Synopses & Reviews
Conventional wisdom portrays globalization as competition among countriesAmerica versus Mexico or China or Europe. But today the rich and powerful of every nation have more in common with each other than they do with their fellow citizens who must work for a living. What's good for General Motorsor Microsoft, Exxon, or Wal-Martis no longer good for America.
In The Global Class War, Jeff Faux argues that the politics of the new world market is dominated by a virtual "Party of Davos," the globe-trotting network of corporate investors and CEOs, and the politicians and journalists who work on their behalf. Clinton and his treasury secretary, Robert Rubin, and Bush and his defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, may use different strategies, but they promote the same globalization agenda in which the benefits go to America's corporate investorsand the costs are paid by ordinary Americans in outsourced jobs, military casualties, and an unsustainable foreign debt.
Faux shows how NAFTA, the WTO, and similar "free-trade" agreements are really deals among the global elite to rip up the social contract that allows the benefits of capitalism to be broadly shared. As the first secretary-general of the WTO admitted, they make up "the constitution of a single global economy." Its Bill of Rights protects just one citizenthe large transnational corporation.
Global corporations with American names are profitable, but the competitiveness of the people, businesses, and communities rooted in the U.S. economy is relentlessly deteriorating. America's workers, from the unskilled to highly educated design engineers and research scientists, have been set adrift in a sea of dog-eat-dog competition that guarantees a substantial drop in their living standards. The illusion of prosperity has been maintained by the biggest borrowing binge in history, but we are rushing toward a day of painful reckoning. Why aren't American business elites worried? Because their competitiveness is no longer tied to America's.
To escape this trap, Faux makes a powerful case for new cross-border politics to support the democratic redesign of globalization, beginning with the now integrated economies of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Both in the way this book defines globalization's core problem and in its vision of how to resolve it, The Global Class War will affect political debate in America and the world for years to come.
Review
* Why, in 1993, did the newly elected Bill Clinton pass the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pro-business measure invented by his political adversaries and opposed by his allies in labor and the environment? The answer, according to Faux, is that Clinton was less devoted to his base than to his fellow elites, rewarding their donations to the Democratic Party with access to Mexico's cheap labor and lax environmental standards. With a fluid grasp of both history and economics, Faux, founder of the Economic Policy Institute, critiques both Democrats and Republicans for protecting transnational corporations ""while abandoning the rest of us to an unregulated, and therefore brutal and merciless, global market."" Faux describes how free trade and globalization have encouraged businesses to become nationless enterprises detached from the economic well-being of any single country, to the detriment of all but transnational elites. He details the genesis of NAFTA and the failure of the agreement to deliver on its promises to workers, predicting a severe American recession as its legacy. But Faux sees hope for North America in the model of the European Union, a pie-in-the-sky conclusion to this incisive, rancorous book. (Jan.) (Publishers Weekly, November 7, 2005)
Review
"Globalization is a cover for American imperialism, but the beneficiaries are not the American people at the expense of foreigners but corporate executives at the expense of working and poor people wherever they may be. Jeff Faux offers a comprehensive and devastating analysis."
--Chalmers Johnson, author of The Sorrows of Empire
"You will never think about 'free trade' the same way after reading Jeff Faux's superb book. This book should transform public discourse in America."
--Robert Kuttner, author of Everything for Sale
Review
Why, in 1993, did the newly elected Bill Clinton pass the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pro-business measure invented by his political adversaries and opposed by his allies in labor and the environment? The answer, according to Faux, is that Clinton was less devoted to his base than to his fellow elites, rewarding their donations to the Democratic Party with access to Mexico's cheap labor and lax environmental standards. With a fluid grasp of both history and economics, Faux, founder of the Economic Policy Institute, critiques both Democrats and Republicans for protecting transnational corporations "while abandoning the rest of us to an unregulated, and therefore brutal and merciless, global market." Faux describes how free trade and globalization have encouraged businesses to become nationless enterprises detached from the economic well-being of any single country, to the detriment of all but transnational elites. He details the genesis of NAFTA and the failure of the agreement to deliver on its promises to workers, predicting a severe American recession as its legacy. But Faux sees hope for North America in the model of the European Union, a pie-in-the-sky conclusion to this incisive, rancorous book. (Jan.) (Publishers Weekly, November 7, 2005)
Synopsis
"You will never think about 'free trade' the same way after reading Jeff Faux's superb book. This book should transform public discourse in America."
Robert Kuttner, author of Everything for Sale
America is in serious economic trouble but don't expect our leaders to do anything about it. Thanks to globalization, America's rich and powerful now have more in common with the governing classes of other nations than they have with ordinary Americans. In Global Class War, economic commentator Jeff Faux explains the way both Democratic and Republican leaders have used so-called trade agreements to write a new global constitution that protects only one kind of citizen the corporate investor. With the U.S. economy about to drown in a sea of rising red ink and American corporations relentlessly outsourcing our jobs and technology, a deep economic crisis is in the cards. Jeff Faux concludes this blistering expose with a convincing vision of a prosperous and democratic North America that could benefit every American, not just those at the top.
Synopsis
Acclaim for The Global Class War
""You will never think about 'free trade' the same way after reading Jeff Faux's superb book. As Faux makes clear, the globalization debate is really about whose interests are served by global elites, and how we need to go about reclaiming a democracy that serves ordinary people. This book should transform public discourse in America.""
-Robert Kuttner, founding coeditor of the American Prospect and a contributing columnist to BusinessWeek
""Jeff Faux's astonishing story of how class works will scandalize the best names in Wall Street and Washington-especially the much admired Robert Rubin, who along with other elites colluded behind the backs of ordinary citizens in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. The most cynical Americans will be shocked by the sordid details. This really is an important book.""
-William Greider, author of The Soul of Capitalism and Secrets of the Temple
""Globalization is a cover for American imperialism, but the beneficiaries are not the American people at the expense of foreigners but corporate executives at the expense of working-class and poor people wherever they may be. Jeff Faux offers a comprehensive and devastating analysis.""
-Chalmers Johnson, author of The Sorrows of Empire
Synopsis
-Chalmers Johnson, author of The Sorrows of Empire
Synopsis
Acclaim for The Global Class War
You will never think about 'free trade' the same way after reading Jeff Faux's superb book. As Faux makes clear, the globalization debate is really about whose interests are served by global elites, and how we need to go about reclaiming a democracy that serves ordinary people. This book should transform public discourse in America.
-Robert Kuttner, founding coeditor of the American Prospect and a contributing columnist to BusinessWeek
Jeff Faux's astonishing story of how class works will scandalize the best names in Wall Street and Washington-especially the much admired Robert Rubin, who along with other elites colluded behind the backs of ordinary citizens in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. The most cynical Americans will be shocked by the sordid details. This really is an important book.
-William Greider, author of The Soul of Capitalism and Secrets of the Temple
Globalization is a cover for American imperialism, but the beneficiaries are not the American people at the expense of foreigners but corporate executives at the expense of working-class and poor people wherever they may be. Jeff Faux offers a comprehensive and devastating analysis.
-Chalmers Johnson, author of The Sorrows of Empire
Synopsis
Acclaim for The Global Class War
"You will never think about 'free trade' the same way after reading Jeff Faux's superb book. As Faux makes clear, the globalization debate is really about whose interests are served by global elites, and how we need to go about reclaiming a democracy that serves ordinary people. This book should transform public discourse in America."
-Robert Kuttner, founding coeditor of the American Prospect and a contributing columnist to BusinessWeek
"Jeff Faux's astonishing story of how class works will scandalize the best names in Wall Street and Washington-especially the much admired Robert Rubin, who along with other elites colluded behind the backs of ordinary citizens in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. The most cynical Americans will be shocked by the sordid details. This really is an important book."
-William Greider, author of The Soul of Capitalism and Secrets of the Temple
"Globalization is a cover for American imperialism, but the beneficiaries are not the American people at the expense of foreigners but corporate executives at the expense of working-class and poor people wherever they may be. Jeff Faux offers a comprehensive and devastating analysis."
-Chalmers Johnson, author of The Sorrows of Empire
About the Author
Jeff Faux (Washington, DC) is principal founder and President Emeritus of the Economic Policy Institute. He has written for the Washington Post, the Nation, the New York Times, USA Today, and Harper's.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments.
Introduction.
1. NAFTA: Class Reunion.
2. “Good Jobs” and Other Global Deceptions.
3. The Governing Class: America’s Worst-Kept Secret.
4. How Reagan and Thatcher Stole Globalization.
5. A Bipartisan Empire.
6. Alan, Larry, and Bob Save the Privileged.
7. NAFTA: Who Got What?
8. The Constitution According to Davos.
9. America Abandoned.
10. After the Fall.
11. Imagining North America.
12. Toward, and Beyond, a Continental Democracy.
Notes.
Index.