Korten critiques current methods of economic development led by the Bretton Woods institutions and asserts his desire to rebalance the power of multinational corporations with concern for environmental sustainability and what he terms "people-centered development".

Korten criticises consumerism, market deregulation, free trade, privatization and what he sees as the global consolidation of corporate power.

His prescriptions include excluding corporations from political participation, increased state and global control of international corporations and finance, rendering financial speculation unprofitable and creating local economies that rely on local resources, rather than international trade.

In a review of the book in Left Business Observer #71 in January 1996, Doug Henwood observed:[1] [Korten] offers a vision of "a market economy composed primarily, though not exclusively, of family enterprises, small-scale co-ops, worker-owned firms, and neighborhood and municipal corporations."

But it would be impossible to run a complex economy on this scale only; it's easy to imagine furniture being made this way, but not trains and computers.