Customer Reviews

The Field Guide to the Global Economy, Revised Edition

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Quite an interesting read, containing lots of facts that could affect your life (which job categories are most at risk for outsourcing overseas, how Wal-Mart treats its employees badly and taxpayers suffer the consequences, disgustingly excessive pay for CEOs, the invasion of unregulated genetically modified food, ...). Many of the facts are eye-opening and I certainly moderated my personal pro-business views.

Unfotrunately, the book is introductory (almost to a fault) as you can guess from the fact that the jacket brags about the book's cartoons. It is extremely one-sided, and its blatant pro-union propaganda can be annoying. Facts and statistics are presented but I got the feeling that many of the book's arguments could be undermined if the "whole story" were revealed (simply throwing in a citation should not take the place of complete presentation within the text). Finally, there are many completely unsupported statements of opinion inappropriately stuck into otherwise fact-based paragraphs, giving these opinions apparent legitimacy.

Despite its shortcomings, this is an interesting book, and presents an easy way to learn about the World Bank and the IMF as (probably) seen by Third World people. After reading, I agree that the corporate-driven globalization we are now experiencing is flawed, but some of the alternatives promoted by this book (blanket amnesty to illegal aliens, total cancellation of poor-country debt, weakened protection of intellectual property rights, ...) appear equally ill-considered.

The updated, expanded new edition of the Field Guide To The Global Economy presents the latest facts key to helping students and general audiences understand the elements of the changing international economy, and is a 'must' for any who would keep up with change. Charts, graphs and cartoons aid in understanding the latest trends, from the outsourcing of US jobs to the influence of big chains around the world. To add authority, this is published in conjunction with the Institute for policy Studies based in Washington DC and explains how global institutions affect not just monetary policies, but social and economic situations around the world.

A group in our high school had been planning a symposium on the global economy when our advisor suggested that we take a look at this book. "Field Guide" offers a clear, concise description of many of the global issues that confront citizens of both the industrialized and unindustrialized nations. To its credit, it offers both the pros and cons of many of the issues it discusses and offers a resource list for others to get involved. I encourage anyone interested global politics or economics to read this book, share it with a friend, and get involved!

This is an easy to read book that cuts through the use of economic jargon, and speaks to the reader in clear, concise, simple English. It examines both the positive and negative sides to globalization and avoids being biased. For visual learners, there are many charts, graphs, diagrams, and cartoons used to stress points and illustrate the subject matter.

That is the first book on economics I read that does not necessarily employ a lot of incomprehensible terminology. Moreover, it is written for the average reader who wants to get a "first introduction" into the topic. It is definitely not written for people who search any detailed infomation. This book explains perfectly the basic correlations in today's global economy.

There are two things that I really like about this book, in addtion to it being accessible to nearly everybody: 1) it is well cited. It is important for me to trust the statistics that I am reading, so that I can then feel empowered. And 2) the chapter 'Globalization Claims'. This chapter assesses 10 claims that supporters of globalization regularly pull out of their back pocket, holding up those claims to the light of day (the claims are often as thin and flimsy as cheese cloth).

Globalization is evil. Multinational corporations are taking over. There, now you don't have to read this depressing antiglobalist screed. If you're looking for a fair, balanced, critical understanding of globalization, forget this book.

This alarmist "Field Guide" features loose reasoning and selective statistics. Here's a howler: "In the US, NAFTA supporters argued that the deal would lead to a net increase of high-quality US jobs, as rapidly expanding exports created massive trade surpluses with Canada and Mexico. Just the opposite has happened. Between 1994 and 2003, US imports from the NAFTA partners grew far faster than US exports to those countries. As a result, the US trade deficit with Canada and Mexico ballooned from $13b to $92b" (p. 91). That's a non-sequitor: the authors begin talking about jobs, but slyly shift to trade, as if the latter statistic somehow proves the authors' point. What happened to jobs? The authors neglect to mention that under NAFTA from 1993 to 2001, US employment grew from 120M to 135M. Five years after NAFTA started, US unemployment hit a historic low of 3.8%, a level once considered unachievable (Smick 222).

Unfortunately this tedious "Field Guide" presents only the negative side of globalization, and its biased use of statistics harms its own cause by diminishing its credibility. Try instead try Friedman's _The World is Flat_ or Smick's _The World is Curved_.

I had to read this book for my sociology class and googling the topics helped explain them better than the book did.

The reviews by BookwormJDC and P.Murray are on target. They give some excellent examples from the book.

Let me help answer the question that I always want to get out of these reviews: "Should I read this book?"

If you are going to a dinner party hosted by Al Franken or Michael Moore, or need to win favor, respect or envy from anyone on the far left, get this book. Everything that is wrong with America, Capitalism and Free Trade is explained in charts, cartoons and talking points. You will look like a genius as you expound on the ills of the world over a glass of California wine.

It reads like a college term paper (Doesn't rise anywhere near the level of thesis.). There are a plethora of facts, all of which support the theme. It's easy to read and the authors do a good job of staying on point. If you have a term paper due, get this book. Don't plagiarize it, just look at the technique and style.

Here's where I think the term papers get separated from the theses. In a well-written term paper you can get away with presenting a problem and gloss over the solution. I like the term reviewer BookWormJDC used to describe the treatment of solutions offered to address the litany of injustices described in the book, "ill-considered". Simply put, their solutions would not stand up to the same level of scrutiny expended on the problems.

Most of the issues raised are nothing new, but they are well documented and presented. What I found more excruciatingly tedious with each successive chapter was the lack of anything positive in the book. Ok, I get it. There is greed, oppression and injustice in the world, now what? Anytime they felt compelled to site anything positive, it was snuffed out by starting the sentence with "Although" and finishing up with what's wrong with it!

If you want to participate in the global economy, either for the evil corporations, or the oppressed peoples of the world, there is really nothing to help you in this book.

The title is catchy enough. I expected lots of facts and figures in tables and graphs that would illustrate international trade and finance. Was I surprised. There are facts and figures there, even pictures and cartoons. But the authors see the world differently. "The problem..." we are told, "...is not so much that the world is so tightly linked now...but that the links converge in such a small number of hands." The hands they're refering to belong to corporate executives and billionaires. An ongoing theme throughout the book is the old cliche' that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.
One thing different about the current process of globalization, the authors claim, "is that a number of poorer countries, led by China and Mexico, now have the infrastructure to house practically any industrial or service operation...." What's wrong with that? They object that "...Ford, Boeing, and other global corporations are now setting up state-of-the-art manufacturing plants in countries where wages and other costs are kept extremely low through repression." We can all agree that repression is a bad thing. We may differ on where it's happening. For instance, according to the index of economic freedom constructed by the Heritage Foundation (what the authors call a "corporate think tank") and the Wall Street Journal, China is "mostly unfree" (but not "repressed") and Mexico is "mostly free." "Repressed" countries include Zimbabwe, Iran, Cuba, Iraq, and North Korea. Corporate capitalism does not appear to be causing problems in those countries by any stretch of the imagination. Vietnam is among the repressed, but it's difficult to see how workers who produce sneakers for the Nike company would be better off if Nike weren't there.
Much of the book is devoted to criticizing "globalization claims." Although some free traders will justifiably dismiss this criticism, in my view the authors' attacks will work to strenghthen the case for free trade. Put differently, any economist who wants practice defending free trade can find it reading this book. Warning: the bile may rise in you.
To their credit the authors provide an abundance of endnotes to support their case. They offer some criticism a free trader would appreciate. For example they object to export subsidies and IMF bailouts of banks with troubled loans to developing countries. They even profess to reject protectionism. However the alternative they recommend, "fair trade," is better described as "managed trade."
The authors minimize the role of consumers in the process of globalization. Corporations would not achieve their goals if consumers weren't buying their products. The authors also fail to recognize the importance of property rights in economic development. If the governments of poor countries established and protected property rights, the people would get wealthier. Given that these authors reject international trade and investment as a cause of our prosperity and cannot tolerate disparities of wealth, they'll always remain idealists with axes to grind.