Will HuttonCritiques

The author makes the point that China's meteoric rise to the second-largest or largest economy on the basis of state capitalism, will run into obstacles if they do not alsoreform institutions in the direction of a freer and opener society and economy.Along with a discussion of the Chinese conundrum, the author also makes his views known on the limitations of the market fundamentalism that has taken over Western economies after the 1970s.

A hard-hitting work, pulls no punches, states forthrightly what the writer thinks about things. His subject is the choices America has made in its economic and social organization and objectives, contrasting it with those that can be characterized as Europe's, and the best choice for the United Kingdom, that straddles both parts of the world as an essentially 'Anglo-Saxon' entity geographically on the edge of Europe. Many of us do have an inkling that all is not optimal with yhe American way of things - it may seem too loud, too self-justifying, too individual-oriented, too violent (guns everywhere), too brash, too domineering, and so forth; but it is also seen as dynamic and powerful. Europe, according to the author, has developed a distinctively different set of priorities, more oriented to social justice, distribution of welfare, a longer-term view of corporations, a 'stakeholder' approach versus a narrowly focused 'shareholder' approach to business policy, and so on. Much of the world is more akin to the European mode of thinking, the side that the author squarely advocates for Britain. Although a bit dated (2002, before the Wall Street crash of 2008), this discussion still retains relevance, because of the current agonising by Britain of its relationship with the European Union in the aftermath of Brexit, the roller-coaster of the US relationship with the Chinese behemoth and the renewed and heated up 'Cold War' with Russia, the problem of faiths and the Islamic forces, and so on.½

In some ways this is quite a depressing book, given all the social and political problems that we have in the UK. Hutton details the way that Laissez-faire capitalism and banking in particular has failed in the UK, and how these have affected the complete social fabric of the country. The subjects covers are as wide ranging as the erosion of parliament, the concentration of power in No. 10, education and the power of the press barons.

The second half of the book are the proposals that he would like to see implemented urgently to address the problems that we have. A lot of them are very good, some less so. Al address the power of the vested interests that hold this country back from being great again. I doubt that Cameron and Osborne have read this book; perhaps they should.

By 1997, Britain was tired of a Tory party that had been in power for 18 years and who many felt had contributed to the decline of the nation. Hutton identified clearly the failings of the British political and economic establishment and suggested, both in this book and its hurried sequel, "The State to come", how things could be put right.

It is a book that captured the zeitgeist of the nation most accurately. It encouraged many to vote for New Labour, in the misguided belief that New Labour had actually read it. After all, Hutton was a one-time stockbroker, and a respected economist and commentator. Instead, things turned out differently.

Hutton's manifesto for the policies that New Labour should have taken note of when they came to power, instead of imitating the Tories' policies and mind-set.½

This is an analysis of the social, political and economic arrangements in Britain which Hutton asserts have become out-of-date. It includes ideas on how he thinks the state can be updated. Hutton argues that the weaknesses of the economy cannot be divorced from the problems in the rest of society.
He makes a critique of Britain's institutions and argues that we have an 18th-century state dealing with 20th-century issues. He offers explanations for the attitudes which he thinks prevent Britain from moving forward into the 21st century as a truly modern country.

Ian McEwan: Will Hutton gives a chilling account of the modern Tory Party's penetration of our national institutions.

This is an analysis of the social, political and economic arrangements in Britain which Hutton asserts have become out-of-date. It includes ideas on how he thinks the state can be updated. Hutton argues that the weaknesses of the economy cannot be divorced from the problems in the rest of society.
He makes a critique of Britain's institutions and argues that we have an 18th-century state dealing with 20th-century issues. He offers explanations for the attitudes which he thinks prevent Britain from moving forward into the 21st century as a truly modern country.

Post Cold War-- with the triumph of western-style democracy and an explosion of powerful new technologies--it seems increasingly probable that we are living through the greatest of all revolutions, inexorably drawing in every corner of our once huge globe. So what are the implications? Global capitalism, as the title of On the Edge suggests, is "precarious and potentially dangerous", and when this sentiment is evinced by Will Hutton, author of the agenda-setting The State We're In, and Anthony Giddens, director of the London School of Economics and famously Tony Blair's most favoured "guru of the third way", it is to be taken seriously.

They bring together 10 original contributions by some of the leading thinkers of our day that shed light on various aspects of global capitalism and globalisation. Global finance, naturally, figures prominently: George Soros discusses the need for a new global financial architecture, Manuel Castells outlines his concept of the "Automaton", while Paul Volcker examines ways of mitigating the less desirable nature of the market. All of this is done in a style that will be accessible to the reasonably knowledgeable layman, though of course a doctorate in economics always helps when the figures and jargon do, unavoidably, creep in. Further contributions examine areas such as the effect of globalisation on regional and national cultures and on our own individual identities, just exactly what role democratically elected governments can find for themselves as more and more real power ebbs away from them, and the relationship between the haves and the have-nots, both countries and people, which tends to be increasingly iniquitous. All the contributors seem to agree in one respect--within global capitalism there is enormous capacity for good, for the betterment of all of humanity, but conversely, there is an inherent potential for outcomes that most would consider altogether disagreeable. For anyone interested in helping to guide us closer to the former--and we are all stakeholders now--this will be a valuable, thought-provoking resource.

This collection of essays charts the contours of contemporary capitalism, analyses the role of the business firm in the new context of innovation and competitiveness, discuses the impact of globalisation, and considers new capitalism.