“Globalization,” surely one of the most used and abused buzzwordsof recent decades, describes a phenomenon that is typicallyconsidered to be a neutral and inevitable expansion of marketforces across the planet. Nearly all economists, politicians, businessleaders, and mainstream journalists view globalization as thenatural result of economic development, and a beneficial one atthat. But, as noted economist Martin Hart-Landsberg argues, thisperception does not match the reality of globalization. The rise oftransnational corporations and their global production chains wasthe result of intentional and political acts, decisions made at thehighest levels of power. Their aim – to increase profits by seekingthe cheapest sources of labor and raw materials – was facilitatedthrough policy-making at the national and international levels, andwas largely successful. But workers in every nation have paid thecosts, in the form of increased inequality and poverty, the destructionof social welfare provisions and labor unions, and an erraticglobal economy prone to bubbles, busts, and crises.This book examines the historical record of globalization and restoresagency to the capitalists, policy-makers, and politicians whoworked to craft a regime of world-wide exploitation. It demolishestheir neoliberal ideology – already on shaky ground after the 2008financial crisis – and picks apart the record of trade agreementslike NAFTA and institutions like the WTO. But, crucially, Hart-Landsberg also discusses alternatives to capitalist globalization,looking to examples such as South America’s Bolivarian Alliancefor the Americas (ALBA) for clues on how to build an internationaleconomy based on solidarity, social development, and shared prosperity.
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