Greetings:
I
apologize that I cannot provide a link to video of this interview I’m
promoting, rather than a link to the transcript, but it is worthwhile reading,
especially for those of you on FW who are interested in the debate about
globalization. I was struck by
this woman’s young age and her striking focus. I know, you thought I was going to
write “striking beauty”. Well,
she was pretty but it was the look in her eye and verbal assurance that caught
my attention. Tell me, O Wise
Ones, is it mature knowledge or youthful confidence? Are her ideas creative fiction or
imaginative solutions?
http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_hertz.html
Bill
Moyers interview with Noreena Hertz, author of Silent Takeover, Global Capitalism and
the Death of Democracy.
Free
Press; ISBN: 0743234782; (June 2002) 247 pages
“Noreena
Hertz was born in England, received her MBA from Wharton School of Business
and her Ph.D in economics from the University of Cambridge, where she is
Associate Director of the Centre for International Business. Ten
years ago she helped Russia organize its first stock
market.”
And
a five-star reader review from amazon.com:
“Obviously
written for a general audience, not an academic or business one, the
arguments, and the examples used, have appeared elsewhere, but these separate
strands are woven together into a tapestry that looks a lot like the writing
on the wall.
First
Hertz narrates how we arrived at globalization and then identifies a number of
problems with globalization: the polarizing of rich and poor as the rich get
ever richer and poor get ever more numerous (with the consequent loss of
social cohesion), the decision making of the WTO and IMF, who rely on economic
criteria alone, when the consequences of those decisions are not only
economic, the purchasing of political power by multinational corporations with
the resulting cynicism and apathy of voters, the promoting of business
interests instead of public interests through the media after the media has
been consolidated into large conglomerates, relying on the new consumerism and
shareholder activism by a minority instead of political action by a majority
and relying on temporary charity by the super rich and multinational
corporations instead of permanent governmental action to promote social and
economic justice and equality.
Hertz
has a common sense solution: "In a world of global capital, politics must be
reframed at the global level, too."
Six steps will globalize politics: Minimum health, safety and welfare
standards at work, international regulation of multinationals, a global legal
aid fund, a World Social Organization, steps to reduce economic inequality
(such as debt reduction and increased aid) and a global tax
authority. This
is, well, optimistic. (A World Social Organization that does anything besides
talk? Yeah, right.)”
And
publisher’s comments via wonderful Powell’s bookstore in Portland:
http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=62-0743234782-0
“Named
one of the best books of the year by The
Sunday Times of London, and already a bestseller in England,
Noreena Hertz's The Silent
Takeover explains how corporations in the age of globalization are
changing our lives, our society, and our future -- and are threatening the
very basis of our democracy.
Of the
world's 100 largest economies, fifty-one are now corporations, only forty-nine
are nation-states. The sales of General Motors and Ford are greater than the
GDP (gross domestic product) of the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, and Wal-Mart
now has a turnover higher than the revenues of most of the states of Eastern
Europe. Yet few of us are fully aware of the growing dominance of big
business: newspapers continue to place news of the actions of governments on
the front page, with business news relegated to the inside pages. But do
governments really have more influence over our lives than businesses? Do the
parties for which we vote have any real freedom of choice in their
actions?”
Regards,
Karen Watters
Cole
