The Atlantic The Roaring Nineties

"The recent protests at meetings of global financial leaders, in Seattle, Prague, Washington, and Genoa, came as a rude shock to many Americans. It became clear that globalization as we are promoting it is intensely unpopular, as is the United States itself. To those of us who spend much of our time in developing countries, the protests weren't surprising, but to people who believe in the myths of American-style globalization, they were an absolute mystery. Why, people asked, should countries whose economies we were helping feel such antipathy toward us and our policies? The answer comes in large part from the simple fact that globalization has left many of the poorest in the developing world even poorer. Even when they are better off, they feel more vulnerable. Argentina was touted as the A+ student of reform. Looking at Argentina, they ask, If this is the result, what is in store for us? And as unemployment and the sense of vulnerability increase, and the fruits of what limited growth occurs go disproportionately to the rich, the sense of social injustice increases too. We have focused so hard on our own economic mythology, and on managing globalization to our short-term benefit, that we have been blind to what we're doing to ourselves and the world."

Forbes Free trade is mythical road to prosperity

"The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are coming under heavy fire, yet increasingly, the most dramatic protests are not on the streets, but in academic quarters.

After stinging criticism of the two organizations by Nobel Prize winner and former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz, a new book from a Cambridge University professor challenges the very bedrock of these institutions -- that globalization and free trade are a sure-fire path to prosperity."

redux [08.01.02]
Foreign Policy Globalization's Last Hurrah?

"The shock of terrorist attacks and a worldwide economic slowdown have prompted many observers to declare globalization's end. But any recent reversals in global integration must be measured against the remarkable advances of 2000. The second annual A.T. Kearney/Foreign Policy Magazine Globalization Index, which ranks the 20 most global nations, also sheds light on a crucial question: Has globalization hit a bump in the road, or is it on the verge of a fundamental shift?"

HBS Working Knowledge Globalization Good for Whom?

"Globalization has brought little but good news to those with the products, skills, and resources to market worldwide. But does it also work for the world's poor?

That is the central question around which the debate over globalization--in essence, free trade and free flows of capital--revolves. Antiglobalization protesters may have had only limited success in blocking world trade negotiations or disrupting the meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but they have irrevocably altered the terms of the debate. Poverty is now the defining issue for both sides."

redux [06.10.02]
HBS Working Knowledge How to Look at Globalization Now

"The evidence reviewed in the paper that you cite suggests that it might be preferable to take a more measured, historically self-conscious perspective on cross-border integration instead of announcing changes in its direction or speed with high frequency. Specifically, the empirical evidence indicates that most measures of market integration have scaled new heights in the last few decades but still fall far short of economic theory's ideal of perfect integration--an intermediate outcome that I refer to as quasiglobalization."

redux [09.28.01]
The Economist Is globalisation doomed?

"John Gray, a professor at the London School of Economics and a much-quoted thinker on these matters, spoke for many last week when he declared that the era of globalisation is over. "The entire view of the world that supported the markets' faith in globalisation has melted down...Led by the United States, the world's richest states have acted on the assumption that people everywhere want to live as they do. As a result, they failed to recognise the deadly mixture of emotions - cultural resentment, the sense of injustice and a genuine rejection of western modernity - that lies behind the attacks on New York and Washington...The ideal of a universal civilisation is a recipe for unending conflict, and it is time it was given up."

redux [04.30.01]
The Economist Mayhem in May

"For all their entertainment value, the anti-globalists' demonstrations cannot be dismissed as a recurring juvenile joke. How to reduce poverty in the third world - and whether globalisation is a help or a hindrance - is one of the most pressing moral, political and economic issues of our times. Undeniably, anti-globalism demonstrations have moved these questions higher up the public agenda. Whether they are pushing governments towards more enlightened answers is quite another matter."

redux [04.16.01]
Salon Follow The Money

"Garson set out to write a book about the global economy, a daunting subject that instills equal amounts of terror and confusion in most ordinary souls. Interest rates and currency exchange speculation do not usually make for riveting, or comprehensible, reading. But the remarkable thing about "Money Makes the World Go Around" is that her investigation of the movement of capital around the world ends up as easy to swallow as that cool Singha beer on a hot day at the beach.

The result is subversive, a sugar-coated expose of the way the world works that is halfway digested before you realize how radical it truly is. And by then it's too late. You're stuck: Now you know why peasants in Thailand pay the price for bad loans made by Citibank and Chase Manhattan, or why the unrestricted flow of billions of dollars around the globe in a ceaseless search for higher and higher rates of return ends up benefiting very few people."

redux [02.18.01]
The Third Culture The Globalization Debate

"Though the notion that we live in an era of unprecedented globalization is becoming increasingly evident, that change is more often than not attributed exclusively to the convergence of technology with the financial markets. But too often in these discussions, the larger point is missed: that we have a historic opportunity. As Anthony Giddens, director of the London School of Economics, writes, "we have the chance to take over where the 20th century failed, and a key project for us is to drag the history of the 21st century away from that of the 20th."

According to Giddens, "the driving force of the new globalization is the communications revolution," and beyond its effects on the individual, this revolution is fundamentally altering the way public institutions interact."