Daniel Altman, nüfuzlu işadamlarının, bankaların ve sokaktaki insanın fikirlerini bir araya getirerek sizi ondan fazla şehirde 24 saatlik baş döndürücü bir yolculuğa çıkartıyor. Her durakta, dünya çalışanlarının bir gün içinde meydana gelen olaylarda kendilerine düşen rolü nasıl oynadıklarını okuyacaksınız. Kendi sözcükleriyle dile getirdikleri öyküleri, sizi zorlu soruları yepyeni biçimlerde ele almaya sevk edecek:
· Fakir ülkeler çabucak zenginleşebilirler mi?
· Yolsuzluk iyi bir şey olabilir mi?
· Rekabet edebilir durumda olmaları için şirketlerin krize girmeleri şart mı?
· Fikirlerin sahiplerinin olması ekonomiye ne yarar sağlar?
· Göç bir lüks mü, yoksa bir ihtiyaç mı?
· Petrol fiyatlarını ne(ler) belirler?
· Dünya para arzını kim kontrol ediyor?
· Hepsinden önemlisi, bireylerin aldığı milyarlarca karar geleceği nasıl değiştiriyor?
Küresel Ekonomide 24 Saat, kısmen gezi rehberi, kısmen bir el kılavuzu. Yirmi birinci yüzyılın küresel ekonomi vatandaşları için kapsamlı, ulaşılabilir ve gerekli bir yol haritası.
Daniel Altman is an American-born author, journalist and economist. His latest book, Connected: 24 Hours in the Global Economy, was published in May 2007 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He is also the author of Neoconomy: George Bush's Revolutionary Gamble With America's Future, which was published by PublicAffairs in 2004.
Altman began his career as an academic economist with a doctorate from Harvard University. His first job outside the ivory tower was as the London- based economics correspondent for The Economist. Later he became one of the youngest-ever members of the editorial board of The New York Times. He current writes regular columns on globalization for the International Herald Tribune. In between, he was an economic adviser to the British government.
For the past year, Altman has been writing a weekday blog for the Herald Tribune called Managing Globalization. He lives in Buenos Aires, Hong Kong and New York. (from the author's website)"
i think the task of explaining the interconnectedness of the global economy might have been too daunting a task for one book. maybe my hopes were too high, but the chapters were more like snapshots from the global economy instead of an attempt to explain the 'web' of globalization.
High four stars. The book should have been titled "24 Hours in the Financial Markets" because a majority of the snippets were about members of that industry. Obviously, as a fellow member, I enjoyed the snippets, and this would have been five stars for me, had the narrative been more cohesive. The thing that holds back the fifth star for me is really the framing of the premise as the "global economy " Granted, financial markets are of course integral to the global economy, but other economic books have been successful in focusing on the lived economy and not on the financial markets part. Also, it was quite odd talking about emerging markets, yet the vignettes (fun as they may be) go back to a US or European institution. Might it have been because the author didn't have too much access to boots on the economic ground? Perhaps; still it was a bit of a disappointment.
Nonetheless, I would be happy to recommend this to friends who wish to take a look at mid-2000s global finance. Let's not get too hasty about the "economy" bit though.
"For 2006, the World Bank ranked China 91st out of 155 countries for the ease of doing business. China offered a particularly difficult climate for starting a business, getting credit, dealing with licenses, and paying taxes; it ranked no higher than 113th in any of those categories." (69)
"For example, I already stayed in Fujian since 1996, while my hukou (permanent residence permit) is still in Guanghan County, Sichuan Province. Without a local hukou, it meas that you will lose many advantages that local people have, such as the allowance on education, health, communication, and the entry condition for a better job in government and public organizations. Migrant workers, in the words of the government, have to live temporarily in their motherland." (quoting Zheng Rongde, 206)
An attempt to describe one 24 hour period in the global economy as an interconnected web of causes and effects which was hit and miss overall. It was just a collection of anecdotes from many points of view, some more interesting and/or insightful than others. One example which was actually a pretty good narrative was the partnership between Napster and Ericsson as an example of an older, established tech business trying to join forces with a newbie tech startup just finding its feet. It was fascinating. Some were a little dry, though. Hence the "hit and miss."
I almost feel like I should rate it higher, but just cant bring myself to it. it can be a fun read, but I think we can all see how connected our economies are without reading this book. Perhaps it could be a beneficial book for someone with limited understanding of the economy.