There are various definitions of what globalization is, and there are numerous effects that it has and will continue to have on the world, both beneficial and detrimental. Joseph E. Stiglitz's book, Globalization And Its Discontents, covers the topic of globalization while critiquing the IMF (International Monetary Fund), World Bank, United States Treasury, ILO (International Labor Organization), WHO (World Health Organization), WTO (World Trade Organization), and a few other leading organizations in the area. In this book, Stiglitz focuses mostly on the IMF and the World Bank as he says, " they have been at the center of the major economic issues of the last two decades- There have been many major economic events over the last decade, including the Asian economic crisis and the transition of the former Soviet economies, as well as the administration of development programs throughout the world, and Stiglitz goes into detail about these situations and how certain programs have helped and hurt developing nations.
The opening paragraph of this book really caught my attention. Over the past decade, protests have grown stronger, and people have become enraptured with fury. Stiglitz explains, "Virtually every major meeting of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization is now the scene of conflict and turmoil." Globalization has brought so much good, yet remains a highly controversial topic. I heard of the protests in Seattle and Genoa, but these events were made out to be extreme riots, and many of the times both sides of the story were not explained. These riots and protests are not new. They have been going on for decades, but this information is not made known to the mass populations. It seems as if for a while only people in developing nations were protesting. However, over the years, people in developed nations have also started to take a stand in the existing debate.
