Jeffry Frieden's Global Capitalism

In Global Capitalism, Jeffry Frieden makes a pioneering attempt at pointing out the key economic and political events that framed the global economy during the last century to the present. He provides an account of the rise and fall from the golden age of globalization, especially its peak years from 1896 to 1914, the post-World War I and II till present condition. The book is divided into four equally covered periods: Last Best Years of the Golden Age, 1896-1914; Things Fall Apart 1914-1939; Together Again, 1939-1973 and Globalization, 1973-2000. Each period describes political events and economic developments, across the regions and in the countries and also analyzes global trends.
The Battle of Waterloo, in which Nepolean was defeated by …show more content…
The allies turned into enemies and international conflict led to mass economic distress. Central and eastern Europe suffered the most. Wealthy class protected themselves by taking their fortune abroad and investing in real assets, but the middle-class suffered a great deal, they lost their savings in a very short time. One of results of WW1 was the rise of America as the world’s biggest economic power. American manufactured products tripled during wars and by 1925, when British and German returned to their pre-war state, American economy was 50% bigger as compared to 1914 (pg.132). In order to finance the war France and Britain borrowed from America and afterwards America insisted on returning the debt considering that it was a business deal. Hyperinflation was the worst outcome of the war which ended in 1923. John Marinard Keynes was the main personality of the world’s economical thought. His ideology was that 1923 crises should be dealt with New Deal and state intervention. The technological progress continued as radio, television, refrigerator and airplane emerged changing lifestyle. Automobile industry became most popular and brought drastic change in economy. Europe tried to catch up with America but the cars were not affordable for working class. USA, 1913:0.5 million vehicles; 1921:10 million vehicles.1939: USA 29 million, Europe 8 million vehicles (pg.159). Due to WW1 new techniques …show more content…
By the end of 60s American shares in world shrunk greatly due to impressive growth of other countries. Dollar was considered less reliable and was pegged to gold. In 70s the world was in turmoil. Oil shocks, inflation, recession and critical political situation between east and west raged in the whole world. This was stopped in 1979 by new FED government whose main policy was to fight inflation as a consequence a better climate was created for business communities. A gap in technological development was created between socialist countries and west. They didn’t foster technological innovation till 70s. By the end of twentieth century capitalism proved to be the best solution and was the dominant ideology as it was in the beginning of twentieth century. It was hence concluded that liberalization and free trade can maximize development.
Frieden ends with a survey not only of the failures of globalization—especially for very poor states that remain outside the framework of open trade capital markets—but also of the challenge to the world due to globalization of rich countries whose citizens believe that trade and immigration have adversely affected their income. Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. That is the lesson of this account of the history of capitalism from the first Golden Age of globalization in the late 19th century to the