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15+ Works 1,035 Members 8 Reviews

About the Author

Will Hutton is chief executive of the Work Foundation and columnist for the Observer.

Includes the name: Will Hutton

Works by Will Hutton

Associated Works

Granta 49: Money (1994) — Contributor — 118 copies
The Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century Protest (1998) — Contributor — 31 copies

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Common Knowledge

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Reviews

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.
 
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Dilip-Kumar | Dec 22, 2023 |
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.… (more)
½
 
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Dilip-Kumar | Nov 27, 2023 |
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.… (more)
 
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PDCRead | Apr 6, 2020 |
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.… (more)
 
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RobertDay | 2 other reviews | Aug 2, 2008 |

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Works
15
Also by
3
Members
1,035
Popularity
#24,872
Rating
½ 3.4
Reviews
8
ISBNs
41
Languages
5

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