Sigo añadiendo las cosas que voy encontrando que juzgo merecedoras de ser leídas:
La paradoja de la globalización
En esta crítica incisiva, Dani Rodrik combina el relato histórico con astutas observaciones que cuestionan la creencia de que el avance de la globalización es inevitable e inevitablemente positivo y argumenta que la globalización va acompañada necesariamente de tensiones muy graves. La paradoja de la globalización plantea un tema que ha adquirido, a raíz de la crisis del Euro, una candente actualidad. Se trata del conflicto entre decisiones democráticas a escala de cada nación y decisiones tecnocráticas a escala supranacional. En el libro, el autor presenta un argumento a favor de un modelo de globalización atemperado, que sea respetuoso con las democracias nacionales y que esté fundamentado en un entramado muy elemental de reglas internacionales. Ahora que nos enfrentamos a unos desafíos globales tanto en el comercio, como en las finanzas como en los mercados laborales, la bien fundamentada propuesta de Rodrik muestra el camino hacia una prosperidad equilibrada y sostenible.
In 1900 international trade reached unprecedented levels and the world’s economies were more open to one another than ever before. Then as now, many people considered globalization to be inevitable and irreversible. Yet the entire edifice collapsed in a few months in 1914.
Globalization is a choice, not a fact. It is a result of policy decisions and the politics that shape them. Jeffry A. Frieden’s insightful history explores the golden age of globalization during the early years of the century, its swift collapse in the crises of 1914-45, the divisions of the Cold War world, and the turn again toward global integration at the end of the century. His history is full of character and event, as entertaining as it is enlightening.
Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital
echnological Revolutions and Financial Capital presents a novel interpretation of the good and bad times in the economy, taking a long-term perspective and linking technology and finance in an original and convincing way. Carlota Perez draws upon Schumpeter’s theories of the clustering of innovations to explain why each technological revolution gives rise to a paradigm shift and a ‘New Economy’ and how these ‘opportunity explosions’, focused on specific industries, also lead to the recurrence of financial bubbles and crises. These findings are illustrated with examples from the past two centuries: the industrial revolution, the age of steam and railways, the age of steel and electricity, the emergence of mass production and automobiles, and the current information revolution/knowledge society. By analyzing the changing relationship between finance capital and production capital during the emergence, diffusion and assimilation of new technologies throughout the global economic system, this seminal book sheds new light on some of the most pressing economic problems of today. A bold interpretation of how the changing relationship between technological advances and financial capital shapes the patterns of economic cycles, this path-breaking book will provide essential insights for business leaders, policymakers, academics and others concerned with managing change in the world economy.
Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation
“Made me look at the industrial revolution, invention, sleeping beauties, contexts and the forces that shape our societies differently.”-David Byrne, New York Times Book Review How the history of technological revolutions can help us better understand economic and political polarization in the age of automation From the Industrial Revolution to the age of artificial intelligence, The Technology Trap takes a sweeping look at the history of technological progress and how it has radically shifted the distribution of economic and political power among society’s members. As Carl Benedikt Frey shows, the Industrial Revolution created unprecedented wealth and prosperity over the long run, but the immediate consequences of mechanization were devastating for large swaths of the population. Middle-income jobs withered, wages stagnated, the labor share of income fell, profits surged, and economic inequality skyrocketed. These trends, Frey documents, broadly mirror those in our current age of automation, which began with the Computer Revolution. Just as the Industrial Revolution eventually brought about extraordinary benefits for society, artificial intelligence systems have the potential to do the same. But Frey argues that this depends on how the short term is managed. In the nineteenth century, workers violently expressed their concerns over machines taking their jobs. The Luddite uprisings joined a long wave of machinery riots that swept across Europe and China. Today’s despairing middle class has not resorted to physical force, but their frustration has led to rising populism and the increasing fragmentation of society. As middle-class jobs continue to come under pressure, there’s no assurance that positive attitudes to technology will persist. The Industrial Revolution was a defining moment in history, but few grasped its enormous consequences at the time. The Technology Trap demonstrates that in the midst of another technological revolution, the lessons of the past can help us to more effectively face the present.
