Unholy Trinity: The IMF, World Bank and WTO
by Richard Peet
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List Price: $36.95
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Manufacturer: Zed Books
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.15
EAN: 9781842770733
ISBN: 184277073X
Label: Zed Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2003-11-29
Publisher: Zed Books
Studio: Zed Books
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Devastating critique of globalization,but errors are made about Smith and Keynes
Comment: Peet is largely correct in his claims that the International Monetary Fund(IMF),World Bank(WB),and World Trade Organization(WTO) have ,since 1981,mistakenly imposed inappropriate constraints on Second and Third World countries that have sought international aid over the last 37 years.The imposition of a laissez-faire " free market " framework on countries in Africa,Asia, and South America that have no developed legal,political,social, or economic institutions,no independent judiciary or police force,no system for enforcing basic tort law,etc., means that such policies were doomed to fail from the beginning.The necessary conditions do not exist in many of these countries for economic development since property rights are not enforced or respected.Laws are broken regularly with complete impunity.Too many of these countries are simply strong man dictatorships that simply loot the loans provided by the WB and IMF.A perfect recent example is Kenya.Billions of dollars in loans for infrastructure investment have simply melted into thin air.
The book is marred by some inaccurate assessments of Adam Smith(pp.4-5,10) and J M Keynes(p.7,p.35,ch.2).Smith's concept of self interest does not translate as selfish or greedy.Smith recognizes an important role for government in providing public goods and services,the most important of which is universal education,provided for free if necessary.Smith recognized the existence of a major negative externality that only government could deal with through extensive education(see The Wealth of Nations(WN),pp.734-741,Modern Library (Cannan) edition).Smith's views on trade and tariffs are the opposite of the current views of the IMF,WB,and WTO (See pp.434-439 of WN)
Keynes's GT is also not handled correctly.Investemnt is undertaken in an atmosphere of uncertainty ,as opposed to risk.Uncertainty,not risk,is the major problem.Confidence is important under conditions of uncertainty.Confidence is not a problem under conditions of risk.Finally,Keynes was not in favor of running budget deficits or an activist fiscal policy.Keynes's position was to maintain a low ,fixed rate of interest permanently in the long run a little bit above the prime rate of interest,a la Smith(pp.339-340).This would be combined with a policy of credit restriction that would make the speculators and rentiers the unsatisfied fringe of borrowers.
Overall, I would recommend this book.It could have been much stonger if the authors had understood what it was that Smith and Keynes were arguing for.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Whose Hitler?
Comment: In a word, if you like living in a sovereign nation, then write your Congressional representive, your Senators, and have the US removed from these organizations. There is a real bad element here. World domination bad.
Customer Rating:
Summary: good class action
Comment: This is what university work should be like: a professor leading a group of studnets in common action and collectieley publishing their work. Well done. Lots of good points which the unholy trinity should answer in some forum or other. All three organs are dominated by the US as Stiglitz, Bellamy and others have pointed out. Whether US hegemony is a good or bad thing is a different question.
I felt the book could have done without Foucault, who has little to contribute on the parameters of discourse or much else. The fact is the budgets of these institutions dwarf all others and it makes a welcome change to see an articulate counter point of view, especially as it was a grassroots student project. Definitely worth a read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: good overview of the IMF, World Bank & WTO
Comment: Any one looking for a good, critical overview of the history of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization--the major institutions of international economic governance, the institutional guardians and promoters of neoliberal globalization--should check this book out. It reviews the history of these three organizations in depth. Most analyses of these organizations that I've seen just look at their current policies and critique them. Peet (and the junior student authors who assisted him) add a great deal of historical depth to this, looking at the conditions under which the unhol trinity were founded at the end of World War II, how their missions have changed over time, and the power structures in which these organizations are embedded and part of. He looks at how the changing ways the US government has used these organizations to advance the interests of the US political-economic elite (what Peet et al. call the Washington-Wall Street Alliance) on the world stage. This book also provides a progressive critique of their impact, although other sources probably go into deeper depth on that score. Since Peet is a social scientist, he doesn't just put the problem down to bad intentions, but down to bad social structures--a refreshing change from some of the simple-minded demonization of the elite you can find in some quarters. Peet particularly analyzes how the role of people's beliefs in shaping their actions within these institutions. In some ways, this is the weakest part of the book. He tries to use an analysis of discourse a la Foucault to explain the working of these organizations, explaining how the hegemony of neoclassical economics shuts out any debates of alternatives. While this is valuable, discourse analysis along can not bear the full weight of analyzing the problems with the unholy trinity--you need some sort of political-economic analysis in the lines of world-systems theory or something to make full sense of these organizations. Indeed, Peet lays out his Foucauldian analysis in the first chapter--and then those ideas barely show up again. Honestly, I would suggest anyone who's not an academic just skip the first chapter and read the rest of the book. You won't miss much. After the first chapter though, the book provides a solid overview of the history of the IMF, World Bank and WTO--and through them much of the process of globalization.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Politics of Writing
Comment: The Writers of books like Unholy Trnity make very little money for their hard work (usually a few hundred dollars a year for 3-4 years). They write books like this out of political commitment. And then people like "Not Right" (though he or she probably is, Right Wing) criticize the author for responding to an obviously political critique! This book, as the Publishers Weekly review says, provides a scholarly grounding for the anti-WTO, IMF and World Bank protests. The group of students and faculty who worked on it did a splendid job. Read it and you will see.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Devastating critique of globalization,but errors are made about Smith and Keynes
Comment: Peet is largely correct in his claims that the International Monetary Fund(IMF),World Bank(WB),and World Trade Organization(WTO) have ,since 1981,mistakenly imposed inappropriate constraints on Second and Third World countries that have sought international aid over the last 37 years.The imposition of a laissez-faire " free market " framework on countries in Africa,Asia, and South America that have no developed legal,political,social, or economic institutions,no independent judiciary or police force,no system for enforcing basic tort law,etc., means that such policies were doomed to fail from the beginning.The necessary conditions do not exist in many of these countries for economic development since property rights are not enforced or respected.Laws are broken regularly with complete impunity.Too many of these countries are simply strong man dictatorships that simply loot the loans provided by the WB and IMF.A perfect recent example is Kenya.Billions of dollars in loans for infrastructure investment have simply melted into thin air.
The book is marred by some inaccurate assessments of Adam Smith(pp.4-5,10) and J M Keynes(p.7,p.35,ch.2).Smith's concept of self interest does not translate as selfish or greedy.Smith recognizes an important role for government in providing public goods and services,the most important of which is universal education,provided for free if necessary.Smith recognized the existence of a major negative externality that only government could deal with through extensive education(see The Wealth of Nations(WN),pp.734-741,Modern Library (Cannan) edition).Smith's views on trade and tariffs are the opposite of the current views of the IMF,WB,and WTO (See pp.434-439 of WN)
Keynes's GT is also not handled correctly.Investemnt is undertaken in an atmosphere of uncertainty ,as opposed to risk.Uncertainty,not risk,is the major problem.Confidence is important under conditions of uncertainty.Confidence is not a problem under conditions of risk.Finally,Keynes was not in favor of running budget deficits or an activist fiscal policy.Keynes's position was to maintain a low ,fixed rate of interest permanently in the long run a little bit above the prime rate of interest,a la Smith(pp.339-340).This would be combined with a policy of credit restriction that would make the speculators and rentiers the unsatisfied fringe of borrowers.
Overall, I would recommend this book.It could have been much stonger if the authors had understood what it was that Smith and Keynes were arguing for.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Whose Hitler?
Comment: In a word, if you like living in a sovereign nation, then write your Congressional representive, your Senators, and have the US removed from these organizations. There is a real bad element here. World domination bad.
Customer Rating:
Summary: good class action
Comment: This is what university work should be like: a professor leading a group of studnets in common action and collectieley publishing their work. Well done. Lots of good points which the unholy trinity should answer in some forum or other. All three organs are dominated by the US as Stiglitz, Bellamy and others have pointed out. Whether US hegemony is a good or bad thing is a different question.
I felt the book could have done without Foucault, who has little to contribute on the parameters of discourse or much else. The fact is the budgets of these institutions dwarf all others and it makes a welcome change to see an articulate counter point of view, especially as it was a grassroots student project. Definitely worth a read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: good overview of the IMF, World Bank & WTO
Comment: Any one looking for a good, critical overview of the history of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization--the major institutions of international economic governance, the institutional guardians and promoters of neoliberal globalization--should check this book out. It reviews the history of these three organizations in depth. Most analyses of these organizations that I've seen just look at their current policies and critique them. Peet (and the junior student authors who assisted him) add a great deal of historical depth to this, looking at the conditions under which the unhol trinity were founded at the end of World War II, how their missions have changed over time, and the power structures in which these organizations are embedded and part of. He looks at how the changing ways the US government has used these organizations to advance the interests of the US political-economic elite (what Peet et al. call the Washington-Wall Street Alliance) on the world stage. This book also provides a progressive critique of their impact, although other sources probably go into deeper depth on that score. Since Peet is a social scientist, he doesn't just put the problem down to bad intentions, but down to bad social structures--a refreshing change from some of the simple-minded demonization of the elite you can find in some quarters. Peet particularly analyzes how the role of people's beliefs in shaping their actions within these institutions. In some ways, this is the weakest part of the book. He tries to use an analysis of discourse a la Foucault to explain the working of these organizations, explaining how the hegemony of neoclassical economics shuts out any debates of alternatives. While this is valuable, discourse analysis along can not bear the full weight of analyzing the problems with the unholy trinity--you need some sort of political-economic analysis in the lines of world-systems theory or something to make full sense of these organizations. Indeed, Peet lays out his Foucauldian analysis in the first chapter--and then those ideas barely show up again. Honestly, I would suggest anyone who's not an academic just skip the first chapter and read the rest of the book. You won't miss much. After the first chapter though, the book provides a solid overview of the history of the IMF, World Bank and WTO--and through them much of the process of globalization.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Politics of Writing
Comment: The Writers of books like Unholy Trnity make very little money for their hard work (usually a few hundred dollars a year for 3-4 years). They write books like this out of political commitment. And then people like "Not Right" (though he or she probably is, Right Wing) criticize the author for responding to an obviously political critique! This book, as the Publishers Weekly review says, provides a scholarly grounding for the anti-WTO, IMF and World Bank protests. The group of students and faculty who worked on it did a splendid job. Read it and you will see.
Our lives are all affected by three hugely powerful and well financed, but undemocratic, organizations: the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization. These institutions share a common ideology. They aggressively promote "corporate" capitalism, neoliberalism, giving free rein to the interests of a small number of transnational corporations. This book presents the history and fundamental ideas of this economic ideology. Describing each member of the "unholy trinity," it shows how neoliberalism hijacked the IMF, World Bank and WTO in relation to their global financial, development and trade management roles.
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