الكتاب بسيط و صادمأسرد هنا فقط بعض النقاط التي استرعت انتباهي لأتذكرها لاحقا- لا يوجد اقتصاد حر مطلق، هناك اقتصاد مقيد بقوانين و قواعد يصنعها السياسيون- سياسة جعل الأغنياء أكثر غناءا لا تضمن بالضرورة نشاط اقتصادي أكثر يعود بالنفع على المواطنين الأقل حظا فيصبحوا أكثر غناءا بالمقارنة- الانترنت و غسالة الملابس قاموا بتغيير الحياة البشرية الى الأفضل كل بنسبة متفاوتة. الا ان الغسالة و معظم الأدوات المنزلية ساعدت البشرية على ترقية الحياة بشكل أفضل بكثير مما فعلت الانترنت- السياسات النقدية القادمة من الدول المتقدمة فعليا أو من البنك الدولي لا تصلح للدول الصاعدة الراغبة في التقدم. السياسات السيئة السمعة مثل الحماية و عدم احترام الملكية الفكريةالتي تدعي الدول المتقدمة اقتصاديا ان محاربتها هي السبيل الى التقدم، هي نفس السبيل التي أتبعتها الدول المتقدمة في بداية نهضتها !!!- ثقافة ريادة الأعمال متواجدة بوفرة في الأفراد في الدول النامية بنسبة أعلى مما هو موجود في الدول المتقدمة. Clear and accessible, bold and controversial, this is a superb book that asks the pointed questions that most basic economic theory on markets overlooks, and gives some explanation as to why classical free market economic theory doesn't give the answers to many problems in modern economics.The most basic premise comes in the first of his 'things': "there is no such thing as a free market", ie most markets that free marketers describe as free aren't free at all, there is usually some sort of immigration control which is a restriction on the labour market: we generally accept a regulation when we endorse the moral values behind it and complain about it being an interference on the free market when we don't.Other general themes that run through his book are that inequality has become too wide and making the rich richer hasn't had 'trickle-down' benefits for the rest of us; the self-congratulatory belief that modern macroeconomic systems have introduced more stability (basically on inflation in western economies) soon crumbles when you look at the instability and volume of financial crises; government intervention can be positive and although governments make bad decisions sometimes, so do private sector actors (its the nature of entrepreneurship!); free-market policies have generally had a negative effect on the least developed countries and most of the advanced economies were heavily protectionist/government interventionist when they were at a comparable level of development; financial markets need reform as the financial sector has become too big relative to the 'real economy' and rather than making the real economy work more efficiently it has just increased rent-seeking opportunities for people in the financial sector; running businesses in the interests of shareholders has negative effects as they can sell up and leave quickly so their incentives are more short-term: cut costs, sack workers, reduce investment which may not be in the interests of the firm in the long term but improves the balance sheet and the share price in the short term (so the shareholders can sell and move on), workers and suppliers are the stakeholders of a firm more likely to have the firm's long term performance aligned with their incentives. Ha Joon-Chang isn't afraid to be controversial and is intellectually self-confident enough to tackle the aggressive free-market mainstream so read and enjoy his book and ideas, it is an accessible critique of mainstream thinking. Also very much recommended reading for people that are cynical about economists being "all the same" or "economics not having the answers" - this is written from a different school of thought than you might be used to.
Some ideas seemed obvious but others were insightful. For example, his explanation as to why welfare system is needed for the dynamism of the economy (i.e. safety net allows people to take risk in economic activities) made perfect sense but it was something that I never heard in public discourse. His comment that the fundamental problem is not our lack of information but our limited ability to process in the context of transparency policy was also interesting as the US is big on transparency but not on regulation. He also persuasively explains why equalizing in outcome is needed to some extent for fair society (e.g. it is not enough to give an equal opportunity when some children aren't provided with minimum nutrition). Albeit a bit technical, his explanation as to harmful effect of low inflation policy was enlightening. He touches upon a lot of development policy issues as well. Overall, I very much enjoyed his book and look forward to reading his other books.
—christine
Las þessa bók í sumar. Hún er áhugaverð og skemmtileg en örlítið langdregin í köflum. Ég myndi telja það meðmæli með bókinni að höfundurinn er sjálfur kapítalisti. Hann er bara ekki pilsfaldakapítalisiti eins og svo margir í dag og hann sér gallana við kerfið og hann sér kjaftæðið sem svo margir halda á lofti til að reyna að verja það. Mæli með þessari bók, hún er til í íslenskri þýðingu og ég las s.s. þá útgáfu.
—Sian
Brilliant book to understand the flaws with free market capitalism. Informative
—Ale
Absolutely fantastic. Clear, concise and well-reasoned.
—calypsogirl
Witty, charming and smart. Great read.
—dsher
