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  Sunday  September 28  2003    09: 16 AM

globilization or why do they hate us?

New world potion that was poison to Dr Sam
Clinton adviser Joseph Stiglitz tracks the genesis of anti-Americanism in our second extract from his new book

With the end of the cold war and the coming of globalisation we had the opportunity to create a new international order based on American values, reflecting our sense of the balance between government and markets, one which promoted social justice and democracy on a global scale.

The Clinton administration had some notable successes in our efforts to create a new international economic order. But as we look back on these achievements, as we see the protests around the world, as we feel the pulse of anti-Americanism, it becomes clear that something again had gone wrong, badly wrong.

Underlying the protests there were deeper symptoms. Globalisation had often not produced the benefits that were promised. Except in Asia - which had largely not followed the prescriptions for growth and development the United States had put forth - poverty was up, in some places dramatically so. With growth in Latin America during the reform and globalisation decade of the nineties just over half of what it had been in the fifties, sixties and seventies, no wonder there was dissatisfaction.

The gap between the haves and have-nots - both between the United States and the developing world, and between the rich and the poor within the developing countries - was growing.

Even many of those who are better off feel more vulnerable. A decade of unparalleled American influence over the global economy was also a decade in which one economic crisis seemed to follow another. We survived these crises. We may have even benefited as a result of the lower prices at which we could buy some imported goods, and our investment banks may have profited. But they caused untold hardship in the countries that suffered them.The heralded transition of ex-communist countries to a market economy, which was supposed to bring unprecedented prosperity, brought unprecedented poverty.
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