A Future Perfect: The Essentials of Globalization

GLOBALIZATION is a process where people, things, ideas, capital and commerce is able to freely travel anywhere in the world. As a result, the notion of comparative advantages are becoming far more frequent. More people are exposed to competition than ever before, and this has been a good thing for most people (i.e., witness the cheaper and better American cars). Globalization has been very helpful in attacking the status quo -- entrenched, pesky bureacratic public sectors unions, who take their job as a right, not a privilage; getting workers to think more about productivity, since, if they do not succeed, operations can move elsewhere. Most important, I would say that globalization has reformed governments. As the book explains, there are still extremes on the left (Nader) and the right (Buchanan) who don't understand economics and are perfectly willing to harp on the same old course they've been on. But as this book explains, many governments are learning that they too are not immune from competition. Countries must open their borders up to foreign capital, privatize state services, come up with more flexible labor laws (i.e., France's radical law that forbids anyone from working more than 35-hours a week. However, without such a law, the average person in the U.S. works only 34 hours a week). I am even more excited about globalization after reading this book. It's very timely, written in the familiar prose found in The Economist, and well worth the money!

Micklethwait and Wooldridge have written a crucial work on globalization, drawing from a wide array of current and recent events. It is hard to see the forest when you are in the midst of the trees, but these two lead the reader to reasonable perspectives about the current evolution of the world. Years of editing and reporting, under the aegis of the highly reputable British magazine, the Economist, has rendered they two young writers nothing short of wise at an early age. They write in general with more permanence than journalists do generally. Their inherent alienation from US precepts, as foreigners, makes their perspective on that country more vivid than one might expect. This book is essential equipment for the informed adult.

Despite the hyperbole of the title, John Micklethwait and Adrian Woodrige strive to make this a book that does not take on of the extreme positions on globalization -- IE, neither an attack on it, like One World Ready Or Not, nor a full on, pie-eyed endorsement, like The Lexus and The Olive Tree. This is kind of a head fake, because really they are pretty much in favor of liberalizing trade as much as possible. They acknowledge potential problems, but almost always explain them away with a pro-market argument. If you're a fan of the Economist (I am) you'll enjoy the book no matter what your views on globalization, because it's written with the smarts and humor of that magazine. It's also lucidly argued, and packed with solid research and interesting anecdotes collected from every corner of the planet, even if they do cut corners from time to time when the facts aren't going their way, and are kind of cavalier about the losers in globalization. The biggest blind spot -- and of course it's easy to say this with the benefit of hindsight -- is that the shrinking of the world via increased trade etc. is much more fragile than it seemed a couple of years ago. They do acknowledge this to some extent -- there's a lot of good historical examples sprinkled in -- but the current environment feels more like one of fragmentation than oneness. (The paperback version is worth picking because the new introduction at least deals with Sept. 11.) Nevertheless, A Future Perfect is a solid introduction to a topic that is still incredibly important.

This book offers some ideas that I had not seen before. For one thing, it is rare to see a book that is pro-globalization that discusses it as fragile and in need of nurturing. It is generally referred to as an overwhelming tide that either must be embraced or stopped.The book discusses the results of globalization in several industries, and it takes the economic perspective that comparative advantage will continue to operate. But it goes beyond that and discusses the loosers as well as the winners. The most interesting idea I found in the book was it's discussion of what they call "cosmocrats." An elite that is without geographic identity and more bound to others of their class than to their traditional communities. The book "Bowling Alone" documents the breakdown of traditional social networks. It is easy to see in Silicon Valley's libertarian culture the people who feel they are "self made" and do not feel a need for reciprocal relationships with their geographic communities. This belief, of course, is totally without foundation. However, the belief that a technical elite should run society has been tired in Germany, Russia and other places with horrible results. The books does not go so far as to raise that type of alarm, but the dislocation that they document is well worth considering.

What does globalization mean? For some people, globalization leads to the so-called New Economy - a world with never-ending growth and no inflation. For other people, in particular in Europe but also for a growing number of people in the US, globalization destroys social networks and makes money more important than anything else. Not surprisingly, both sides found strong advocates who try to hammer their points of views into people's heads. Of course, the world is not as simple as it appears to be.John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge lean more towards praising for what globalization leads to, namely free markets and thus to more happiness and freedom all over the world. This is hardly surprising given the fact that they both work for The Economist, a British business magazine which likes to talk about ideas like "comparative advantages" into people's heads. However, The Economist also mentions the problems of globalization and this books gives many examples. It is very hard to imagine the image of a starving African child with the caption "The Losers of Globalization" on the cover of, say, Business Week. It is equally hard to find another book which gives as many facets of what globalization means and stands for as this book. What's more, the authors even introduce the reader to the development of international trade and finance by discussing Bretton Woods and how it came about. Everybody with an interest in what's going on in business should read this book. It's scope is very wide, ranging from the porn video industry in the US to little telephone shops in South Africa. The book's depth is about the same as that of an article in The Economist - the book is very well written and fun to read. Readers of The Economist will find that the authors recycled some of their articles (which they mention in the introduction) and now they appear in a wider context. To summarize, this is one of the rare books where the reader is taught a lot by two brilliant writers. It is fun to read and is very hard to stick to one's opinion's afterwards without at least re-thinking them thoroughly.