The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade by Joseph E. Stiglitz

I was held up with reading Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1), a very long and "boring" book by Neal Stephenson. After several months, I realized that I am never going to finish this, so I stopped about a third into it. I had other books to read.

Anyway, the next one I picked up is a book by Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate and a former economic adviser to President Clinton.

The book is about the mid- and late-1990s where most thought that the boom would never end. But it did at the turn of the millennium. Mr. Stiglitz gives his analysis of what really went on during the decade and what could have been done better. His main points on the inevitable bust were basically these two, that the market is not all efficient/perfect/good (thus, de-regulation is not all good), and that the globalization were mis-managed.

I did appreciate his analysis and insights about the relationships between various events that went on during the 90s. I absolutely agree with him that the U.S. has been (and still is) hypocritical in its foreign affairs, where the ideologies are just fronts to its own agendas.

However, I think the book could have been much shorter, and I didn't like the book's political tone. Mr. Stiglitz do criticize some aspects of the Clinton administration, but his main criticism was clearly targeted on the current Bush (and the former Bush and the Reagan) administration. Not that I don't agree on most, but still it was too political for my taste, especially for the Election year, for a mostly macro-economy analysis literature.

Beside the obvious political criticisms toward the current administration, I think it's an interesting read on what the future policy makers (and the voting citizens) should be aware for the future prosperity for all.