The Rebel Within: Joseph Stiglitz and the World Bank

Rating:
Summary: A very clear vision..
Review: I understand this book to be a very clear description of what is missing in the way the international financial organizations address the problems of developing countries. But there is more to say about one of the core problems in our countries and that is the weakness or the lack of institutions and as a result of this ..corruption and worst....impunity. Politicians no matter what party..protect each other. A lot of people's money goes to the pockets of a few ... money that should be spent in education and health. Some of this money comes from the WB , IDB , etc...

Giving it a little more thought..maybe this kind of arrangement is the best situation for these corrupted third world politicians and for the big multinational firms and financial institutions that lend them money...to keep the people in poor countries ignorant and illiterate so that the big firms can keep their advantages with unlimited cheap labor pools. Sure , maybe this situation is viewed as a comparative advantage or just as business strategies by the big firms..but for our own politicians-gangsters ....this is a major crime and should be treated as such...If we just could !!!

Why keep lending money to be used by these thieves?? Well, maybe some goes back to the source...banking accounts in developed nations or comsumption of luxury goods manufactured in the hometown of some of the top brass in some Bank. Who knows?? Believe me.. ,it is not funny to see the son of some new-rich state official driving the last model Lexus SUV with your money!!! Why we the people do not do something about it?? How?? Going to the corrupted legal institutions or to the corrupted police?? Going to the streets and making justice with our own hands and then be accused of terrorists or leftist anti-free market mob and risk an invasion by the US Marine Corps??? Voting??? Give me a break!!! We often see on TV the prez of the USA drinking coffee and chating with some these third world politician-mobsters in his oval office ....Why???

Mr. Stiglitz certainly has clarified and explained the problems we face ...but the solutions are not easy to undertake. There are too many factors involved and the one that could make a difference...to change the mindset of the people...means nothing less than a mental rebirth and a total destruction of all cultural heritage....And this could take centuries....or some sort of dictatorship.... Is there any hope for us???

Rating:
Summary: Thought and Works of Chairman Joe
Review: Stiglitz, who is the former Chairman of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers and Chief Economist of the World Bank, won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics (younger than Milton Friedman had been when he won his Nobel). This moderate pragmatist can hardly be called a soft leftie and yet his stinging attack on the IMF and the World Bank (both organizations intensely disliked by Republican rightwingers) is both surprising......and perfectly justified, in my view. He develops this theme more fully in his other book "Globalization and Its Discontents," while this small book is a good extract of his economic philosophy. In his many public speeches and statements Chairman Joe lends the full weight of his considerable authority to China-boosters and China-lovers everywhere. But his frequently expressed optimism of China's economic prospects is not his main point - he uses China as an example to show why and how you can avoid messing things up if you use the right methods.

Rating:
Summary: correction
Review: the correct title is: "The Rebel Within: Joseph Stiglitz and the World Bank"