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Money, Markets & Sovereignty

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Money, Markets & Sovereignty

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15 min read
10 take-aways
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What's inside?

Discover why globalization remains continuously controversial and laden with ever-increasing uncertainties.

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Globalization remains always controversial, especially during a severe recession. Its philosophical, political and economic history is a complex tangle, but globalism’s current expression is even more complicated, weaving in everything from gold to monetary policy to nationalism. Council on Foreign Relations experts Benn Steil and Manuel Hinds have written a high-level, dense, but ultimately rewarding book for dedicated students of globalization. They contend that the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank faces a tough challenge managing the U.S. dollar as both a national and a global reserve currency. This book outweighs other popular texts on globalism in its scholarship, topic range and intellectual arguments. The authors make such a formidable case that critics will have to ratchet up their rebuttals dramatically. getAbstract highly recommends this work to policy makers and executives involved in globalization, but note: The book presumes more than a passing acquaintance with economic theory.

Summary

Globalism: Yesterday and Today

Globalism, the concept that foreign trade benefits individuals and groups, dates as far back as ancient Greece and predates the rise of nation-states. In modern times, analysts blame vast global capital flows, which operate independently of any state supervision, for market volatility, currency collapses and economic inequality. Contemporary globalization critics assert that supranational market actions have replaced national sovereignty itself.

Globalization advocates tout technology’s capacity to produce the best outcomes for society, including its unprecedented ability to foster human interaction and connect the world’s information hubs. This positive view of globalism picks up on the earlier philosophies of John Stuart Mill and Adam Smith, which in turn echo back to ancient history. Globalization and its essential element, commerce, emerged conceptually after the death of Aristotle in 322 BCE. The Stoics incorporated a philosophy of commerce into their moral theory. Unlike the Greeks, who regarded man as a component of the state, the Stoics considered the individual’s intrinsic worth independent of one’s title or role. The laws of...

About the Authors

Benn Steil is senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. Manuel Hinds, the author of Playing Monopoly with the Devil, served two terms as El Salvador’s minister of finance.

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