Customer Reviews

Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jeffrey Frieden, a Harvard professor specializing in international trade and finance, has written a masterly and comprehensive history of capitalism from 1870 to the present. His history of globalization reminds us that it is not a recent develpment and that its current success is not guaranteed.

The first era of globalization (1870 to 1914) had many of the same characteristics as today's. There was an unprecedented cross-border movement of goods, capital, and labor. (Labor more so in the first era.) During these years huge amounts of capital moved overseas to America, Canada, and Argentina mainly due to the reduced costs of communication and transportation. The technologies driving this globalization were the telegraph and railroads. It was also facilitated by the fact that most currencies were convertible to gold. The investment in the Americas was also followed by a huge immigrant population. In these years, America, Canada, and Argentina had much larger immmigrant populations at the turn of the 20th century than today.

The main thing that distinguishes the present globalization from the first is what happened in between. After the Great Depression and World War II remedies were put into place to mitigate the damaging effects of these economic and social catastrophes. Social benefits such as unions, minimum wage, healthcare and pensions were established as safety nets. In the era between the two globalizations when economies were mostly national the safety nets were part of the social contract between capital and labor.

In 1980, when our current era of globalization begins, capital began to move overseas again in order to find countries with lower labor and social costs. This time, however, labor did not follow. The industrialized countries now have large middle classes with social benefits promised who are not certain about how they are going to be paid. This is causing many in the industrialized world to have second thoughts about our current phase of globalization.

Frieden has a guarded optimism about global capitalism and thinks it is still the best system for distributing wealth. Yet, his last chapter "Global Capitalism Troubled" points to some more clouds on the horizon. There seems to be a growing gap between those who control capital and those who work for a living. People understand that globalization is inevitable but they want a new set of rules to address the growing inequalities.

Frieden is a cheerleader for a more equitable capitalism that can deliver both social benefits and robust economic growth.

I was almost tempted to give the book a miss after seeing the high ratings that were given by reviewers that seemed to be anti-globalizationists (what an awkward term!)

However, I came across the book at my library and gave it a chance, and I was not disappointed. It is a book that does a creditable job of summing up the ups and downs of the world economy over the past hundred years and more. And it also does a fairly good job of raising some issues and problems with the world economic system, and how the system had evolved to meet those issues and problems. On the whole, I think it's a balanced book, pointing out the critical need for free and integrated markets to raising millions in the world out of poverty, as well as some of the problems facing them.

The only reason why I gave the book a four rather than a five is that it is not an easy read, and it is best read with some thought and analysis on the reader's part. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not something for everyone.

By the way, do ignore those reviews that pretend to tell you what the author was saying in his book. I'm not sure that he's actually saying what they say he is saying.

Read the book for yourself. It's worth the time and effort.

I read this book for a graduate-level economics course. It's not an "Econ for Dummys" book, but it really enightens the reader about the history of economics in the 20th Century. It's smart and straight-forward. The author does not interject his personal perspectives, which is nice. He just puts it out there. A definite must-read for those entering the field of economics/history.

Although he begins slowly and tempts one to cast the book aside prematurely, Professor Frieden ultimately provides a useful play by play account of global trade and money flows over the past one hundred odd years. Whether or not he intended to prove as much, his chronicle demonstrates that absent sound political leadership, the result within ANY COUNTRY is an enlarged volume of tradeable goods, a small financial elite, a bewildered and increasingly indebted and disenfranchised population which must mobilize into political constituencies to battle for scraps. This was true under the classical gold standard, and it remains true under the regime of floating exchange rates. It was less true during the Bretton Woods regime (1946 to 1973), largely because speculative financial flows were restricted by exchange controls.

The strength of the book is that it mentions every event of consequence, most of them in passing. A reader can sense the inevitable buildup of economic and political pressures, and watch them explode one by one. That America allows itself to be drawn into the morass, time after time, is testament to the linguistic capabilities of our well heeled charlatans, toadying academics and ignoramus politicians, who always manage to capture the public forum, and who continue to retain it even after the latest disaster which ought to have made even them consider reality just this once. Don't hold your breath. For those for whom globalization pays it pays really well. Until the rest of us digest the lessons of books like this one, the music can be expected to continue as more and more chairs are drawn away.

Professor Frieden displays respectable academic virtues and remains even handed toward the concerns of both rich and poor. You won't get a radical suggestion out of him. It is tempting to suggest that America should turn its back on the global economy, and put its population to work here at home making what we need. It is more tempting to suggest that the beneficiaries of global money flows should be taxed progressively (and then some), that banks should be returned to productive lending and broken into manageable pieces, that large corporations should be progressively taxed on their capitalizations rather than on what they choose to report as earnings, and that land should be taxed at its unimproved value instead of under the conventional method which endlessly rewards those whose ancestors grabbed it first (and a succession of buccaneer tycoons shrewd enough to bamboozle the bankers who allow them one way options to step into inheritor shoes). All of these gestures would help and none of them is likely to be tried, at least until things become dramatically worse. The only certainty is that our present course is not going to work, but at least many of us will have plenty of time to become experts in economic history. They say it helps to understand why one is being $crewed.

This book was recommended by the Economist and does not disappoint. The story starts with a brief review of the late Victorian world economic model based primarily on the gold standard and continues through to near the end of 2007, just before the meltdown. It is a very readable text with loads of good historical context and a brief background on the major schools of economic recovery from the Great Depression of the thrities as well as the maturation of the Soviet and Chinese brands of centralized economic planning. The author has provided very good "parables" of specific countries that embody many of the major themes and movements of the 20th century. while it shies away from picking winners and losers, it definitely highlight the nature of success and failure for many different population groups within each of the modern economic models and across multiple continents.

This was one of the best business books that I have ever read. It provides a thorough overview of the history of business globalization, yet it is not academic at all. Although it is long and has a few, short dry spots, it is an easy read that is engaging from beginning to end. The lessons from history are very applicable today. I highly recommend the book to anyone that works for a global company or wants to understand the forces of globalization and the impacts on our economy today.

I am writing this review only to raise the book's five-star count (few reviews to date). Rather than go on at length only to echo other reviews, I will quote from Amazon's Booklist comments: "This is an excellent, readable history of globalization with important lessons for our own society today." One qualification: the book requires sophistication at the level of a someone comfortable with a high-quality newspaper or news magazine; not for the average high-school (only) graduate.

The world economy after 1973 shows a strong resemblance to the world economy in the decades before 1914. In both periods, capital was easily invested across national borders. In both periods there were frequent financial crises, and also strong economic growth. Of course there were differences. Before 1914 the gold standard predominanted in the world, unlike our current period of fiat money. Today technology makes both investing, and cashing out one's investments much easier than then. This advance has the downside of increasing instability during a financial crisis. Today foreign direct investment is important, while before the First World War investment was usually in the form of buying bonds. Before 1914, the idea that there could be a trade off between openness to international investment and attempts to control unemployment or inflation was poorly understood. But the resemblances are striking.

Between 1914 and 1945 there was a period of greatly reduced international investment, due originally to the First World War and then to the Depression and Second World War. The 1920s were a period in which some nations tried to restore the pre-war conditions, but failed. The Depression reduced trade and economic growth directly, thus discouraging investment, and in addition goverments often took protectionist measures or instituted controls on foreign investment which further reduced investment. After the Second World War the Bretton Woods system increased international trade, but still allowed for controls on investment. Additionally, many poorer nations took up a strategy of import substitution, which was not compatible with much international investment, although foreign direct investment often still took place. Finally, it took about 15-20 years for investors to associate international investment with potential profits rather than probable disaster.
The 1970s were an unpleasant period of transition.

The author, a Harvard professor, writes clearly and I enjoyed the book.

I read books in groups, and bought this one along with David Walsh's "Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations" which I recommend above this one is you are only buying one book. I also read and have reviewed "Global Class Wars" as well as all other books I recommend below.

Although I was less interested in the history, which is very well documented and clearly explained, and more in the lessons for the future, I found two clear bottom lines in this book that are supported by its extensive research:

1) Open societies and open democracies generate more money and more opportunity and more innovation than closed or failed societies; and

2) Keynes was right, there is an urgent vital role for government to play in addressing the social networks, including education, transportation, rules of commerce, and so on, that allow capitalism to work.

The author distinguishes between individual, cooperative, and competitive capitalism, and I found validation in this book for my concept of communal capitalism, a capitalism that is guided by government in avoiding the exportation of jobs, the importation of poverty, and the impoverishment of the middle class.

Unlike David Walsh's book, this book has more of a focus on what is moral and pragmatic, and so I recommend William Greider's "The Soul of Capitalism" as well as John Perkins "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man."

I have a very strong feeling from this book and others, that the era of "out of control" capitalism is drawing to an end. We may even see the end of the corporation as a separate legal personality in the next 12 years. The transparency of information that is available when people attach themselves leech-like to a corporation and hold it accountable (see my review of "No Logo") is creating a powerful antidote against the Enrons and Exxons and Wal-Marts of the world who bribe elites and screw over the publics on both ends. I also see Wall Street losing its ability to "explode the client" (see my review of "Liar's Poker"). A great deal of good will be done in the next quarter century, and it will come from a combination of good government and educated engaged citizens working together across all boundaries.

An excellent and fascinating walk through the origins and evolution of capitalism and its profound effect on every aspect of human society.