Rating: 
Summary: A Worthwhile Read if You Are Interested in Globalization
Review: So far, Lindsey's "Against the Dead Hand" may be the best book I have read about globalization. Lindsey does not beat around the bush--he is clearly a classical liberal who favors market forces. One would not expect anything less from a senior researcher at the Cato Institute. But the fact that he is a researcher clearly shows. The book has far more of a research base than any other text I have read on this subject. There is certainly more than mere anecdotal evidence in each chapter. But at the same, it is not a boring research text. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.Lindsey takes an extremely broad perspective and looks at globalization within a 150 year window. From this perspective, Lindsey argues that globalization is not a recent phenomenon. Instead, he claims that we are only beginning to approach the levels of global trade that existed prior to World War I. Achieving that same level of globalization is, however, quite a struggle. The "dead hand" of centralized, collectivist, and protectionist government/philosophy still exerts considerable force on the politics and policies of today. Lindsey is convinced that collectivist government, in multiple forms, has failed and that a return to market-oriented practices is really the only viable choice remaining. Overall, I find Lindsey's arguments persuasive, researched, and sensical. He makes a strong case. On the other hand, I had great difficulty with the final two chapters of this book. In these chapters Lindsey discusses the social safety net and labor. I was both disappointed and troubled by Lindsey's discussion. His notion of a social safety net, based on Chapter Ten, seems to be providing retirement funds for those who work all their life. While I agree that retirment is important (I work too), Lindsey simply ignores and avoids the many people and issues that a social safety net should address. I was left asking about children who are ignored by their parents. What about the homeless? What about our vets? I could not help think of my recent experiences with poverty in Argentina or war-torn cities like Sarajevo. It is impossible to say what Lindsey would think about these concerns because he simply ignores them. I was left with the impression that he "simply does not get it." He risks presenting market-forces as a cure-all, which it clearly is not. This book would have been five stars, in my view, had Lindsey eliminated Chapters Ten and Eleven. The rest of the book is superb, well thought out, and well written. I highly recommend this book. I find that it makes a nice complement to Friedman's "The Lexus and the Olive Tree." The contrasts are many and at times explicit. Lindsey takes a clear stance and, regardless of whether or not you agree, I think most reasonable readers will have to admit he has made his case well. I am glad I read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Worthwhile Read if You Are Interested in Globalization
Review: So far, Lindsey's "Against the Dead Hand" may be the best book I have read about globalization. Lindsey does not beat around the bush--he is clearly a classical liberal who favors market forces. One would not expect anything less from a senior researcher at the Cato Institute. But the fact that he is a researcher clearly shows. The book has far more of a research base than any other text I have read on this subject. There is certainly more than mere anecdotal evidence in each chapter. But at the same, it is not a boring research text. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Lindsey takes an extremely broad perspective and looks at globalization within a 150 year window. From this perspective, Lindsey argues that globalization is not a recent phenomenon. Instead, he claims that we are only beginning to approach the levels of global trade that existed prior to World War I. Achieving that same level of globalization is, however, quite a struggle. The "dead hand" of centralized, collectivist, and protectionist government/philosophy still exerts considerable force on the politics and policies of today. Lindsey is convinced that collectivist government, in multiple forms, has failed and that a return to market-oriented practices is really the only viable choice remaining. Overall, I find Lindsey's arguments persuasive, researched, and sensical. He makes a strong case. On the other hand, I had great difficulty with the final two chapters of this book. In these chapters Lindsey discusses the social safety net and labor. I was both disappointed and troubled by Lindsey's discussion. His notion of a social safety net, based on Chapter Ten, seems to be providing retirement funds for those who work all their life. While I agree that retirment is important (I work too), Lindsey simply ignores and avoids the many people and issues that a social safety net should address. I was left asking about children who are ignored by their parents. What about the homeless? What about our vets? I could not help think of my recent experiences with poverty in Argentina or war-torn cities like Sarajevo. It is impossible to say what Lindsey would think about these concerns because he simply ignores them. I was left with the impression that he "simply does not get it." He risks presenting market-forces as a cure-all, which it clearly is not. This book would have been five stars, in my view, had Lindsey eliminated Chapters Ten and Eleven. The rest of the book is superb, well thought out, and well written. I highly recommend this book. I find that it makes a nice complement to Friedman's "The Lexus and the Olive Tree." The contrasts are many and at times explicit. Lindsey takes a clear stance and, regardless of whether or not you agree, I think most reasonable readers will have to admit he has made his case well. I am glad I read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: The Real Deal on Globalization
Review: The popular perception of globalization portrays political leaders fighting against corporations and unfettered financial markets being manipulated by greedy speculators using lightening fast electrified capital. According to Brink Lindsey, author of "Against the Dead Hand - The Uncertain Struggle for Global Capitalism", this formulation has the main direction of causation backwards.
The failures of central planning have led governments groping for market reforms as a pragmatic response to the failures of big government. The trend toward what we now refer to as "globalization" was interrupted during the nineteenth century by what the author calls the "Industrial Counterrevolution". World leaders, impressed by the productivity and efficiency of big business, began to apply the same techniques as those used in business. Merged with these techniques were different theories of collectivism which arose as a result of the apparent chaos of the marketplace. Though the U.S. never plunged headlong into state control, political leaders of both parties were swept up by its own version of the Industrial Counterrevolution, the Progressive movement. We now have over a century of experimentation in various social and economic policies in several countries. The evidence shows free market principles produce better results, but market proponents should not confuse a change in trend with victory in the battle of ideas. Those general principles - competition, choice, limited government, private property, sound currency, free trade - are now seeping deeper into more areas of society that had been impervious to them. The change could be seen in front of the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. recently when the Court took up the constitutionality of school vouchers. On one side were minority parents demanding educational choice who were pitted against public school teachers protecting the status quo. Educational choice is one reminder that market proponents do not have a free ride. Laments Lindsey: "The defunct ideas of centralized control exert a waning but still-formidable influence on the shape of the world economy... The invisible hand of markets may be on the rise, but the dead hand of the old collectivist dream still exerts a powerful influence." A belief in market economics is not simply the hope for the absence of government. Among government's most important responsibilities is maintenance of a legal order that protects property and enforces contracts to exchange that property.
Mr. Lindsey's entry is an easy reading but serious antidote to the double dose of hype from pro-globalization cheerleaders and anti-globalization protesters. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book!
Review: This book is absolutely outstanding, in two ways. First, it does a wonderful job combining historical fact with a compelling overall theme. It is both fun and fascinating to read. Second, it deals clearly and compellingly with what is perhaps the most important historical and ethical theme of the last few centuries and probably the next, the struggle between liberalism and collectivism. If that sounds off-putting, rest assured, the author does not come across as dogmatic or extremist, but as a thoughtful and humane observer of the progress of humanity. Regardless of your politics, this book will inform you and make you think. It will help you clarify your own beliefs and bolster them with historical facts, and at the same time give you a better appreciation for the beliefs of your philosophical opponents.
My only criticism is that in focusing on the power of ideas, Lindsey gives insufficient attention to self-interest and corruption, but maybe that will be the subject of another book. Meanwhile, read this and think!
Rating: 
Summary: don't trust cato
Review: This book was a big disappointment to me. Its premise has so little substance that it does not even rise to the level where it can be tested with truth. Lindsey heads a pro-globalization think tank, as well as being employed by the Cato Institute and Reason magazine. These organizations all espouse extreme libertarianism. What that really amounts to is not far from Vonnegut's notion of the money river - some are close to it and some are far away. So Globalization lets the money river get bigger and it thrashes about, changing its course, giving young opportunists like Lindsey a chance to get closer to it as it continues to ruin the environment. His theory is simply a veiled version of the latest far right form of red baiting. Anyone who suggests the government needs to rein in big business is a communist. Only someone as young as Linsey, too young to remember the red scares of the fifties, could say such things with any seriousness at all. You'll have to go elsewhere to get any useful information about globalization.
Rating:
Summary: don't trust cato
Review: This book was a big disappointment to me. Its premise has so little substance that it does not even rise to the level where it can be tested with truth. Lindsey heads a pro-globalization think tank, as well as being employed by the Cato Institute and Reason magazine. These organizations all espouse extreme libertarianism. What that really amounts to is not far from Vonnegut's notion of the money river - some are close to it and some are far away. So Globalization lets the money river get bigger and it thrashes about, changing its course, giving young opportunists like Lindsey a chance to get closer to it as it continues to ruin the environment. His theory is simply a veiled version of the latest far right form of red baiting. Anyone who suggests the government needs to rein in big business is a communist. Only someone as young as Linsey, too young to remember the red scares of the fifties, could say such things with any seriousness at all. You'll have to go elsewhere to get any useful information about globalization.
Rating:
Summary: A Realistic Look at Globalization
Review: This is a terrific book. So much of what has been written about globalization so far has been either dry or full of hyperbole (both for and against it). "Against the Dead Hand" explains the world as it really is in a way that was a pleasure to read. The book combines history, first-person reporting, and clear analysis. Lindsey begins by telling the story of the first round of globalization that ended with World War I. In many important ways the world was more globalized a hundred years ago than it is even today, but the whole system fell apart in the face of anti-market ideologies and rising nationalism. The warning I took from this section is that there is nothing inevitable about globalization today. It can all fall apart again, plunging us back into the same kind of political and economic darkness that plagued the world for decades after 1914. Lindsey explains convincingly that globalization has returned not because of some grand vision of free-market thinkers but because socilaism proved to be such a failure. He points out that some of the great "reformers" in recent years have been communists and socialists themselves. The most important contribution of the book, in my view, is to remind us of how far we still are from a world were free markets and free trade predominate. The "dead hand" of the old collectivist systems still dominates economic life in most countries. Countries such as Argentina are still struggling against runaway government spending and corrupt legal and political systems. In one of my favorite passages, Lindsey describes a visit he made to a village in India where the villagers were assembling their own cars from kits. Import duties and regulations make it cheaper in India to build your own car! If you want to understand what is going on in the world today, why some nations are making progress and why others seem to stumble from one crisis to the next, "Against the Dead Hand" provides compelling answers. This book is realistic but in the end hopeful that we are headed to a better place. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Lindsey Hits It on the Head!!!
Review: This is the best book written on globalization ever! Regardless of which side of the aisle you are on in the globalization debate, you must read this book. It is an eye opener to say the least. At first, Lindsey's arguement of the "Dead Hand" was confusing, but after reading on, it made more and more sense, until the brillance of his argument came to light. True Globalization is NOT HERE yet folks. The issues that people have today with globalization, can not be attributed to globalization because we are not there yet. We still have a long way to go. The problems that we have or may not have (it depends on your current position) is because we are in the transition phase from a statist world order to a much freer one. We are only experiencing "growing pains". Lindsey's arguements are solid and should provoke readers to truly look at the world from all directions. Unless one has completely closed one's mind on his/her position on globalization, this book will make one think. Thank you Mr. Lindsey, this book is a true gem.
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