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.
No comments:
Post a Comment