Conventional wisdom portrays globalization as competition among countries-- America versus Mexico or China or Europe. But today the rich and powerful of every nation have more in common with each other than they do with their fellow citizens who must work for a living. What's good for General Motors-- or Microsoft, Exxon, or Wal-Mart-- is no longer good for America. In The Global Class War, Jeff Faux argues that the politics of the new world market is dominated by a virtual "Party of Davos," the globe-trotting network of corporate investors and CEOs, and the politicians and journalists who work on their behalf. Clinton and his treasury secretary, Robert Rubin, and Bush and his defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, may use different strategies, but they promote the same globalization agenda in which the benefits go to America's corporate investors-- and the costs are paid by ordinary Americans in outsourced jobs, military casualties, and an unsustainable foreign debt.
Faux shows how NAFTA, the WTO, and similar "free-trade" agreements are really deals among the global elite to rip up the social contract that allows the benefits of capitalism to be broadly shared. As the first secretary-general of the WTO admitted, they make up "the constitution of a single global economy."Its Bill of Rights protects just one citizen-- the large transnational corporation.
Global corporations with American names are profitable, but the competitiveness of the people, businesses, and communities rooted in the U.S. economy is relentlessly deteriorating. America's workers, from the unskilled to highly educated design engineers and research scientists, have been set adrift in a sea ofdog-eat-dog competition that guarantees a substantial drop in their living standards. The illusion of prosperity has been maintained by the biggest borrowing binge in history, but we are rushing toward a day of painful reckoning. Why aren't American business elites worried? Because their competitiveness is no longer tied to America's.
To escape this trap, Faux makes a powerful case for new cross-border politics to support the democratic redesign of globalization, beginning with the now integrated economies of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Both in the way this book defines globalization's core problem and in its vision of how to resolve it, The Global Class War will affect political debate in America and the world for years to come.
From the Back Cover
"You will never think about 'free trade' the same way after reading Jeff Faux's superb book. As Faux makes clear, the globalization debate is really about whose interests are served by global elites, and how we need to go about reclaiming a democracy that serves ordinary people. This book should transform public discourse in America." Robert Kuttner, founding coeditor of The American Prospect and a contributing columnist to BusinessWeek
"Faux is clearly correct that the balance of power between labor and capital has shifted dramatically. Today, investment capital moves at blinding speed, while labor still must go by boat, train, and planeand that's if it's lucky."
Michael Hirsh, The New York Times
"A persuasive and revealing framework for understanding globalization in terms of class. It's a much-needed corrective to the way in which most news about the changing world economy is viewed, usually through a free market fundamentalist or, less frequently, a nationalist lens."
David Moberg, In These Times
"Globalization is a cover for American imperialism, but the beneficiaries are not the American people at the expense of foreigners but corporate executives at the expense of working class and poor people wherever they may be. Jeff Faux offers a comprehensive and devastating analysis."
Chalmers Johnson, author of The Sorrows of Empire
"Incisive, rancorous . . . with a fluid grasp of both history and economics, Faux, founder of the Economic Policy Institute, critiques both Democrats and Republicans for protecting transnational corporations 'while abandoning the rest of us to an unregulated, and therefore brutal and merciless, global market.'"
Publishers Weekly
"Jeff Faux's astonishing story of how class works will scandalize the best names in Wall Street and Washingtonespecially the much admired Robert Rubin, who along with other elites, colluded behind the backs of ordinary citizens in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. The most cynical Americans will be shocked by the sordid details. This really is an important book."
William Greider, author of The Soul of Capitalism and Secrets of the Temple
About the Author
JEFF FAUX is the founder and former President of the Economic Policy Institute. He is a contributing editor to The American Prospect and a member of the editorial board of Dissent. His articles and commentary have also appeared in The Washington Post, The Nation, The New York Times, USA Today, and Harper’s.
