Daily Times

The book ‘The War for wealth: the true story of Globalization’ authored by Gabor Steingart gives a clear insight about the effects of globalization on the US economy and Chinese firms that benefited from the US multinationals at a larger scale in both service and manufacturing industries in terms of domestic share in jobs and profit. Thus, according to the author, the Europeans and the Americans who dreamed of more power and wealth ended up getting nothing but war and destruction. The author gives a historical example, where the financial districts of the world came under severe attack due to two horrendous World Wars even the city of London was rebuilt and the world financial Centre which was previously headquartered in London was shifted to New York. According to the author, the concept of peaceful exchange of goods and services remained in the pages of classical economic textbooks. The writer goes on to emphasize that David Ricardo favoured very humbly the peaceful exchange of goods but Karl Marx understood the cleverness of capitalism which haunted ‘have-nots’ for centuries.

In chapter three ‘The American Century: A Final Appraisal’, the author mentions how an immigrant nation emerged on the stage of global supremacy over centuries with a powerful dream of ruling the world. According to the author, the US not only became a ‘Great Power’ but a ‘powerful Empire’ of the modern century, similar to how the Roman Empire was viewed in its time. He went on to mention that, like the proconsul of the Roman Empire, the US military now has five regional commands distributed around the globe, controlling operations in North America, the Middle East, Latin America, Pacific region, and in Europe; with approximately 320,000 American troops stationed outside Europe. The author elucidates that, the spirit of the Unity can be manifested in the aspiring remarks of the American founding father Benjamin Franklin “If we do not stand together, we will all hang alone”. Likewise, the Nation has built itself without national concept and without national people.

The US not only became a ‘Great Power’ but a ‘powerful Empire’ of the modern century, similar to how the Roman Empire was viewed in its time

In his famous topic, ‘The dollar Illusion’, the author mentions that America is regulating world financial markets through the dollar and it is the US Dollar which regulates the overall balance of goods, services and money. Though, according to the writer America is no longer the seller of industrial products but it is unbeatable when it comes to the selling of dollars. Likewise, during this period, US lost about one third of its economic strength and the dollar is slowly losing its real value on a global scale.

In Chapter four ‘The New Rivals: the Asian Challenge’, he praises the policies of Deng Xiaoping, who became the great reformer when he came to power in 1976, after the death of Mao Zedong. That year, according to the author, China became heaven for US companies as China prepared itself for future economic competition; because under Deng, private initiative returned to China and millions of Chinese citizens got their first taste of prosperity. This was the day, when China dreamed of becoming the Asian Power first, then world power and that dream exists till today — China a rising Asian Challenge. According to the writer, although India has a burdensome past, but it will soon join China in the Asian race.

In the chapter five ‘The Flat world is broken’ writer rejects the claims of Thomas L Friedman that “the world is flat”. According to the author, it was the demise of the Soviet Union that brought together Western Europe and America. Likewise, the countries in the region had drawn a flat line along the coast of Europe to Atlantic. So, according to the writer the world is no flatter because integrated Europe is falling apart and now the US is in no position to rescue the European hemisphere.

‘The War for wealth: the true story of Globalization’
Author: Gabor Steingart
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education;
Pgs: 313

In chapter six, ‘The United States of the West: its journey, not a destination’, the writer vividly mentions that United States will soon lose the confidence of western Europe because of the China’s growing influence on the global scale and according to global forecasts China will become the economic hegemon after 2035, with its $ 38 trillion economy leaving US behind at $ 25 trillion. Thus, according to the author, America will no longer be able to lead international politics because America is taking a long journey with no clear destination.

However, the fact cannot be denied that America is slowly losing its global influence as the sole hegemonic power because of close regional integrations and new emerging economic powers like China, India and Brazil. But America will not back down so easily because America is unbeatable in terms of Human resource and competitive technology and China is in no position to employ updated technology itself, because more than 50 percent of China’s populations is still living in rural centres, who are unacquainted with science and technology. On the other hand, the economic growth rate of China slowed down in recent years while US’ economy has improved and this shows that China is not well positioned to take over US as a global leader. Another point included in the book is about the rise of Asia, which is a floating and volatile region because of regional rivalries between countries and it is impossible for China to bring all countries of the region under one umbrella to challenge the West. In a nutshell, the author undermines US’ power on the basis of economic and growth related progress which is not enough to sideline it on global matters because America does not only have economic might (Soft Power) but military might (Hard Power) as well.

Published in Daily Times, October 30^th 2018.