Paul Romer's radical idea: Charter cities

http://www.ted.com How can a struggling country break out of poverty if it's trapped in a system of bad rules? Economist Paul Romer unveils a bold idea: "charter cities," city-scale administrative zones governed by a coalition of nations. (Could Guantánamo Bay become the next Hong Kong?)

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Paul
• Romer
• Economist
• TED
• Charter
• City
• Cities
• Poverty
• Government
• Environment

[zassounotsukushi]

Thumbs up if his updated talk brought you here.

[pred09ale]

I was mainly thinking about economic development. And yes, I don´t want to believe in Porters "charter cities for dummies". This exemplary view suggests policy makers and/or RDA´s just have to follow the 15 or whatever steps of setting up a "charter city" and everything will be fine. No it won´t. Regional development depends highly from the specific setting of the region and its actors. example: many regions tried to just imitate the sillicon valley and ended up failing in a "sillicon nowhere".

[crudhousefull]

Sure...why doesn't the west rape the world for another 500 years :-)

[discipleoftheteapot]

Also, If this becomes widespread there may be scams, false advertising, lost investments and possibly cities populated by cults operating effectively as theocracies.

[discipleoftheteapot]

I really like the idea if it could be used to provide semi-sovereign areas to try out new models of government or economics.

However, I worry that it will follow the process of neo-liberal globalisation which has destroyed social democracy - an emphasis on cutting taxes and regulation to compete with other jurisdictions.

[DrSpooglemon]

I am wondering if a charter city could help bring the UK economy out of the slump that it is in...

[whitejellyfungus]

I liked it except for the end. I don't understand what that was about and why it was necessary. However a really good economic model/proposal brought to our attention in understandable language to most everyone.