A Stream of Windows: Unsettling Reflections on Trade, Immigration, and Democracy - Hardcover

Bhagwati, Jagdish N.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262024403 ISBN 13: 9780262024402

Publisher: M I T Press, 1998

Synopsis

"Jagdish Bhagwati is that rare economist who thinks broadly and writes clearly. His high intelligence, lively style, and good humor are all in evidence in this collection." -- Fareed Zakaria, Managing Editor, Foreign Affairs

"Anyone who reads this engaging description of the ways the world works will emerge a lot less confused and at least a little more optimistic." -- Adrian Karatnycky, The Wall Street Journal

Jagdish Bhagwati firmly believes that those who work at the frontiers of economics should also get down into the trenches of public policy in the only way they can: through advocacy. His frequent writings in leading newspapers and magazines are further testimony to his conviction that academics can best do public good by becoming a public nuisance. Running through his writings is the contrary voice, questioning popular positions, challenging the consensus.

Bhagwati has an agenda to advance, a vision of the good society that economic policy must help to shape. The good society he has sought over the years is one whose economics embrace openness, in particular in trade and immigration, and whose politics are democratic, not just for the elite few but with the effective participation of the many, including women and minorities.

A Stream of Windows offers a selection of the author's policy writings from the past ten years. The title, from a James Schuyler poem, suggests the fluidity of a stream, contrasted with a stagnant pool, as well as the windows the author seeks to open to bring in fresh air. The image captures the essence of the author's writings, which forcefully opposed the demonization of Japan in the 1980s and early 1990s, and which expose the folly of current U.S. policy equating free trade with free trade areas, challenge the bipartisan bashing of illegal immigrants, refute the conventional view that democracy hinders development, and much more.

About this title

Review:

Columbia professor Jagdish Bhagwati envisions himself as part of a tradition of economists taking part in public-policy advocacy that includes such luminaries as John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, and Paul Samuelson. He also firmly believes that part of the price that tenured academics pay for their job security is the obligation to speak out on the issues, "to break ranks, to cut through the fog of obfuscations that attends the politics of policymaking, to call a spade a spade, to say 'oh, bunk!' when necessary, and to propose policies and advance agendas that reflection and analysis lead one to believe is good and beneficial, even when they appear outlandish now and will bring one neglect, at best, and opprobrium, at worst." A Stream of Windows is a collection of op-ed pieces, book reviews, and magazine articles--culled from publications such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New Republic, and American Enterprise, among others--in which Bhagwati advances his arguments for democratic governments whose economic borders are opened to trade and immigration. Among the highlights are 10 pieces in which he surveys the Clinton administration's economic policy toward Japan. Anyone interested in economic policy at the international level will find food for thought within these pages.

About the Author:

Jagdish Bhagwati is the Arthur Lehman Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. He is the author of Protectionism (MIT Press, 1988).

About this edition

• Publisher: M I T Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0262024403
• ISBN 13: 9780262024402
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 372