"Contrary to what its proponents assume, free markets outside the West do not spread wealth evenly and enrich entire developing societies. Instead, they tend to concentrate glaring wealth in the hands of an 'outsider' minority, generating ethnic envy and hatred among the frustrated, impoverished majorities." This is the view of Amy Chua, a professor at Yale Law School who lectures frequently on the effects of globalization.

Although free markets have produced some rags-to-riches stories, in most countries, market-dominant minorities have gained incredible wealth and power. In the Philippines and throughout Southeast Asia, it is the Chinese; in South Africa and Latin America, whites; in West Africa, the Lebanese; in Nigeria, the Ibo; in post-Communist Russia, the Jews. Americans are seen as the world's dominant minority, wielding outrageously disproportionate economic power relative to their size and numbers. This is a very important source of anti-American sentiment since the U.S. has for the past 20 years been promoting to other countries the benefits of marketization and democracy.

With remarkable sweep and command of details, Chua shows how various minorities have used natural resources and human labor to create kingdoms of wealth and modernization while earning the envy and the ire of the indigenous majority. In many cases, the process of democratization has brought into power demagogues who churn up mass hatred against the resented minority, demanding that the country's wealth be given back to "the true owners of the nation." This has been the nightmarish logic behind the rise of Zimbabwe's Mugabe, Serbia's Milosevic, Russia's Zyuganov, Bolivia's Great Condor, and Rawanda's Hutu Power leaders. In the former Yugoslavia, for example, market liberalization and democratic elections led not to prosperity and liberty but to economic devastation, ethnic hatred, and civilian-conducted mass murder.

There are no quick fixes on the horizon for this kind of instability since there seems to be minimal interest in giving the frustrated minorities a greater stake in global markets. Meanwhile, billions of poor, exploited, and powerless people around the world watch as the wealthy minority in the United States continues to amass more control, prestige, and tax breaks. Ironically, Chua points out, although America is viewed "as arrogant, hegemonic, and vapidly materialistic," most of the downtrodden would still rather be in the U.S. than anywhere else. The author ends on a spiritual note, revealing that America has the smallest aid budget of any advanced country — around 0.1 percent of GDP. "It is difficult to see, in any event, how a little generosity and humility could possibly hurt."