In The News

Making Globalization Work

Joseph Stiglitz September 8, 2006
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...

Managing Globalization: Reducing Inequality – It's Not So Simple

Daniel Altman September 7, 2006
It’s only because of inequalities of wealth or skills that people, products and ideas shift around the globe. Such shifts influence individual communities with increases or decreases in jobs, crime or education – either reducing or exacerbating the inequality. Economists suggest that increased trade should reduce inequality at all income levels. But instead, author Daniel Altman argues, the major...

Globalization Tames the Left in Brazil

Thomas I. Palley September 5, 2006
Brazil elected a progressive president, yet failed to tackle a long legacy of economic injustice. Instead, President Lula da Silva, a trade union activist born into poverty, was timid with economic policies: Playing it safe, Brazil embraced its traditional role of exporting resources abroad and allowing other countries to manufacture and innovate. For example, the nation’s trade patterns with...

Why Globalization Is in Trouble – Part II

Branko Milanovic August 31, 2006
Globalization has spurred inequality – both among citizens in the wealthiest countries as well as among nations of the developing world. The second of this two-part series by Branco Milanovic explores the growing resentment as only a few poor countries adjust to globalization. China and India compete globally, and yet only a fraction of their citizens prosper. Increasing inequality between rural...

Indians Along With Half the World's Consumers Buy Into Globalization: Survey

August 31, 2006
More than half the world’s consumers believe that globalization has improved their lives and created new opportunities, according to an ACNielsen global consumer survey. Most of the support for globalization comes from Latin America, with 75 percent, and Asia Pacific, with 70 percent. Six of the top ten countries appreciating globalization were in Asia Pacific, including India and China. French...

What's Wrong With Globalization?

Erwin Marquit August 30, 2006
Globalization has boosted world productivity, reducing obstacles in selling goods and services. Yet the forces of production are varied and can be confused: One component includes objects, including energy or land, that undergo transformation in the production process; a second is the tools of labor, including plants and electric grids; and the third is labor itself. Globalization and the forces...

Why Globalization Is in Trouble – Part I

Branko Milanovic August 29, 2006
The dominant world powers historically pushed for globalization as a means of increasing wealth and influence. Yet those nations fret as the emerging powers of India and China embrace the same strategy. This two-part series by World Bank economist Branco Milanovic explores why both the world’s wealthiest and poorest nations fear globalization. In the first article, Milanovic argues that citizens...