Questions for Class – Jan 19, 2010

1) In his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree Tom Friedman speaks of the “golden straitjacket” (not in the passage you have a link to on your syllabus) that governments find themselves in: they have to reform to attract foreign investment etc. but then they are beautifully compensated by an expanding world capitalist economy. What do you think (after glancing at the reviews of his book and the start of chapter 1) of the prospects for this global order?

2) What is globalization? Here are some competing hypotheses

1. invisible hand
2. diminished sovereignty
3. engine of democracy and progress
4. process and systrem (Ehteshami)
5. clashing with other geopolitical forces in the GME
6. the final stage of capitalism

3) Who is Joseph Stiglitz? And what does he think about unregulated capitalism?

4) What are market imperfections?

5) What are asymmetries of information?

6) What is the IMF?

7) Why does Stiglitz criticize it?

8) What are the implications of the US-led occupation of Iraq for political and economic reform in the region? (Feel free to critique Henry’s “Bull” [a quick nine-page read] There are certainly good alternative interpretations about what is going on – democracy for Iraq gradually emerging to defeat the bad guys and then spreading to other Arab lands and maybe Iran, too??…)

9) What may be the impact, if any, of the US-led occupation of Iraq upon the political and economic reform prospects of the country or set of countries that you plan to study?