John Ralston Saul and The Collapse of Globalism
"MARK COLVIN: Whether you're for it or against it, globalisation has been one of the shaping forces on the world over the last decade or two.
"Now just when some of its apostles see it as being unstoppable, some historians and economists are suggesting that globalisation may not just have peaked but already be in retreat.
"One of them is the Canadian John Ralston Saul, a frequent visitor to Australia whose previous books include Voltaire's Bastards and The Doubter's Companion.
"He's here again and his new book is called The Collapse of Globalism.
"I asked John Ralston Saul this afternoon whether he believed the global pendulum would now swing back towards protectionism.
"JOHN RALSTON SAUL: Hard to know. Nothing in its extreme is particularly good and that, you know, so we've had two and half, three decades of a relatively absolute approach towards the role of economics and the types of economics, with people endlessly saying if you're not in favour of this, then you must be on the other side, you must be a protectionist or a nationalist or something.
"Well the outcome of the process is that since 1995 approximately, you’ve seen a very, very serious return of nationalism.
"You're seeing the return of the worst of populism. You're seeing suddenly in the last three years very serious returns of racism all around the world.
"You're seeing, out of nowhere, you know, the return of God to the tables of government all over the place. I mean in Christianity, in Islam, in Judaism, all over the place suddenly God's there in the most unexpected places.
"Three years ago nobody would have suspected that, you know, that He had that much time on his hands to, you know …"
ABC PM
"Now just when some of its apostles see it as being unstoppable, some historians and economists are suggesting that globalisation may not just have peaked but already be in retreat.
"One of them is the Canadian John Ralston Saul, a frequent visitor to Australia whose previous books include Voltaire's Bastards and The Doubter's Companion.
"He's here again and his new book is called The Collapse of Globalism.
"I asked John Ralston Saul this afternoon whether he believed the global pendulum would now swing back towards protectionism.
"JOHN RALSTON SAUL: Hard to know. Nothing in its extreme is particularly good and that, you know, so we've had two and half, three decades of a relatively absolute approach towards the role of economics and the types of economics, with people endlessly saying if you're not in favour of this, then you must be on the other side, you must be a protectionist or a nationalist or something.
"Well the outcome of the process is that since 1995 approximately, you’ve seen a very, very serious return of nationalism.
"You're seeing the return of the worst of populism. You're seeing suddenly in the last three years very serious returns of racism all around the world.
"You're seeing, out of nowhere, you know, the return of God to the tables of government all over the place. I mean in Christianity, in Islam, in Judaism, all over the place suddenly God's there in the most unexpected places.
"Three years ago nobody would have suspected that, you know, that He had that much time on his hands to, you know …"
ABC PM
1 Comments:
Joseph Stiglitz also seems to be noting some downside to globalisation: http://guambatstew.blogspot.com/2005/09/temper-tantrums.html
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