Making Globalization Work

Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize for economics in 2001, complains about unfair trade, excessive debt and poverty, yet still argues that globalization offers enormous potential if managed properly by nations. He compares complaints about globalization to complaints about unemployment during the Great Depression of the 1930s: If governments had ignored economist John Maynard Keynes’ call for full employment, voters would have clamored for an end of capitalism. Likewise, if governments ignore the problems posed by rapid globalization – increasing income gaps as well as unemployment among the young – then voters will put a stop to trade. With education, research and social programs, Scandinavian nations spread the benefits of globalization, allowing all in society to take risks and minimizing anxiety. With crises on the horizon – from climate change to war – the world requires international organizations that can guide economic, political and social policy. By undermining global groups like the United Nations or the World Trade Organization, the US only weakens itself. Stiglitz suggests that nations can choose to either control globalization with innovative policies or respond to crises in a haphazard way that only leads to more problems. – YaleGlobal