The World We’re In

Originally published in 2002 in The Business Economist, volume 33, issue 2. The original publication day is unrecorded.

Will Hutton, Little, Brown, 2002, xii + 409 pages, £17.99.

From The Business Economist, volume 33, issue 2 (2002).

By now, most people should know what to expect when they read an article or book by Will Hutton. His style is polemic, and he can rarely be accused of understating his case. This latest book is true to form and much of its argument will be familiar to readers of his newspaper columns and his best-seller, The State We’re In.

Despite its title, we should not be surprised to find that this is not a balanced review of global economic issues. There is nothing much in here about the challenge of economic development in Africa and Asia, the growth potential of China or global environmental problems. Such issues would get in the way of the main purpose of the book – which is to highlight the dangers of the UK following the American way and to urge our leaders to march more purposefully behind the European banner (and join the euro).

Ostensibly, the main target of this book is American conservative economic and political ideas, and their influence on the development of the global economy. Hutton repeatedly points out that he is not anti-American. But the book often reads that way, as many of his targets for criticism are woven deeply into the fabric of American life.

His critique of US capitalism echoes strongly the writing of J Galbraith – though interestingly he does not feature among the many US writers who are quoted and referenced. Private property is promoted at the expense of collective values and provision – remember The Affluent Society (1958)? Government is in the pocket of big business – shades of the New Industrial State (1967) here? Free-market economic ideas have been used to promote conservative ideology – another Galbraithian thesis, advanced in Economics and the Public Purpose, in the 1970s.

According to Hutton, the globalisation of business and the liberalisation of markets are now being used to promote these US conservative values on a broader international stage. Britain is particularly vulnerable, given its strong historical ties with the US. Europe offers an alternative model which gives more respect to collective values, where business and markets are better regulated by democratic political institutions and which is just as effective – if not more so – in generating increased wealth and rising living standards.

Hutton offers us this view as an “attempt to correct the imbalance” in the current UK political debate on Europe. Along the way, he makes many valid points about the social and economic problems that the US faces and the economic achievements of Europe. However, his attempt to sell the European model as superior to the US version appears to reflect a rather caricatured view of both societies and may leave many readers unconvinced.

Andrew Sentance British Airways

Archived source: 2002-08-30 website capture.