Bad Samaritans: the Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Publisher Marketing: 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. Both justice and common sense, Chang argues, demand that we reevaluate the policies we force on weaker nations. "Bad Samaritans" calls on America to return to its abandoned role, embodied in programs like the Marshall Plan, to offer a helping hand, instead of a closed fist, to countries struggling to follow in our footsteps." Review Citations: Library Journal 02/01/2008 pg. 106 (EAN 9781423346845, Compact Disc) Library Journal 02/04/2008 (EAN 9781423346838, Compact Disc) Library Journal 01/15/2008 pg. 112 (EAN 9781423346821, Analog Audio Cassette) - *Starred Review Publishers Weekly 11/12/2007 pg. 48 (EAN 9781596913998, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Library Journal 01/15/2008 pg. 112 (EAN 9781596913998, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Choice 01/01/2009 (EAN 9781596913998, Hardcover) New York Review of Books 10/08/2009 pg. 28 (EAN 9781596913998, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Chang, Ha-Joon Ha-Joon Chang has taught in the Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, since 1990. He has consulted for numerous international organizations, including the United Nations, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. He has published eleven books, including Kicking Away the Ladder, winner of the 2003 Myrdal Prize. In 2005, Chang was awarded the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought, whose previous recipients include Amartya Sen and John Kenneth Galbraith. Contributor Bio:  Bond, Jim Bond is a producer and host of radio talk shows, with an extensive background in theatre and the musical stage.