Book Reviewed: The World's Worst Bet: How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong by David J Lynch

Building the American Empire This is a review of the globalization invented by the U.S. policymakers and business leaders for an unfettered global trade: exchange of goods, services, and capital across international borders. It encompasses the movement of products and the financial transactions that accompany them, facilitating economic growth and development on a global scale. In this book, the author focuses on the emergence of China as a superpower since they joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Globalism was thought to bring widespread prosperity, spread democracy, and benefit all Americans. However, manufacturing job losses across the country produced deep inequality; manufacturing industries, textile, farming, coal, and steel production suffered in the United States. The outsourcing trends, and shifting supply chains and availability of cheap labor across the globe added misery to the middle class. The promised government support programs were under-delivered. This book looks tame in light rising possibilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking over the role of humans. It has already begun with mass layoffs of white-collar workers, and this trend will broaden in a decade. According to Elon Musk, in a few years, most work will be done by AI, and people don’t have to work. Will the government or the major corporations take the role of government, or does the government become a socialist network? Will the government take a leading role in regulating AI's impact and ensuring equitable wealth distribution? The author briefly discusses about tariff’s imposed on China and other trading partners by President Trump, but he runs short of explanations. Many of the grievances expressed by the author about the limitations of globalization were known to the American politicians and corporate CEOs. In fact, most negatives of global trade were known before the game started, the availability of cheap labor would result in low wages and weak labor protections in the United States. Availability of affordable consumer products and pharmaceuticals positively impacted the lives of Americans. Dependence on global markets would impact the whole world. For example, the economic shocks like the 2008 financial crisis spread quickly across the globe. The Americanization of other cultures occurred fast, the American brands and media dominated many markets. For instance, McDonald's, Netflix, the products of Hollywood, and American entertainment operate in most countries influencing the local culture. The author fails to add anything new than was already known. He is largely US-centric, and laments about China’s influence but never addresses how Chaina became a superpower, a strong competitor, and an enemy of the United States with its military prowess. I am disappointed to read this book.