international realm...yet the book does a fabulous job on highlighting the importance of addressing these issues as a means of furthering the progress of Global Public Goods.

Thought Provoking
This books is an excellent follow-up of the Global Public Goods: International Cooperation in the 21st Century. It helped me visual and understand the provisionary measures needed to bring about GPGs. ... Read more

Book Description

This new edition has been rewritten to provide an up-to-date, clear and comprehensive account of the most important developments currently taking place in the world economy.The text introduces the major economic theories and models with an emphasis on changes within the world trading system and how governments respond. ... Read more

Book Description

A consistent presentation style helps readers understand the connections among concepts.
Extensive additional material is available on the Web, and chapters in the book include links to important Internet sites and data sources.
Identifies the major international economic (trade and financial) problems facing the United States and the world today, and how they can be resolved. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

good for undergrad...
This provides different kinds of examples as well as theories. It no doubt helps students learn about the real world. Particularly,the chapter on tariff policy is good enough to have a good grasp of the field.

Best Book in the field
The book really brings an in depth analysis of the modern financial world, through a very simple and easy to access method of presentation. Good for students, interesting for any other reader...

A good book to study
I've found this book easy to follow, even if I'm not very good at Economics. Simple, with many examples and graphs. Case studies and good bibliography at the end of each chapter. ... Read more

Book Description

Through accessible, detailed examinations of themes central to auction theory, Vijay Krishna explores auctions and competitive bidding as games of incomplete information.His results on bidding strategies, efficiency, and revenue maximization, and his clear proofs for each proposition, make this book both the standard reference on auctions and the first source of authoritative information about multi-unit auctions. Well organized and featuring straightforward intuition, Auction Theory's depth and breadth lay bare the complexity and utility of this growing field.

*The standard reference on auctions and the first source of authoritative information about multi-unit auctions
*Explores auctions and competitive bidding as games of incomplete information
*Uses accessible, detailed examinations of themes central to auction theory ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Magnificent!
I consider this book to be up there with Myerson's book on game theory! The exposition is lovely, and the book is so fascinating that you'll find that you can't put it down for the first 8 chapters or so. Krishna makes it all look so easy.

Clear, Rigorous and Intuitive
This is a fabulous book for quickly uploading the central insights of the vast literature on the economics of auction design. Results are stated precisely and proven, often with an eye for developing intuition and an understanding of technique. The book can be read from cover to cover or dipped into as required. I find it an extremely useful aid to research.
Highly recommended. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Lessons for Policy Makers
In this book, Danny Rodrik offers some valuable guidance for policy-makers. They should focus on the fundamentals of economic growth - investment, macro-economic stability, human resources and good governance - and not let international economic integration dominate their thinking. The potential benefits of openness will only be realised when "complementary policies and institutions are in place domestically".

An important result from his analysis is that a strong, participatory, democracy is good for growth. This is very much in line with Barro's "Determinants of Economic Growth" (1998).The resoning is that a country with a strong democracy will be better at resolving the social conflicts emerging from external economic shocks, and therefore benefit from greater macroeconomic stability. In order to increase the effectiveness of dealing with shocks, the channels to which non-elites can make themselves heard, and participate, in policy making needs to be improved. Otherwise dissatisfaction will lead to social unrest.To play the role of honest broker, the state needs to perceived as competent and free of corruption.

Two policy areas are identified as being central to achieving long-term growth and making openness work: A domestic investment strategy; the strengthening of domestic institutions of conflict management.

Many of his findings offer support for much of current policy thinking on development. The importance of political freedom, security of person, and the need for a reasonable degree of macroeconomic stability is widely recognised. Good governance has moved firmly up the list of priorities. Also, attempts are being made to try and increase the widespread "ownership" of reforms through e.g. the Comprehensive Development Framework of the World Bank.

However, there are several important areas where Rodrik's analysis requires further consideration:

· Developing countries, in devising a domestic investment strategy, are better advised to look at ways of reducing risk and improving their credibility in the eyes of domestic and foreign investors, rather than following Rodrik's suggestion to improve investment returns through e.g. investment subsidies. (see Moran (1998) "Foreign Direct Investment and Development").

· The strong link between good governance and openness is very important and needs greater attention. Red tape and corruption are strongly correlated. Trade restrictions nearly always introduce distortions, caused by "rent seeking" activities, and create vested interest groups.

· As he suggests, all countries are able to improve their "fundamentals". But it is also true that different regions are likely to benefit from integration - in terms of both growth and poverty reduction - to very different extents.

· Rodrik suggests that Africa is not "different". He is right in so far as domestic factors - stability and security - are central to its success. But sub Saharan Africa is different . It faces great difficulties in building institutions of conflict management and has a legacy of being the most trade and capital hostile region.

· As is always the case in the "never ending question" of empirical tests of the links between trade and growth, the interpretation of the results of his work is very much open to question. He is far from decisively refuting this link.

Taking some of these factors into account suggests that Rodrik's somewhat sanguine attitude to inward-looking developm t is ill advised. Also, the potential role for international governance in helping to overcome several of and the problems facing poorer countries - low credib ity, limited regulatory resources, small markets -becomes more important. But these rules will help in so far as they encourage certainty, transparency and non-discrimination, rather than in offering flexibility. However, as Rodrik states, " these rules of the internation economy must be flexible in order to allow developing countries to develop their own "styles of capitalism"".

Insights into making 'globalization'work for poor countries
Like clothes, economic development policies are subject to the trends of fashion. This book examines the current development fad, "openness," and critiques it as a flawed economic model when applied simplistically to developing countries. The author, Dani Rodrik, professor of international political economy at Harvard, is no enemy of an open world economy, but he argues that its boosters greatly oversell its virtues and neglect its vices. He contends that too many governments and their policy advisors are fixated on openness --the unrestricted flow of goods, services, and capital across borders--as an end in itself. The dangers to this approach, he warns, are that: 1) openness alone is an unreliable mechanism to generate and sustain economic growth; 2) it tends to widen income and wealth inequalities within both developed and developing countries; and 3) it exposes countries to external shocks that can trigger domestic conflicts and political upheavals.

A developing country can gain much from openness to trade and investment, he agrees, but it must also do much in actively "making openness work"--the theme of the book. The minuses of openness may outweigh the pluses if a country fails to develop its own internal "complementary policies and institutions." What kind of policies and institutions? He cites these as among the most important: "participatory institutions, civil and political liberties, free labor unions, non-corrupt bureaucracies, high-quality independent judiciaries, and mechanisms of social insurance such as social safety nets." He offers specific evidence on how such institutions are valuable to developing countries for coping with turbulence in the world economy and for countering the widening of inequality that openness often brings. For most economists Rodrik is heretical because he debunks the "free market religion" and derides "knee-jerk globalizers," though only in passing. This is far from a diatribe against globalization. Instead, the book presents a detailed factual case for openness as "part of a development strategy," rather than a substitute for one. His forceful advice to governments and policy advisers: "Stop thinking of international economic integration as an end itself. Developing nations have to engage the world economy on their own terms, not on terms set by global markets or multilateral institutions." A valuable chapter of the book is one titled "Is Africa Is Different?" Rodrik answers No; openness can work its wonders there but (as anywhere) definitely not if applied simplistically.

Rodrik slips into jargon from time to time, but you can still benefit from reading his book even if you don't have a degree in economics.

--Robert A. Senser, editor of the Website Human Rights for Workers ... Read more

Book Description

The papers in this collection give an overview of the latest work in international trade theory. The contributors include many of the most innovative contemporary theorists, and they provide an unrivaled introduction to the latest developments in one of the most dynamic subfields of economics. Distinctive features of the book include a section on the role of historical and geographical considerations in international trade; an emphasis on dynamic aspects of trade; and an assessment of the work of Ronald Jones, in whose honor the book is published. ... Read more

Book Description

The Asian crisis has sparked a thoroughgoing reappraisal of current international financial norms, the policy prescriptions of the International Monetary Fund, and the adequacy of the existing financial architecture.To draw proper policy conclusions from the crisis, however, it is necessary to understand its domestic politics.In this study, political scientist Stephan Haggard focuses on the most seriously affected countries-Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand-while also drawing lessons from those economies, such as Taiwan, that escaped the most severe distress.

Haggard focuses on the political economy of the crisis, emphasizing the longer-run problems of moral hazard and corruption, the politics of crisis management and the political consequences of severe economic downturn.Looking forward, he focuses on two critical policy issues:changes in social safety nets in the crisis countries and efforts at corporate and financial restructuring. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Journalistic title from famous scholar
Haggard has a good name in East Asia field. but this title disappointed me. it's not that scholarstic but journalistic. what are enumerated on his book is not new or insightful at all to asian specialist. if you have read articles on Asia from FT or Wall Street Journal, The Economist, You should know what I mean. at best this book is no more than enlarged The Economist.

Great Resource
This is an excellent resource for both political economics and Asian studies students. Following currency devaluation through the creation of the crisis and its development across the intertwined economies of Southeast Asia. Making rational decisions about Asian markets requires in-depth knowledge of the first fall to avoid the repercussive aftershocks which will continue to follow. ... Read more

Amazon.com

We live in an era where image is nearly everything, where the proliferation of brand-name culture has created, to take one hyperbolic example from Naomi Klein's No Logo, "walking, talking, life-sized Tommy [Hilfiger] dolls, mummified in fully branded Tommy worlds." Brand identities are even flourishing online, she notes--and for some retailers, perhaps best of all online: "Liberated from the real-world burdens of stores and product manufacturing, these brands are free to soar, less as the disseminators of goods or services than as collective hallucinations."

In No Logo, Klein patiently demonstrates, step by step, how brands have become ubiquitous, not just in media and on the street but increasingly in the schools as well. (The controversy over advertiser-sponsored Channel One may be old hat, but many readers will be surprised to learn about ads in school lavatories and exclusive concessions in school cafeterias.) The global companies claim to support diversity, but their version of "corporate multiculturalism" is merely intended to create more buying options for consumers. When Klein talks about how easy it is for retailers like Wal-Mart and Blockbuster to "censor" the contents of videotapes and albums, she also considers the role corporate conglomeration plays in the process. How much would one expect Paramount Pictures, for example, to protest against Blockbuster's policies, given that they're both divisions of Viacom?

Klein also looks at the workers who keep these companies running, most of whom never share in any of the great rewards. The president of Borders, when asked whether the bookstore chain could pay its clerks a "living wage," wrote that "while the concept is romantically appealing, it ignores the practicalities and realities of our business environment." Those clerks should probably just be grateful they're not stuck in an Asian sweatshop, making pennies an hour to produce Nike sneakers or other must-have fashion items. Klein also discusses at some length the tactic of hiring "permatemps" who can do most of the work and receive few, if any, benefits like health care, paid vacations, or stock options. While many workers are glad to be part of the "Free Agent Nation," observers note that, particularly in the high-tech industry, such policies make it increasingly difficult to organize workers and advocate for change.

But resistance is growing, and the backlash against the brands has set in. Street-level education programs have taught kids in the inner cities, for example, not only about Nike's abusive labor practices but about the astronomical markup in their prices. Boycotts have commenced: as one urban teen put it, "Nike, we made you. We can break you." But there's more to the revolution, as Klein optimistically recounts: "Ethical shareholders, culture jammers, street reclaimers, McUnion organizers, human-rights hacktivists, school-logo fighters and Internet corporate watchdogs are at the early stages of demanding a citizen-centered alternative to the international rule of the brands ... as global, and as capable of coordinated action, as the multinational corporations it seeks to subvert." No Logo is a comprehensive account of what the global economy has wrought and the actions taking place to thwart it. --Ron Hogan ... Read more

Reviews (133)

In-depth look at the dark side of our modern global economy
A tremendous amount of research and analysis has gone into this informative study of the dark secrets behind the brands that dominate our lives in Western society. The neglect and deliberate lack of social responsibility, both alarming and disturbing, that has become a central element to the maufacturing and business activities of some of the world's largest and most recognizeable brand names is staggering. How can these self-proclaimed leaders of our economy be so callous? Klein details their motivation and the evolution of such nefarious practices, as well as the collusion of corrupt and greedy local authorities in developing nations, which serve to sustain and propogate such injustice. On the flip side, Klein offers hope through her exaustive examination of the counter-movements that have to a degree succeeded in keeping the rampant exploitation of the afore-mentioned multinationals in check and on their toes. The book is written in an open and accessible tone, with down-to-earth interpretations of the patterns of disdain for labourers and their rights as well as for the environment and our planet's dimishing natural resources, all in an unrelenting quest to reinforce the brand name and dominate the market share. I for one will never look at brand logos such as the Nike swoosh, the same again. For that matter, thanks to this important and timely book, I will carefully monitor such questions as freedom of expression and the control that such corporations as Wal-Mart have on the content of what we as consumers have access to.

Major flaw in growth rate analysis
With in a few pages of this book I found a glaring error that somewhat negates Kliens argument. I'm refering to the claimed "astronomical" increase in advertising by corporations over 19 years. Klien shows a graph of year versus advertising expense (in billions). It starts at 50 billion (in the mid 70's) and grows to just under 200 billion in the late 1990s' (1996 I think). Anyway any first year finance student with a financial calculator can calculate what kind of increase this is. (ie present value = 50, future value = 195, n= 19 solve for interest) This calculation gives compounding annual percent increase of about 7.5 %. This, dear Naomi, is not by any stretch of imagination, is an "astronomical" rate of increase. It is essentially the rate of inflation. This is what would expect for any company that their expenses would rise with inflation. Note that share price growth rates far outstripped these advertising expenses. Infact looking at her figure (1.1 i think) you see that advertising costs basically followed the economic cycle with less spent in reccessions and more in the good times. You could draw a similar graph for wages expense etc. etc. Unfortunately the arguments constructed on the basis of "astronomical" increases of advertising expenses are therefore wrong as they as based on an incorrect premise.

This glaring bit of ignorance on the authors part causes the reader to question how else other data and information is incorrectly presented or mistakenly interpreted. To be credible the journalist/researcher/Naomi has to take a dispassionate stance and see what the numbers are actually saying rather than what you want them to say. Any thing less, and your fooling yourself and misleading your readers.

I'm not finished the book yet and I hope not to find another howler like this or I won't bother to keep going.

Ps. I'm finding the book interesting, I'm just very dissapointed in such a dreadful error in logic occurring so early in the book.

Still Relevant
Although some of the material presented here is dated, I feel that this book is still very relavent today. Everyone should be aware of the level of infiltration these brands have made in our society and our everyday lives.

There were several ideas that I took away from the book that I felt were very important (and I hadn't really read about in depth before). I particularly liked the discussion of the 'brand and not product focus' idea. I didn't enjoy the discussion of culture jamming nor did I really like the way that she tended to revisit the same events over and over through the book (the McLibel Trial).

Overall, I liked the book and it stirred my interest enough in the subject to do some research of my own into these issues.

A great read, a wonderful find
Superb, powerful impact, well written, hard to put down. A truly important book discussing today's society and the corrosive impact we all knew existed, but couldn't describe. Klein does - extremely well. She has the insider's knowledge, the perspective of one not infected, and the intellectual analysis which lets us mere mortals peek into the steel souls and hearts of today's boardrooms and corporate cabals.

A book worth having. Don't lend it out! it will grow legs and disappear!

A book that should be more widely read
Despite having become modestly dated in its details (a updated edition or follow-up work would be welcomed), Naomi Klein's book No Logo remains an important work about the blurring boundaries between global business and global culture. Since its publication, much of the globalization furor directed at Kathy Lee, McDonald's, Nike, Shell Oil, Pepsi, and others has died down or been redirected at health, local impact (e.g., Wal-Mart stores) and other important but ancillary issues (take, for example, the movie Super Size Me). The fact that the noise has subsided does not, however, mean that the problems Ms. Klein cites have disappeared. More likely, the companies subjected to such scathing public rebuke have better learned how to play the game, managing their PR more effectively and hiding further and further behind layers of subsidiaries, contractors, sub-contractors, and locked factory gates.

No Logo is a significant work, deserving to be much better known than it is. American consumers -- that is, all of us -- need to reach a much better understanding of how brand management has evolved into culture management, how Starbucks and Nike and Gap and The Body Shop and so many other companies are infiltrating our subconscious and controlling our cultural dialogues. No Logo still serves as an eye-opener for those who have been spending so much time at the mall that they have not yet seen what is going on around them.

Sadly, No Logo is not the most approachable of books for the general populace. It is over-long and over-detailed, bogging down in topics that are probably exciting to radical activists (like billboard jamming) but are sleep-inducing to most readers. Like many people who are involved in activism, Klein sometimes loses the forest for the trees, giving us so much insider detail about causes and people we don't know that we lose interest in, and attention to, her real message. My rating of only four stars, while certainly positive, derives from Klein's tendency to preach too much to the converted and spend too little time educating the as-yet unconverted.

The book is divided into four sections: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, and No Logo. The first two sections, encompassing the first eight chapters, are well worth the price of the book by themselves. Readers will come to a new understanding of how the public spaces around them are being manipulated by mega-corporate messaging, how those corporations hide behind a public face of social consciousness, and how violently they respond when anyone seeks to question their self-proclaimed high moral ground. I would recommend these eight chapters as required reading for every third- or fourth-year high school student in America. Chapter 16, "A Tale of Three Logos," is also a fascinating account of less than admirable behavior on the parts of Nike, Shell, and McDonald's, definitely worth reading.

I can only hope that Ms. Klein will someday revisit her subject matter again, perhaps to publish a more streamlined and updated version that will reach a wider audience. She deserves the audience, and the American public needs to hear her voice. Despite her understandable tendency toward one-sidedness (perhaps necessary in this case to avoid being drowned out by Nike and McDonald's commercials and Starbucks ads), Naomi Klein's No Logo is an important book that all consuming Americans should read. ... Read more

Book Description

The World Development Report 2004 investigates how countries can accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by making services work for poor people. Success in reaching the MDGs will depend not just on faster economic growth and the flow of sources, but on our ability to translate those resources into basic services, especially in health, education, water, and sanitation. Too often, the delivery of services falls far short of what could be achieved, due to issues such as weak incentives for performance, corruption, imperfect monitoring, and administrative logjams. Some countries have addressed the problem by involving poor people in service delivery; the results have been impressive. Giving parents input into their children's education, patients a say over hospital management, and making agency budgets transparent all contribute to improving outcomes in human development.Celebrating the successful innovations--while taking a hard look at some of the failures--this Report offers guidance to policymakers, donors, and citizens on improving the delivery of basic services. It serves to deepen understanding and highlight the importance of empowering and investing in poor people. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Focus on the problem.
Regardless of your political views, opinions about globalization, or general predisposition to the World Bank, the WDR 2004 is an essential publication addressing the issues of poverty and equity in health, education, and socioeconomic terms. Not only are the issues of equity being raised on an international level but intranationally as well. The WDR 2004 takes on the issues and problems that are increasing the disparity between the haves and have-nots within a given country. Without prejudice or preference, this report discusses the failures of institutions, national and multinational, in making the necessary strides to address poverty and the plight of the poor. This report is one of the most comprehensive resources available right now for understanding and responding to the issues of provision and access for the poor to proper healthcare, education, sanitation, clean water and electricity.

Classic Doublespeak
MAKING POOR PEOPLE WORK FOR (LOUSY) SERVICES: How the World Bank Impoverishes Third World Countries would be a more accurate title. For balance, see 50 Years Is Enough: The Case Against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, by Kevin Danaher, and Masters of Illusion the World Bank and the Poverty of Nations, by Catherine Caufield. Let's not forget, some 40,000 children die every day from hunger or hunger-related diseases - all in countries that have been under the thumb of the World Bank for years. Enough is enough. This neocolonial institution must go. Only then will coffee plantations and aquaculture farms again grow food for the people who actually need it. ... Read more

Book Description

The huge costs of armed conflict, the great challenge of state failure, and the slow pace of international actions to address world poverty all point to weaknesses in the global institutional framework and the need for much more effective international cooperation. In this book, Kemal Dervis argues that it is time to build a new international governance structure, breaking away from a system that reflects the post World War II world toward one that is appropriate to the realities and requirements of the 21st century. He proposes a reform of the international institutional architecture based on high-level governance in both the political and economic domains by a renewed and modernized United Nations. Navigating between careful realism and bold idealism, he formulates a coherent vision encompassing both institutional reform and new ideas for policies supported by the specialized institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, the UN agencies themselves, and regional institutions such as the regional development banks.

In this plea for "better" globalization, Dervis proposes that, under the legitimizing umbrella of the UN, the specialized institutions deal with the deep causes of the obstacles to poverty reduction and instability rather than their immediate manifestations. He recognizes the great potential that more and freer trade can have for accelerating growth throughout the world. He also stresses, however, that for this potential to be unleashed, the hearts and minds of people must be won by transforming not only the WTO framework but the entire governance of the international economic system into something that is perceived as more legitimate and more responsive to the concerns of the developing world as well as wealthy and creditor nations. ... Read more

Book Description

Because of the remarkable number of currency and emerging market meltdowns during the 1990s— from the Mexican peso crisis to the collapse of the Asian markets to the Russian devaluation of the ruble— the free market system faces the prospect of tighter global regulation. David DeRosa makes a compelling case that less, not more regulation is vitally needed; that public policies often have been dead wrong in concept and application; that so-called controls generate indirect and unintended harmful consequences; and that aggressive intervention is no panacea.

When confronted with a financial crisis, many leaders prefer to indict the international financial system rather than admit to policy blunders that may be of their own making. This book analyses the economic conditions that produced a number of recent financial crises. It also investigates the responses made to each crisis, to uncover whether government policies directed at these episodes of turmoil made matters better or worse.

This is a rousing case for putting far greater trust in the markets. It exposes the risks, market distortions, and huge hidden costs that can result from government bailouts and proposed reforms. David DeRosa makes an important contribution to a debate whose outcome will determine the stability and prosperity achievable in an interconnected age.

Key features:
• Questions whether financial crises are a natural product of market-driven economies or a symptom of bad government policies
• Argues that less regulation will keep international financial markets sound
• Exposes how government interference has had a negative impact on the workings of the market system
• Reveals how public policies have often been built on incorrect assumptions ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Free Capital Markets
Dr DeRosa's book was entertaining, easy to read and packed with anecdotes and information. As an investment pro, his book gave me a greater insight into the often arcane political manipulations that eventually sow the seeds for economic instability. He pulls no punches when he states that central banks and governments themselves set themselves up to be the eventual "victims" of their own bad policies and instead of doing something different, they blame the speculator.
I like his information "boxes" that help the reader with the technical details of the book. Although I have long been a fan of single currency idea's, DeRosa's book has given me reason to pause. Well referenced and well researched.
The reviews by Dr Hanke and Dr Friedman can't hurt either.

Accolades from Milton Friedman
"In Defense of Free Capital Markets is an impressive survey and analysis of the crises of the 1990s. Mr. DeRosa makes a strong case that official intervention has made matters worse, not better, and that in such instances it is far better to leave it to the invisible hand of the market than to the clumsy, visible hand of regulators."

--Milton Friedman Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution Nobel Economics Prize, 1976

Common Sense for Currency Buffs
Professor DeRosa offers up a generous helping of reality in evaluating the currency crises of the past dozen or so years. From the first world foibles of the Bank of Japan to the third world of currency pegs, the currency calamities of the late twentieth century are thoughtfully presented in a lean read.

While perhaps giving short shrift to the political constraints facing policy makers in times of crisis, Mr. DeRosa nevertheless does well describing the environments and pre-conditions which ultimately fostered our most recent international financial catastrophes.

In this, the age of fiat money, unsustainable currency policies are easy prey for the worlds biggest market. Anyone interested in a brief but informative history of recent currency debacles will truly enjoy this book.

Highly Recommended!
Yale University adjunct professor David F. DeRosa argues that markets are smarter than government ministries. Therefore, he contends, economic development should be left to the free market, since tighter regulations will only distort development. His detailed analysis of economic conditions focuses on factors leading to several crises, including the decline of the Mexican and Japanese economies in the 1990s and the Southeast Asian collapse of 1997. The subject is complicated and interesting, and the writing is often technical and sometimes complex. We at getAbstract call this book to the attention of scholars, executives and managers who have a serious interest in fiscal policy. And we do mean serious.

Free Capital Markets -- The Road to Prosperity
This work is illuminating and speaks to issues beyond the world of finance, like politics and ideaology. DeRosa lays out clear and consice arguments in defense of free floating exchange rates and against fixed exchange-rate regimes.

The author debunks the propaganda supporting fixed exchange-rate regimes with insightful analyses based on the facts of the various currency crises that occured during the 1990s. Particularly interesting is the fact that leaders around the world are either ignorant of or chose to ignore the last ten (let alone the last 100) years worth of economic history and persist in attempting to control and plan economies. This book should be required reading not only for finance professionals and central bankers, but anyone interested in how the decisions of people in appointed positions (like the head of a central bank or finance ministry)have far-reaching and often dire consequences. ... Read more

Book Description

The increasingly integrated economies of East Asia -- China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand -- face the dilemma of how to achieve exchange-rate security in the absence of a unifying "Asian euro." The US dollar has become the region's dominant intraregional trading currency as well as the monetary anchor to which East Asian economies informally peg their currencies. In this timely and original analysis of the benefits and risks of an East Asian dollar standard, Ronald McKinnon takes issue with the conventional view that urges flexible exchange rates on financially fragile economies. He argues instead that East Asian countries should coordinate their policies to keep their exchange rates stable against the dollar.

McKinnon develops a conceptual framework to show where the conventional wisdom on exchange rates has gone wrong. Pressure on the "virtuous" high-saving dollar-creditor East Asian nations to appreciate their currencies leads to a "conflicted" choice between a possible deflationary slump if they do appreciate and threatened trade sanctions if they do not. Analyzing interactions among the East Asian economies, McKinnon explains the rationale, and the need, for greater exchange-rate security in the region, pointing to the soft-dollar pegs adopted by these nations as steps in the right direction. He suggests that the dollar standard in East Asia could be rationalized through collective action by national governments and considers the effect of American monetary and trade policies on the East Asian economy. ... Read more

Book Description

Infrastructure is crucial for generating growth, alleviating poverty, and increasing international competitiveness. For much of the 20th century and in most countries, the network utilities that delivered infrastructure servicessuch as electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, railroads, and water supplywere vertically and horizontally integrated state monopolies. This approach often resulted in extremely weak services, especially in developing and transition economies, and particularly for poor people. Common problems included low productivity, high costs, bad quality, insufficient revenue, and shortfalls in investment.Recognizing infrastructures importance, many countries over the past two decades have implemented far-reaching infrastructure reformsrestructuring, privatizing, and establishing new approaches to regulation. Reforming Infrastructure identifies the challenges involved in this massive policy redirection within the historical, economic, and institutional context of developing and transition economies. It also assesses the outcomes of these policy changes, as well as their distributional consequencesespecially for poor households and other disadvantaged groups. And, drawing on a range of international experiences and empirical studies, it recommends directions for future reforms and research to improve infrastructure performanceidentifying pricing policies that strike a balance between economic efficiency and social equity, suggesting rules governing access to bottleneck infrastructure facilities, and proposing ways to increase poor peoples access to these crucial services. ... Read more

Book Description

This second edition of an innovative undergraduate text offers an approach to understanding different economic systems that reflects both recent transformations in the world economy and recent changes in the field of Comparative Economic Systems. The traditional way of teaching comparative economics, with its reliance on relatively simple dichotomies (private vs. state, planning vs. market) does not take into consideration the many variants and mixtures of economic systems that exist in the real world. The Rossers' introduction in the first edition of the concept of the "new traditional economy" -- the effort by a developing country to embed a modern economic system into a traditional culture, usually religious -- presented a new way to look at developing economies. Their innovative examination of Iran and its effort to develop a "revolutionary Islamic economy" as an alternative to market capitalism illustrates the use of this new tool in comparative economics.

After a four-chapter theoretical and historical overview, the book focuses on fifteen country studies, organized by economic system. The chapters on advanced market capitalism examine the economies of the United States (a chapter new to this edition) Japan, France, Sweden, and Germany. The chapters examining transition in former socialist economies discuss Russia, the former Soviet Republics, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia (including expanded treatment of the most successful transition economy, that of Slovenia), and China. The chapters in the final section of the book discuss "alternative paths" taken by the developing economies of Iran, India (its complex mix of socialism, capitalism, and tradition is examined in a chapter new to this edition), Mexico, and South and North Korea. The book concludes with a look at future trends that will continue to transform the world economy. ... Read more