An analysis of how globalization changes the boundaries between state and market, public and private, and government and society. Exploring the relationship between the state and the global political economy, this text also discusses poverty, population growth and environmental degradation.

Introduction The problem: how globalization shifts the boundaries between the public and the private. Section 1 The changing state: the retreat of the state; the privatization of state property; the marketization of public services; remaining question - what is public regulation in a global economy? Section 2 Triumph of market philosophy: the real and the financial economies under globalization; markets tend towards efficiency - why, how and when?; the use of the invisible hand - bubbles, speculation and capitalist excesses; remaining problem - reneging on institutions; the poverty question - will it ever go away?; the environmenal questions; the Achilles heel of the global market economy - combustibles.