The Bad Samaritans, Ha-Joon Chang

"The place to start is with a true history of capitalism and globalization, which I examine in the next 2 chapters. In these chapters, i will show how many things that the reader may have accepted as 'historical facts' are either wrong or partial truths. Britain and US are not the homes of free rade, in fact, for a long time they ere the most protectionist countries in the world. Not all countries have succeeed through protection and subsidies, but few without them.For developing counties, free trade has rarely been a matter of choice, if was often an imposition from outside, sometimes even through military power. Most of them did very poorly under free trade, they did much better when they used protection and subsidies. Best performing economies have been those that opened up their economies selectively and gradually. Neo-liberal free-trade free-market policy claims to sacrifice equity for growth, but in fact it achieves neither; growth has slowed down in the past two and half decades when markets were freed and borders opened.

In the main chapters of the book that follow the historical chapters, I deploy a mixture of economic theory, history and contemporary evidence to turn much of the conventional wisdom about development on its head. Free trade reduces freedom of choice for poor countries. Keeping foreign companies out may be good for them in the long run. Investing in a company that is going to make a loss for 17 years may be an excellent proposition. Some of the world's best firms are owned and run by the state. 'Borrowing' ideas from more productie foreigners is essential for economic development. Low inflation and government prudence may be harmful for economic development. Corruption exists because there is too much, not too much little, market. Free market and democracy are not natural partners. Countries are poor not because their people are lazy; their people are 'lazy' because they are poor."

Andava meio perdida na minha Livraria preferida em Amesterdão quando dei com "The Bad Samaritans", de Ha-Joon Chang. Comecei a lê-lo e a parte transcrita é o final da introdução.

O senhor é "discípulo" do Stiglitz, um Professor que tem dado cartas em Economia de Desenvolvimento nomeadamente por não embarcar nas teorias vigentes e, como tal, apelidados por "Ortodoxos" ou "pós-autistas" ou outro qualquer nome. O senhor é professor em Cambridge e tem andado a participar em conferências sobre Desenvolvimento Sustentável. Um Sem Graça para acompanhar!<>span>