A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Hidden Promise of Globalization.

• Author: Greifer, Nick
• Position: Review

By Micklethwait, John and Wooldridge, Adrian

New York, NY: Crown Business, 2000. (386 pages)

Reviewed by Nick Greifer, Manager, GFOA Research Center, Chicago, Illinois.

A Future Perfect is a clearly written introduction to globalization that provides an overview of the subject while separating the hype from the reality. This book should interest a number of public finance officials--including public investors, information technology staff, budget officials, and economic development officials seeking to understand long-term factors affecting government revenues.

A Future Perfect is divided into six sections. After the introduction in section one, the next section explores the three "engines" of globalization: technology; financial markets, and government policy. Public investors should pay particular attention to this section, as it sheds light on the volatility of financial markets abroad and domestically.

Section three provides case studies of global businesses. In addition to the well-known example of General Electric, it uncovers globalization occurring in unlikely places such as the run-down neighborhood in Los Angeles known as "Toytown," where a cluster of small businesses import supplies and export finished toy products to various parts of the world.

Section four is about the political institutions that support--and thwart--globalization. Although some prophets of globalization view the nation-state as under attack from multinational corporations, nonprofits, and governmental bodies such as the United Nations (UN), they argue convincingly that it is alive and well. The authors make a more nuanced argument: "By and large, governments have not ceded sovereignty to such bodies [as the UN] as shared it with them on the basis of carefully designed rules that are packed with out clauses. They treat international organizations as instruments of national...