White Man's Burden?

Source #1: Globalization and Its Discontents Joseph E. Stiglitz

I am two chapters into Stiglitz’s Globalization and Its Discontents. Stiglitz offers remarkably clear and balanced insights into the two of the largest engines of globalization: the World Bank and IMF. His perspective is an interesting one: a Nobel Prize winning academic, he also has substantial policy experience: he served as one of Clinton's economic advisors when Russia began its transition from communism and he served as Chief Economist and Senior VP of the World bank during the financial crises of the late 90s. Through studying the failures of both governments and markets, he has come to believe that neither are sufficient on their own. Through his work with the World Bank, he’s visited many countries, spoken to thousands of government officials, finance ministers, central bank governors, academics, development workers, people at NGOs, bankers, business people, students, political activists and farmers. As a result of his experiences, he has a strong aversion to ideological dogmatism, and advocates solutions based on what works in the real world. He has witnessed first hand how globalization policies have devastated developing countries, and he is highly critical of the current economic system. He denounces market fundamentalism, expresses frustration at how dogmatic and unfair many globalization policies are, and recognizes that the poorest and weakest have not benefited from globalization at all. He points out how Western countries have been hypocritical in their claims to fight poverty, because the policies that they've pursued are predictably detrimental to poorer countries to the benefit of Western nations. He points out how global institutions like the World Bank and IMF are not transparent, accountable, or democratic (they are dominated by the commercial and financial interests of the wealthiest industrial countries). Yet, he is not blindly critical (a rather refreshing change from the often angry, extremely leftist perspectives that I’ve become accustomed to absorbing). He still believes that globalization may be a force for good and recognizes that globalization has led to some improvements in some areas of the world. He understands the motivations of those against globalization but points out that some protestors have gone to excesses and completely overlooked the benefits of globalization. However, he recognizes and applauds the protestors for putting reform on the global agenda. His descriptions have brought home the message that economic policies have a very real effect on actual people; we should emulate his cool-headed but compassionate approach to reforming economic policies.