Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism
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- Synopsis
- [From the book jacket] With irreverent wit, an engagingly personal style, and a battery of real-life examples, Ha-Joon Chang blasts holes in the "World Is Flat" orthodoxy of Thomas Friedman and other neo-liberal economists who argue that only unfettered capitalism and wide-open international trade can lift struggling nations out of poverty. On the contrary, Chang shows, today's economic superpowers-from the United States to Britain to his native South Korea-all attained prosperity by shameless protectionism and government intervention in industry. We in the wealthy nations have conveniently forgotten this fact, telling ourselves a fairy tale about the magic of free trade and-via our proxies such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organization-ramming policies that suit ourselves down the throat of the developing world. Unlike typical economists who construct models of how economies are supposed to behave, Chang examines the past: what has actually happened. His pungently contrarian history demolishes one pillar after another of free-market mythology. We treat patents and copyrights as sacrosanct-but developed our own industries by studiously copying others' technologies. We insist that centrally planned economies stifle growth-but many developing countries had higher GDP growth before they were pressured into deregulating their economies.
- Copyright:
- 2008
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Excellent
- Book Size:
- 275 Pages
- ISBN-13:
- 9781596913998
- Publisher:
- N/A
- Date of Addition:
- 03/14/08
- Copyrighted By:
- Ha-Joon Chang
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- History, Nonfiction, Business and Finance
- Submitted By:
- Deborah Murray
- Proofread By:
- Bob Wiley
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.