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Entry: They Are The Hollow Men Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/they_are_the_hollow_men#22479 Post contents: Let me recommend to all a new book by Ha-joon Chang, <i>Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism.</i> The book is partially an answer to Friedman's <i>The Lexus and the Olive Tree.</i> Mr. Chang's thesis is that the history of development is an exact contradiction of neo-liberal, free-trade ideology. Every country that developed successfully did so behind a protectionist wall and by violating the sacred tenets of free-trade. This is true, in the first instance, of the United States and Britain, who only went in for the free trade ideology after they had achieved superiority in manufacturing. It is also true of the Asian Tigers, who developed by ignoring all the advice of the ideologues. There is scarcely a single success among the free-trades, and a long history of failure. But Prof. Chang's real point, I believe, is about history. The free-traders have constructed an "alternative history," a fable that doesn't match the reality. It was impossible for Prof. Chang to believe this history, because he grew up in a poverty stricken Korea that developed itself by ignoring the sage advice of the Americans. Finally, there is a great irony in Friedman's choice of the Lexus as a symbol for trade. That product was developed by a company that was heavily supported by the state, in a nation that has never practiced free trade. Sent at: 2008 07 24