Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz ISBN: 0-393-32439-7 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.99 (67 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Keen Insight, Bad Title
Comment: Noble Prize winning Economist, Joseph Stiglitz, offers an outstanding analysis of the IMF and its mishandling of specific situations. Truly an enjoyable and informative read couched in every day language. However, the title is a bit misleading. Maybe it should read, "Why The IMF Blows" or "Economic Crisis, The IMF and Unsurpassed Blunders." While the IMF may be a major player in global trends, the subject of Globalization is far broader then the topic addressed in this book. For a well rounded approach to this subject see publications by the World Bank and its various "World Development Indicators" reports. These are prefaced by a broad (and truly global) report on economic, political and social trends followed by detailed quantitative data.
Rating: 3
Summary: Settling Scores with the IMF
Comment: Stiglitz has written an angry "insider" critique of the manner in which globalization was managed by the IMF and the US Treasury in the 1990s. In his view, developing countries were forced to privatize state-owned companies, cut government budgets, and open up their economies to imports and capital flows, even when these policies destroyed jobs and lowered national incomes. The result was poverty, inequality, and intensified suspicion of Western -- especially American -- motives.
Thailand, for example, was forced to keep interest rates high in order to reassure foreign investors. All this policy accomplished was to drive hundreds of Thai firms into bankruptcy -- thus scaring off the investors who were supposed to be reassured. In Russia, the government was forced to privatize state-owned firms even though the lack of corporate governance laws ensured that the firms would be looted by their new private owners. In these cases and others, IMF and the Treasury applied crude free-market formulas that ignored local conditions and failed to consider the pace and sequencing of economic reforms.
Stiglitz is not an anti-business crackpot: he is a nobel-prize winning economist who served on the Council of Economic Advisors and at the World Bank in the 1990s. Nonetheless, the reader should be warned: this is not a balanced or scholarly book. Footnotes are almost non-existent, the narrative is disorganized and repetitive, and Stiglitz never goes into the details of decision-making or economic analysis. He makes no attempt to give the viewpoints of Treasury of the IMF. As a result, his book comes off as one half of a two-sided debate.
Stiglitz' attacks on named Treasury and IMF officials suggest that he wrote the book to settle scores with bureaucratic rivals. With his economic expertise and firsthand knowledge of government and international institutions, Stiglitz could have written a great history of the 1990s. Instead he produced this super-polemical book, whose many valid points and insights get lost in the sheer volume of vitriol. A good read, though.
Rating: 4
Summary: Inside the World of International Finance
Comment: 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...
 |
Title: Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen ISBN: 0385720270 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 15 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else by Hernando Desoto, Hernando de Soto, Hernando de Soto ISBN: 0465016154 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 08 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
 |
Title: The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade by Joseph E. Stiglitz ISBN: 0393058522 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
 |
Title: The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization by Thomas L. Friedman ISBN: 0385499345 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 02 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
 |
Title: The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics by William Easterly ISBN: 0262550423 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 08 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
