Hawke wrote:
On 2/22/2010 7:35 PM, Ed Huntress wrote:
wrote in message
...

Hey Ed, I saw you mentioned in your last post that you just read Bad
Samaritans. I read that a year or so ago after I saw the author on
Book TV. I was wondering what you thought about it. Me, I thought
he was on the button in a lot of areas. The hypocrisy countries
show on protectionism is pretty amazing. When you read about how
his country, Korea, went from nothing to the modern world in 40
years and did it by protecting targeted industries, it makes the
free traders look like idiots. At least to me. What's your take on
it?

Hawke

Chang is a rare combination of economic historian and iconoclast; he
doesn't accept the standard histories without checking them out on
his own. That produces some very interesting reading, of which _Bad
Samaritans_ is a good example.

I got the feeling that he isn't done, that he'll eventually take on
the conventional wisdom about trade and put New Trade Theory to the
test. However, he said a couple of times that developed economies
benefit from the fewest trade restrictions, while making it clear
that it is not in the interest of developing economies to play
along. Meantime, I had just finished Krugman's _The Return of
Depression Economics_, and I was interested to see the parallels and
contrasts in how they viewed the economic collapses of Latin
American countries and the Asian Tigers over the past few decades,
including the involvement of the IMF and the World Bank.

Both Chang and Krugman are macroeconomists. I want to see either one
of them really take on the microeconomic results of free trade.
Krugman tips his hat to it but doesn't get into thorough analysis.
Maybe Chang is the one who will do it.

All it all, both books opened my eyes to several issues and both
were worth reading.



I haven't read any of Krugman's newer books. The last one I read was
something like the Unwinding(?). It's clear to me that Krugman knows
his field. Chang just confirmed what I had known from other things
I've read. The biggest protectionists are the most successful
countries. They were all protectionist when they needed it and when
they become the elephant in the room, economically, they decry other
countries doing what they did. It would be nice if countries like
ours would own up to the truth and just go ahead and protect what
they think is critical to the country and let what isn't be subject
to free trade. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for us to do
that though. Free trade nutbars are too firmly in control these days.

It's the result of people buynig into the "Spirit of America" bs.
There are smart, hard working, "can do", ambitious people all over the
world.
That isn't what sets America apart.

There was a long stretch, one that might not be over, where the PRC would
pay a manufacturer ten percent of everything they exported.


--
John R. Carroll