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On Globalization

9/10

By George Soros

On Globalization The first and last chapters of this short book are spectacular overviews of current world economic policy from Soros, a leading philanthropist and economist. Soros is perhaps the world’s foremost promoter of open societies, and he delivers a particularly stirring conclusion to the book – a powerful argument for progressive international aid and the need to actively help the people of the world.

It’s not often that any part of an economics book can be called stirring, but the middle of the book treads in more predictable economic specifics and dense financial lingo. I found some of it difficult, though Soros’s main ideas are clear. Soros is well known as a critic of globalization – but that’s a half-truth. This book clears his name and sets the record straight. One of my good friends always gets upset at protesters that “find it easier to fight against something than offer better suggestions.” Soros is the best example I’ve read to repudiate that problem. We don’t need less globalization, he says, just the right kind. He criticizes the WTO (World Trade Organization), IMF (International Monetary Fund) and other IFTIs (International Financial and Trade Institutions), but rather than mindlessly demand their abolishment, he theorizes that they could do a great job with some changes. He then proposes those changes succinctly, though in great detail. His strongest suggestion in my mind is the need for corresponding global social institutions to make up for the financial institutions’ weak points – labor, the environment, etc. Like the IMF and WTO, compliance would always be voluntary but based on tempting incentives of investment.

Unfortunately, Soros doesn’t spend too much time on ways to make these institutions more democratic. He admits that their policies have been one-sided towards the center (leading economic powerhouses like the wealthy investors of the U.S.), but doesn’t detail how this is tied to their power being in the hands of too few special interests. Sadly, not all of the world’s wealthiest people are as philanthropic as Soros, nor do they have the best interests of the global poor always at the forefront of their financial plans. He does explain how broad public support is needed, especially in the U.S., if financial aid is ever going to be seen again as worthwhile as it was during the brilliant Marshall Plan.

Perhaps because he often qualifies his ideas by calling them suggestions and opening the stage for further proposals and trial and error, Soros paradoxically comes across with amazing conviction. I really trusted his voice as an author. Several parts seemed so clear-cut as solutions for the world that it shocked me why they weren’t being currently implemented. Simple programs, targeted like lasers, are capable of driving even authoritarian countries to commit to human rights and the environment. An intro to existing IFTIs would have been helpful to read first, but I highly recommend this book if you want to motivate yourself to find which specific worldwide economic policies to support, and which to protest.

A short George Soros biography here: http://www.soros.org/gsbio/

Read October 2002

 

 

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