Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace

by Matthew C. Klein, Michael Pettis Narrated by Bob Souer

Overview

A provocative look at how today's trade conflicts are caused by governments promoting the interests of elites at the expense of workers.



Trade disputes are usually understood as conflicts between countries with competing national interests, but as Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis show in this book, they are often the unexpected result of domestic political choices to serve the interests of the rich at the expense of workers and ordinary retirees.



Klein and Pettis trace the origins of today's trade wars to decisions made by politicians and business leaders in China, Europe, and the United States over the past thirty years. Across the world, the rich have prospered while workers can no longer afford to buy what they produce, have lost their jobs, or have been forced into higher levels of debt. In this thought-provoking challenge to mainstream views, the authors provide a cohesive narrative that shows how the class wars of rising inequality are a threat to the global economy and international peace-and what we can do about it.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The authors weave a complex tapestry of monetary, fiscal and social policies through history and offer opinions about what went right and what went wrong. . . . Worth reading for their insights into the history of trade and finance.”—George Melloan, Wall Street Journal

“This is a very important book.”—Martin Wolf, Financial Times

“An eagle-eyed perspective on the global economy, underpinned by close analysis and a remarkable clarity of exposition. The book is a terrific survey of the forces behind today’s global trade tensions and imbalances.”—Ann Pettifor, Times Literary Supplement

“[O]ffers a deeper argument about the source of the trouble.”—The Economist

“Matthew Klein and Michael Pettis have successfully woven a grand narrative linking income inequality, geopolitics, trade, finance and even environmental issues.”—Maximilian Kärnfelt, Merics China Briefing Newsletter

“[Klein and Pettis] pack into just a few hundred pages a sweeping and powerful account of the interconnections between cutthroat politics and global economic imbalances.”—Ryan Avent, Strategy + Business

“Elegantly argued and eclectically well-documented.”—Andrew Yamakawa Elrod, New Labor Forum

“Trade Wars Are Class Wars is well-argued, eminently readable . . . and provocative.”—Journal of Economic Literature

Winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize, sponsored by Munk Centre for International Studies

“An erudite, original, and provocative explanation of the global economic imbalances that have been at the root of numerous financial crises.”—Ernesto Zedillo, director, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization

“This is a book that everyone concerned with the global economy should read. A fascinating account of the damage that rising inequality—especially in China and Germany—has done to all our economies.”—Dani Rodrik, Harvard University

Library Journal

05/01/2020

Klein (economics commentator, Barron's) and Pettis (finance, Peking Univ.) demonstrate worldwide effects of the ever-growing wealth inequality within nations and between trading partners. In China, Europe, and many other places workers are extremely productive and very badly paid. Low wage workers cannot afford to buy the products and services they create. Nations deliberately keep wages low, promote rapid and uncontrolled movement of capital, and desperately seek new markets abroad for products unconsumed at home. Klein and Pettis argue that restoration of the post-war social compact tying productivity to rising incomes, relaxation of the toxic fear of government deficits, and Keynesian stimulation of national and international economies will reduce income disparities, raise living standards, and produce peaceful trade. In short, globalist policies have failed. This work explains the self-destructive nature of neo-liberal economic theory which produces regular economic crises both within countries and globally. VERDICT Readers interested in current events, students unaware of ideas that challenge capitalist orthodoxy, and scholars searching for the causes of planetary inequality will all benefit from this book.—Duncan Stewart, Univ. of Iowa Libs., Iowa City

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176240856
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	05/19/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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