According to the conventional wisdom popularized by Thomas Friedman, countries can grow rich only by means of unfettered capitalism and pure free trade. In his controversial book, Bad Samaritans: T...
According to the conventional wisdom popularized by Thomas Friedman, countries can grow rich only by means of unfettered capitalism and pure free trade. In his controversial book, Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism, Ha-Joon Chang takes aim at this orthodoxy. Combining irreverent wit with scholarly rigor, Chang shows that nations like the U.S. that achieved their present wealth by means of economic nationalism now preach an entirely different set of policies to the developing world, via the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization. Chang calls on us not only to re-evaluate the policies we promote to countries seeking to grow rich, but also to become reacquainted with our own forgotten economic history.
Ha-Joon Chang has been described by one economist as "the most exciting thinker our profession has turned out in the past fifteen years." He teaches at Cambridge University, where he received his Master's degree and doctorate. A consultant for the Wold Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the UN and other international organizations, he was awarded the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought in 2005. His book Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective (2002), which received the Myrdal Prize, was acclaimed by the eminent MIT economist Charles Kindleberger as "a provocative critique of mainstream economists' sermons directed to developing countries."
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I would like to recommend all people who liked Chang's book, to read Erik S. Reinert, How rich countries got rich and why poor countries stay poor. It's not as readable as Ha-Joon Chang's book but it's well worth it, it explains clearly WHY infant industry protection works. I mailed Chang and asked what he thought about Reinert's book, he responded: "I am very good friends with Erik and he has influenced my thinking a lot. I essentially agree with Erik's understanding of the growth process."
@bamainatlanta, in all fairness, Chang is a development economist, and wouldn't be our best bet for treasury secretary. In our progressive fantasy-America, he's chief economist at the World Bank (following in the footsteps of his mentor Joe Stiglitz, who was forced out for being heretical) or of the IMF.
Enjoyed his book. After reading Lexus and the Olive tree that explained Globalism, I still thought Freedman's book was a snow job. He opened my eyes about Lazy Japanese and thieving Germans , how many use hindsight that economics is just what people do with raw materials.
An excellent lecture, I recommend it to people all the time and thank the Foundation for posting this and keeping it available. Dr. Chang should be invited to be on the Obama economic team, with a mind like his working on the economy, we'd be way more likely to see real change come about that would benefit the vast majority of the population, rather than the small sliver of it Obama is beholden to and catering to..
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"America is loosing its industry and the national debt is exploding."
America can only recover its industrial capacity by producing its own stuff through increasing the use of technology in the design, production, and distribution of more and more inexpensive items (e.g. clothes, toys, etc.) traditionally produced by human hands.
Relative to America's current economic (read: balance of payment) problems, exporting products of automation is indispensable in reducing America's trade debt.
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Please fire Geithner and Summers, and the rest, and hire this MAN! Damn
America can only recover its industrial capacity by producing its own stuff through increasing the use of technology in the design, production, and distribution of more and more inexpensive items (e.g. clothes, toys, etc.) traditionally produced by human hands.
Relative to America's current economic (read: balance of payment) problems, exporting products of automation is indispensable in reducing America's trade debt.