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Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace Paperback – August 31, 2021

by Matthew C. Klein (Author), Michael Pettis (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 427 ratings
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Winner of the 2021 Lionel Gelber Prize: A provocative look at how today’s trade conflicts are caused by governments promoting the interests of elites at the expense of workers

“The authors weave a complex tapestry of monetary, fiscal and social policies through history and offer opinions about what went right and what went wrong . . . Worth reading for their insights into the history of trade and finance.”—George Melloan, Wall Street Journal

"This is a very important book."—Martin Wolf, Financial Times

Trade disputes are usually understood as conflicts between countries with competing national interests, but as Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis show, they are often the unexpected result of domestic political choices to serve the interests of the rich at the expense of workers and ordinary retirees. Klein and Pettis trace the origins of today’s trade wars to decisions made by politicians and business leaders in China, Europe, and the United States over the past thirty years. Across the world, the rich have prospered while workers can no longer afford to buy what they produce, have lost their jobs, or have been forced into higher levels of debt. In this thought‑provoking challenge to mainstream views, the authors provide a cohesive narrative that shows how the class wars of rising inequality are a threat to the global economy and international peace—and what we can do about it.

Longlisted for the 2020 Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award and named a Best Business Book of 2020 by Strategy + Business
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  1. Print length
    296 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Yale University Press
  4. Publication date
    August 31, 2021
  5. Dimensions
    5 x 0.88 x 7.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0300261446
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0300261448
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“The authors weave a complex tapestry of monetary, fiscal and social policies through history and offer opinions about what went right and what went wrong. . . . Worth reading for their insights into the history of trade and finance.”—George Melloan, Wall Street Journal

“This is a very important book.”—Martin Wolf, Financial Times

“An eagle-eyed perspective on the global economy, underpinned by close analysis and a remarkable clarity of exposition. The book is a terrific survey of the forces behind today’s global trade tensions and imbalances.”—Ann Pettifor, Times Literary Supplement

“[O]ffers a deeper argument about the source of the trouble.”—The Economist

“Matthew Klein and Michael Pettis have successfully woven a grand narrative linking income inequality, geopolitics, trade, finance and even environmental issues.”—Maximilian Kärnfelt, Merics China Briefing Newsletter

“[Klein and Pettis] pack into just a few hundred pages a sweeping and powerful account of the interconnections between cutthroat politics and global economic imbalances.”—Ryan Avent, Strategy + Business

“Elegantly argued and eclectically well-documented.”—Andrew Yamakawa Elrod, New Labor Forum

“Trade Wars Are Class Wars is well-argued, eminently readable . . . and provocative.”—Journal of Economic Literature

Winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize, sponsored by Munk Centre for International Studies

“An erudite, original, and provocative explanation of the global economic imbalances that have been at the root of numerous financial crises.”—Ernesto Zedillo, director, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization

“This is a book that everyone concerned with the global economy should read. A fascinating account of the damage that rising inequality—especially in China and Germany—has done to all our economies.”—Dani Rodrik, Harvard University

About the Author

Matthew C. Klein is the economics commentator at Barron’s. Michael Pettis is professor of finance at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press (August 31, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 296 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300261446
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300261448
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.88 x 7.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 427 ratings

About the author

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Matthew C Klein

Matthew C Klein

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Matthew C. Klein is the founder and publisher of The Overshoot, a premium subscription research service focused on the global economy, financial markets, and public policy. He was previously the Economics Commentator at Barron's, and has also written for the Financial Times, Bloomberg View, and the Economist. Before entering journalism, he was a research assistant at the Council on Foreign Relations and an investment associate at Bridgewater. Originally from Chicago, he lives in San Francisco.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
427 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Ethan
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and Compelling
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2024
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Pettis and Klein offer a compelling case for essentially demand-side economics by addressing historical imbalances in consumption and production, which appear as imbalances between nations but in fact are more the result of wealth concentration and imbalances between classes. He supports this well through multiple detailed case studies and dozens of more generalized examples. A must read for students of geopolitics, finance, or those that simply want to know more about the root causes of many of the defining financial realities of our lives.
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Andrew White
5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing argument for a more integrated world where return on capital ends up driving everything.
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2020
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This is an interesting economics book for the lay follower that suggest that trade conflict and balances are less attributed to actions between two trading states and driven more by other policies in other even specific and special states. In other words the economic dynamics taking place in Germany, China and the US led to certain conditions that dictated certain policy responses from other countries. These in turn then impacted each other. As such trade balance is not a simple discussion for how one county imports or exports more or less from another to which a balance is ascribed. The net of all trade is in fact a result of policies that direct over time how wealth and income accrues to either labor or capital. This last point will be familiar since it is central to Piketty’s tome a couple of years ago.

The authors do a nice job of looking at the broader issue of imbalances first, and then exploring how the US, then China, then Germany evolved. Firstly individual country policies were targeted at internal challenges. As those economies naturally create imbalances with trading nations, more so as supply chains evolve and financial returns evolve around the world, what seems logical initially leads to systemic strains later between many nations. If you explore China, US and Germany together with a back-drop of history you get the analysis in this excellent book.

Some of Keyene’s work that was published and used to argue for Bretton Woods is central to the book, as is reference to the idea of underconsumption. The biggest take away is that imbalances around the world emerge due to individual countries taking action to favor their position over others. At the root of this is the ever evolving rate of return to capital that shifts between labor and capital in all developing nations. It’s an intriguing argument that counterpoints the prevailing focus that trade balances are only created due to trade balance changes between pairs of economies.

One wonders how much of the argument in this book are correlation or causation. Given the arguments are not widely discussed in the media, perhaps they are too new or they don’t have enough validation. Either way they are fascinating and resonate with my own understanding of long cycles and macro thinking.

The resolution to these trade imbalances remains problematic: the US needs to save more and the Germans need to spend more; the US needs to consume more of its own manufactured assets and the Germans need to buy more of everyone else’s. China is in the middle (though the examination of the Chinese economic growth experience is well worth the read alone). Will these governments really encourage such actions? History suggests not.

Well recommended 9 out of 10.
9 people found this helpful
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A. Menon
4.0 out of 5 stars Vested Interest perspective on global financial imbalances
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2020
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Trade Wars are Class Wars is an international finance and economics perspective on current global frictions and where the real causation lies. The authors provide a discussion of how global finance operates from a macro-economic accounting perspective, how the current trade war fits in and how history provides the background to understanding how we are here. The authors are clear to argue that today's imbalances are a function of choices by society (considered dictated by elites) rather than determined by geopolitics. It is an informative book for those less aware of global financial flows and gives a reminder that inequality, under consumption and bifurcation of employment opportunities are potentially much more tied to one another than typically considered by most commentators.

The authors start by laying out basic microeconomic principles and how imbalances are supposed to normalize in a Ricardian framework. The authors discuss how division of labor and free trade form the foundation of increasing efficiency by exploiting comparative advantage when restricted to balanced trade flows. The authors quickly move on to the real world where trade and financial flows can be at odds; capital flows in fact dwarf trade flows and can be highly pro-cyclical leading to booms and busts due to the recipients being able to properly deploy financial flows. The authors discuss how global savings and investment have to match and how the accounting means for excess savings there has to be consumption elsewhere; this is reminded that there is no escaping this accounting and all cannot be saying nor borrowing. The authors move on to modern history and discuss the growth path of China, the unifications of Germany and the consequences of Bretton Wood to the US being a recipient of financial flows looking for safe haven status. These three phenomenon are discussed at various length with Germany's unification dwelled on the longest. The authors weave this history together to highlight that the consequences of the policies formed in history have led to structural imbalances that benefit elites. The authors discuss the labor policies in Germany leading to no wage growth despite strong capital appreciation and no taxes on estates for the rich. The authors discuss the offshoring in the US to the benefit of capital holders while relying on overconsumption funded by excess global savings. The authors end with the note that to require a more stable global economic system we need a more balanced mix of consumption and savings across the population. Outside of the US there is under consumption in the rich parts of the world and in the US overconsumption; policies need to be formed to address this.

Trade Wars are Class Wars is a good overview of international capital markets and how they distort historic views of the benefits of trade. It is informative and at times a bit dry when discussing the exact historical trajectories that took us here, especially for Germany. That being said it eventually gets where it intended to go and leaves the reader with a deeper appreciation of how certain policies favoring capital accumulation have led to under consumption in a variety of forms that needs to be balanced globally; which has led to deep and growing frictions. To fix the imbalances there must be greater focus on domestic policies to better balance domestic consumption distribution.
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Hu jiuyan
5.0 out of 5 stars really worth reading
Reviewed in Canada on June 13, 2023
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It is great experience of shopping on Amazon，books are amazing here，great quality and reasonable price.
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Hu jiuyan
5.0 out of 5 stars really worth reading
Reviewed in Canada on June 13, 2023
It is great experience of shopping on Amazon，books are amazing here，great quality and reasonable price.
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Tengal2012
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book
Reviewed in Italy on April 22, 2021
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I don't agree with everything that's inside this book but roughly speaking it's a good assessment and synthesis of the macro history of the world even though it has a slightly left of center academic bias.

It is also a very good analysis of the chinese and south east asian model which so many tout but don't fully understand.
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E. Happel
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good / sehr gut
Reviewed in Germany on March 27, 2021
Verified Purchase
This is an important contribution to the debate about unequality and global imbalances. There are counter-arguments, as there were against Hobson/Imperialism, but nevertheless: informative and worthwhile.

Das Buch ist lesenswert, weil es gut argumentiert, dass Handelskriege die Nationen gegeneinander aufbringen, während in Wahrheit überall die Reichen gegen die Durchschnittsverdiener Wirtschaftskrieg führen.
2 people found this helpful
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Gabriel Stein
5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 5, 2021
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Michael Pettit is the world’s greatest authority on sectoral financial balances. In this book, he an Matthew Klein show that imbalances cannot be rectified by tariffs; that huge current account surpluses hurt the workers in the surplus countries; and suggest a way out. You may disagree with their proposals, but you should read the book.
One person found this helpful
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JLN
5.0 out of 5 stars Anaylisis and proposed action
Reviewed in Spain on October 4, 2020
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A fresh view on globalization, at the reach o people with som basic economic knowledge. Cure against populism, old-fashioned leftism, and liberal-conservatism.
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