1 comments about Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of Government in East Asian Industrialization.

1. "Governing the Market" is almost certainly the seminal work on Taiwan's economic development. The work gives a detailed account of the ways in which state intervention actively promoted economic growth, contrary to the protestations of the IMF-led "Washington Consensus". Rather than focusing on polemical argument, as is so often the case in political economy, Wade's study is extremely detailed and persuasive, explaining both the economics, but also the politics of corruption (and how even corruption can be harnessed into economic productivity).
   
   Personally, I think Wade may have underestimated the importance of widespread education, effective infrastructure, and significant quantities of US aid compared with other parts of the developing world as "lubricants" to jump-starting the economy. Nevertheless, his argument that the state-imposed redistribution of agricultural land went a long ways to generating the necessary surplus for development is solid. Wade also recognizes that this surplus was then harnessed by a government savings-and-loan structure that facilitated capital investment in domestic heavy industry (the "commanding heights" of the economy) - often a difficult task to accomplish. As Wade convincingly contends, there was a significant amount of East Asian-style Fabian socialism involved in Taiwan's development - and the Taiwanese were remarkably successful because of it - despite some of the roadbumps encountered by others who tried to replicate the model (the quasi-successful states of SE Asia: Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia).
   
   The first 150 pages of this volume and the conclusion, at minimum, are a must-read for any serious student of developmental economics or political economy. This edition is especially useful because the introduction convincingly addresses claims that rent-seeking led to the 1997-8 crisis with substantial evidence (supported by even conservative economists like Jagdish Bhagwati at Columbia) that excessive portfolio liberalization in the real estate sector was the leading cause of the 1997-8 crash - and even accounting for this, Taiwan and South Korea each recovered remarkably well in a short period of time, and have now joined the ranks of the first world.

No comments about The Multinational Corporation in China: Controlling Interests (Organization and Strategy).

3 comments about Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management.

1. As a subscriber to the view that capitalists, for the most part, are heroes and that capitalism, for the most part, is the best of breed, I could have done without the editor's spin. This aside, trilateralism should be of interest to everyone who has an interest in globalism and the global economy; it contains a great deal of information not readily elsewhere. The unheralded contributions of the trilateralists will become evident upon a reading of this book; disregard the spin. I did.



2. This book is an important first step in understanding the corporate world, and what the ideaology of "profit over everything" is doing to the natural and human world.

   Some ideas from Paul Hawkin's "The Ecology of Commerce" (but don't believe him...look it up):
   *we have decimated ninety-seven percent of the forests in North America
   *every day we draw out 20 billion more gallons of water from the ground than are replaced by rainfall
   *the Ogalala Aquifer, an underwater river beneath the Great Plains larger than any body of fresh water on earth, will dry up within thirty to forty years at present rates of extraction
   *globally we lose 25 billion tons of fertile topsoil every year, the equivalent of all the wheatfields in Australia

   Call that "leftist BS" if you will, but there is something going on in the world that will reveal it self whether you are or are not looking. Our current business practices are destroying the very infrastructure on which our business ideaology is built upon. If you don't think so, you haven't been paying attention.




3. Trilateralism is a magnificient collection of essays that tackle the trilateral commission's policies for world management and domination.
   Even though this book was published over twenty years ago, it gives you the sense of the here and now, because we are witnessing and living today most of these poilicies that the elites have planned for us many years ago. The projected theories of the past have become the policies of the present.
   This book will provide the reader with a very educating and enlightening experience.

No comments about Samuelsonian Economics and the Twenty-First Century.

No comments about European Economy 1914-2000.

No comments about New Stakes in the Caucasus and Central Asia: Caspian Energy Resources and International Affairs.

No comments about Can Russia Compete?.

No comments about Japan: Who Governs?: The Rise of the Developmental State.

5 comments about European Integration, 1950-2003: Superstate or New Market Economy?.

1. European Integration is one of my favorites topics. I do not share the author's euro skepticism but I enjoyed his discussion about different theories of integration. However, I cannot recommend a book with so many factual errors about modern history of my native Spain. I do not know who told Mr. Gillingham that Prime Minister Felipe González was know as Pepe (it is González and not Gonzáles by the way), that the socialist inspired trade union is the Unión de Centro Democrático (as opposed to the Union General de Trabajadores) that the deputy PM name was Juan Guerra (as opposed to Alfonso Guerra) or that the Bank of Spain intervened BANESTA (as opposed to BANESTO). I recommend a full revision if this book is ever to be translated into Spanish and/or sold in Spain. I can only hope that he got the facts of the rest of the countries right.



2. Unlike the last reviewer who had to review this work three times to air his/her views on this work, I will only need one. The author is extremely precise in his wording, and very knowledgeable with the subject matter presented. The book is a pleasure to read, and a great addition to the library of anyone with an avid interest in Europe.



3. We need a one-volume history of European Integration, but not this five hundred page panegyric to...Margaret Thatcher? In Gillingham's funhouse, Thatcher is the key figure in European Integration, receiving more attention than any of the individuals who actually tried to integrate Europe, most of whom are dismissed, often in very personal terms. European integration indeed disappears from the book sometimes for sixty pages at a time while the author reviews political developments of right-wing governments in...New Zealand? A very distorted understanding of European integration.



4. But my review will still change the rating. BWA HA HA.



5. Mr. Gillingham is the most informed and erudite American scholar in regards to the EU. Well done.

No comments about The Virtuous Spiral: A Guide to Sustainability for NGO's in International Development.