James,
Aside from the direct flows of resources (e.g. minerals, agricultural products,
manufactured goods) that we get cheap because of low pay, poor working
conditions, environmental standards, and exchange-rate imbalance, our financial
system benefits greatly by maneuvering poorer countries into debt and then
keeping them perpetually in debt or otherwise compliant (often using the
military). Brian suggested the Perkins book (which includes some history of
United Fruit and other CIA "interventions" on behalf of US corporations and
policies - all documented in the Congressional Record), and there's also Joseph
Stiglitz's "Globalization and its Discontents", Naomi Klein's "The Shock
Doctrine", John Pilger's "New Rulers of the World", or this piece by Greg
Palast about his discussion with Joe Stiglitz (former World Bank Chief
Economist): www.alternet.org/story/12652; which is an excerpt from his
excellent book "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" (former NY Times
best seller).
Joe
> From: James Crants <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: Economic Growth
>
> I've heard many times that the wealth of developed
> nations rests on the
> exploitation of the third world. It occurs to me that this
> is one of those
> things that I've left to other people to know anything
> about. Are there any
> books people would strongly recommend to someone who wants
> to
> better understand this relationship between the developed
> world and poorer
> nations?
