Another World Is Possible -Joseph E. Stiglitz

Four years after his global bestseller Globalization and Its Discontents, Joseph E. Stiglitz offered his agenda for reform. Now in paperback, Making Globalization Work puts forward radical new ways of dealing with the crippling indebtedness of developing countries, a new system of global reserves to overcome international financial instability, and an economically incentive framework for dealing with energy pollution which create global warming and which threaten us on a planetary scale. He argues convincingly for the reform of global institutions such as the UN, the IMF and the World Bank to make them truly capable of responding to the problems of our age and shows why treating developing countries more fairly is not only morally right, but because it increases global public goods, is ultimately to the advantage of the developed world too. Above all, Stiglitz argues we need to change the way we think. Now more than ever before, globalization is bringing the countries and the peoples of the world into one interdependent community, bringing with it a need to think and act globally. This trenchant, intellectually powerful and inspiring book is a step in the process.

Joseph Stiglitz, Author of this book, was Chief Economist at the World Bank until January 2000. Before that he was Chairman of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors. He is currently Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia University. He won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001 and is the author of the best-selling Globalization and Its Discontents and The Roaring Nineties, both published by Penguin….

‘‘Making Globalization work will not be easy. Those who benefit from the current system will resist change, and they are powerful’’ P 13

-Making Globalization work is not easy because the beneficiaries from globalization are very powerful and will resist of reformation.

-Economic growth and population growth are two concerns of current global economy but unfortunately population growth is winning.

-Poverty has, at least, become a global concern (p13) UN, WB and IMF all have set their programme against poverty though IMF would believe poverty is an area of WB as its works for economic stability.

-It has been clear that opening up market (by taking down trade barrier and opening capital flow) by itself will not solve the problem of poverty; it may even make it worse. (14)

-Enormous number of conditions had been put by IMF and WB meaning often distracted government from more vital task (14)

-‘’As I write this, the world developing countries owe roughly 1.5 trillion dollar to creditor’’ (p15) including IMF, WB; about one third is owed by low income countries.

-Economic recovery and growth in poor countries is often unbalanced.

-The Washington consensus had paid too little attention to equity. (17)

-Argentina an A+ rating from the IMF following the Washington consensus did well initially but later faced immense instability (p 17)

-Global warming has become a true challenge of globalization. (17)

-Even today US government plays a central role in finance. (19); played larger role promoting development including economy, technology and infrastructure. (20); so US is partly successful in its mission.

– But Economic globalization has outpaced political globalization (21); we have a chaotic uncoordinated system of global governance without global government.

-need of confidence international institution to deal with challenged posed by economic globalization. (21)

-Many of the problems with globalization are of our making- are a result of the way globalization has been managed. (24) Hence new system/ reformation/ another world is possible.

A Vision of development

It’s important to remember the big picture: success means sustainable, equitable, and democratic development that focuses on increasing living standards, not just on measured GDP. Income is, off course, important but also health and education.  The king of Bhutan aspiration of rural development has been illustrated ( P 45)

-A country’s most important resource is its’ people…high level of inequality, especially as a result of unemployment, can result in social unrest; crime is likely to increase, creating a climate that is unattractive to business.(46)