A brief but thoughtful introduction to global trade and its discontents.
A debut book offers a rousing call to halt trade with China and reinvigorate truly liberal economic trade policy.
Economic experts seem to broadly agree that inequality is in an alarming ascendancy and that the global middle class is worryingly pinched. Jeia begins his work with a grim diagnosis of the problem: living standards are in a steady decline; decent middle-class jobs are rapidly disappearing and with them sustainable wages; and the manufacturing industry in the U.S. is hobbled. Politically, this has led to a historic rise in polarizing partisanship and a general loss of trust in government. The principal problem, the author argues, is the economic hegemony of China. Despite what many contend, trade with China has had pernicious effects on the global economy. First, China’s introduction of a massive workforce of cheap labor has generally lowered wages for the rest of the world, a result conventional liberal economic theory predicted. In addition, the existence of so much low-cost labor stymies innovation since it undermines the incentive for new technology or new job training. Furthermore, China functions as a Soviet-style monopoly, and its continued growth necessarily comes at the expense of the rest of the global market, which essentially compensates the nation for its systemic inefficiencies. Jeia offers a number of potential solutions, which include what he calls “labour differential tariffs,” specifically targeted to level the competitive playing field by penalizing those countries that maintain artificially low wages. But even this is not enough: “Therefore, the only real solution to the problems currently affecting the global economy is to completely remove China from the global trading system, as was done with the Soviet Union.” Jeia presents a complex argument shorn of hypertechnical language, composed in a breezy, informal style. Sometimes, the tone turns too strident, especially when he criticizes what he interprets as a departure from free market liberalism: “Remember, ‘comrade’?” But while it’s common to pillory China for currency manipulation, it’s comparatively rare for an economist to focus on the long-term impact the country has had on the international labor market. This is a short book and not by any stretch comprehensive, but it functions as a provocative catalyst to a new conversation.
A brief but thoughtful introduction to global trade and its discontents.Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5246-7678-0
Page Count: 126
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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