Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order. 2nd ed.

Susan McKnight is an administrator of the Courts Technology Integrated Justice Project at the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General.

In 1997, Michel Chossudovsky published a book called The Globalisation
of Poverty: Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms. He has expanded on
that study, adding 10 new chapters to produce this hard-hitting book. It
shows that the current economic trends—especially those involving the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank—have created a
globalization of poverty instead of the promised
free-trading-economic-equality-for-all. The author leaves no stone
unturned as he focuses attention on the side effects of current economic
policies and warns of a continuing downward spiral if policies are not
altered.

The book is divided into six parts. Part 1 offers general descriptions
of the causes of global poverty: the politics of globalization, the IMF,
the World Bank, the search for cheap labour, the neglect of basic human
rights, and the greed of the industrialized world. Parts 2 through 5
detail specific indicators of global poverty and devastation in all
parts of the world under the headings Sub-Saharan Africa, South and
Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Former Soviet Union and the
Balkans. Issues discussed as specific to each region include the IMF’s
involvement, health care, education, the destruction of natural
resources, and political interference. Part 6 discusses the New World
Order and its impact on the

world at large. There is an extensive bibliography and the chapters are
broken into easily referenced sections.

Chossudovsky is a professor of economics at the University of Ottawa
and director of the Centre for Research on Globalization. In this book,
he presents well-documented analyses of the various concerns in a format
that is clear and easy to understand even for those without an extensive
knowledge of economics and financial matters.