Complexity Part II: Learn from one of my professors...

...Dr. Ha-Joon Chang.  Here's a link to an interview with the author of Bad Samaritans and 23 Thinks They Don't Tell You About Capitalism. He also happens to be my development economics professor. 

Ha-Joon Chang on TheRealNews.com

I've certainly learned a lot from Dr. Chang. Most importantly, the value of questioning those things that are passed off as 'fundamental historical truths.'  For example, it is often peddled, by those of a certain ideology, that the industrial powers (the U.S., Britain, Japan, Germany, etc.) achieved their current levels of prosperity through purely 'free-market' policies. In fact, this couldn't be further from the truth as all of them utilized highly interventionist policies during their prime growth years, including healthy doses of tariffs, subsidies, state-owned enterprises, and quantitative restrictions. In essence, the on-going attempt of the 'free-market' establishment to re-write history and force developing countries to adopt policies that they themselves did not use amounts to, in the words of Fredrich List, "kicking away the ladder."

While I don't have time to go into Dr. Chang's arguments in-depth (I do have exams this week after all), I highly recommend his books. It's a sad commentary on the current state of economic debate that his reasoned and factual analysis is considered heterodox, or outside the mainstream. It would seem that most of us are not ready to embrace complexity and question some of our most basic assumptions.

I'm all about development right now...

...doing stuff like this.

Can't believe it took me so long to figure out...

...Taste of Cambridge equals my Cambridge Qdoba.  Classic Falafel = Vegetarian Burrito.  All is right with the world again...

Time to drive up traffic...

...and nothing drives traffic to blogs like pictures of dogs in funny hats.  And when it's chihuahuas...it's like a triple bonus.

 

So yeah, that was the Stateside celebration over the weekend, but the dogs had nothing on the UK celebration.  I've got one word for you...Kambar.  What's the Kambar?  Just the koolest place in Cambridge...and possibly the world...duh.  In a nutshell, it's a ratty and grungy bar/club in the city centre that attracts the cream of the Cambridge crop for late-night shenanigans.  It features a stoplight, a cheap chandelier (think of your grandmother's dining room for a visual), alternative-ish music, a cramped dance floor, drinks in plastic cups, strobe lights, and of course, the persistent thunk-thunk-thunk of the dj dropping his beats.  Heaven.  Can't believe it took me so long to find it...I'll probably be spending pretty much every night there from now on...because that's how I roll.

Amsterdam...you know what that means

Keukenhof Gardens...aka the promised land

So yes, we went to Amsterdam last weekend.  Yes, it has taken me a long time to blog it out.  Yes, it was pretty much ridiculous...as expected.  No, the delay in blogging does not suggest that the weekend turned into a recreation of The Hangover (as far as you know).  In actuality, it's just been an insane week...you know how my life is...crazy busy.  Anyway, here's what I thought about A-Dam...full picture tour available in the album.

Complexity – Part I

Perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned this year is to better recognize and appreciate complexity. We, as humans, love nothing more than to simplify things, to create simple black and white dichotomies, to attempt to find simple answers for complex problems. It’s only natural, but it is terribly dangerous. My aim is to create a series on complexity to examine this phenomenon a bit more closely. In Part I, I will look at the recent death of Osama bin Laden, and specifically, the reaction to the news in America. I believe the popular reaction is incredibly revealing in ways that most of us fail to recognize.