The War for Wealth: The True Story of Globalization, or Why the Flat World is Broken

Front Cover
McGraw Hill Professional, Apr 25, 2008 - Business & Economics - 304 pages

A LIBRARY JOURNAL 2008 BEST BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR!

Globalization. The Flat World. Outsourcing. Free Trade.

Each of these phrases is a flashpoint in one of the most heated debates of our lifetime: Is globalization a force for good, or is it a policy that is sure to destroy the economic foundation of the United States and Europe while exporting our wealth and prosperity overseas?

In The War for Wealth, leading intellectual and agenda-setting journalist Gabor Steingart examines how globalization has affected the state of the world's economy and returns with a bleak outlook for the West: our prosperity and wealth are disappearing faster than ever, and with it our political power and our long-held democratic ideals. But all is not lost; we can still stem the flow of capital and jobs and once again restore the West to its respected position of global leader in economics and politics.

In this eye-opening and dramatic account, Steingart lays out the three potential scenarios the world faces - a “shock scenario” in which there is a global economic crash, an “Asia-over-all scenario” where the rising economies of Asia completely overtake the West, or the “American renaissance scenario” in which U.S. politicians unite with each other and with Europe, forming a pragmatic third way to bring the West back from the brink of destruction.

Compelling, controversial, and thought-provoking, The War for Wealth alerts readers to the crucial state of the Western economy--and shows how leaders can return the West to its position of power in the global arena.

 

Selected pages

Contents

A Question of Survival
1
The Dress Rehearsal for Globalization
23
A Final Appraisal
49
The Asian Challenge
91
Chapter 5 The Flat World is Broken
127
A Threat to World Peace?
203
Its a Journey Not a Destination
223
The Market has No Brain
261
Acknowledgments
275
Sources
279
Index
289

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Page 33 - It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled.
Page 124 - What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the cold war, or the passing of a particular period of postwar history, but the end of history...
Page 33 - It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, and vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long, and where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness.
Page 257 - To aid its progress has been the basic objective of our foreign policy for 17 years. We believe that a united Europe will be capable of playing a greater role in the common defense, of responding more generously to the needs of poorer nations, of joining with the United States and others in lowering trade barriers, resolving problems of...
Page 257 - We believe that a united Europe will be capable of playing a greater role in the common defense, of responding more generously to the needs of poorer nations, of joining with the United States and others in lowering trade barriers, resolving problems of currency and commodities and developing coordinated policies in all other economic diplomatic and political areas.
Page 257 - As this effort for independence, inspired by the spirit of the American Declaration of Independence, now approaches a successful close, a great new effort — for interdependence — is transforming the world about us. And the spirit of that new effort is the same spirit which gave birth to the American Constitution. That spirit is today most clearly seen across the Atlantic Ocean. The nations of Western Europe, long divided by feuds more bitter than any which existed among the Thirteen Colonies,...
Page 5 - The great struggles of the twentieth century between liberty and totalitarianism ended with a decisive victory for the forces of freedom — and a single sustainable model for national success: freedom, democracy, and free enterprise.

About the author (2008)

Gabor Steingart is an internationally bestselling author and the senior correspondent for Der Spiegel in Washington D.C., where he lives with his family. He has been awarded The Economic Writer of the Year award in Germany, and in 2007 he won the Helmut Schmidt Award for Advanced Journalism. His op-ed pieces are published in the Wall Street Journal and European Affairs. Steingart's weekly column “West Wing - The Battle for the White House” appears on Speigel Online (www.spiegel.de/westwing) and on RealClearPolitics.com.

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