The Limits of the Local

A global economy has room for the local, while mandatory localism cannot meet the needs of those who prefer to buy global.

The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World’s Most Prosperous Decade

In an earlier book, Globalization and Its Discontents, Joseph E. Stiglitz argued that globalization was the tool of moneyed interests and was promoted by free-market ideologues. He conjured up the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a straw man for these interests on whose behalf it caused great suffering among the people of Indonesia, Thailand, and [...]

Globalization: The Irrational Fear that Someone in China Will Take Your Job

With the Obama administration turning toward trade protectionism, this is a good time to revisit the age-old controversy over free trade. Recent arguments have often centered on the supposed evils of globalization, and Globalization attempts, with only partial success, to deal with globalization anxiety. According to Greenwald (who teaches in Columbia University’s Graduate School of [...]

A Family of Heroes

In any major city, particularly a capital, the great majority of statues and memorials pay tribute to monarchs and presidents, priests, generals, and statesmen. This reflects the way history is commonly understood and taught: as the story of the achievements of those associated with political power, government, and war. Memorials to the historical figures associated [...]

Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World

Timothy Brook has written a fascinating work on the pivotal seventeenth century, one that defies neat categorization. It isn’t a history per se, although it is about a crucial period of history. It isn’t really about economics, but it conveys a considerable amount of economic understanding. Nor is it a work on philosophy, even though [...]

Book Reviews – April 2008

• Globalization by Donald J. Boudreaux Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
• Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by Brian Doherty Reviewed by Bettina Bien Greaves
• Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie by Clayton E. Cramer Reviewed by George C. Leef
• The European Economy Since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond by Barry Eichengreen Reviewed by Waldemar Ingdahl

We Have Enough Globalization?

Jude Blanchette is a freelance writer living in Shanghai. The debate over free trade is, and has been for over 200 years, quite contentious. In reading over the historical debates, it often seems as if no ground has been made by the advocates of a global, borderless economy. Indeed, this is what makes reading Adam [...]

Adam Smith in China

James Dorn is a China specialist at the Cato Institute and professor of economics at Towson University in Maryland. A shorter version of this article first appeared in the Times of India, January 24, 2007. China’s transition from plan to market since 1978 has not only increased prosperity but also has led to a new [...]

The End Run to Freedom

What does the future hold for economic life in the United States? Will we move toward greater freedom or less? What role will ideas and rhetoric play, if any, in making sure that the direction is one that lovers of freedom prefer?