Bad Samaritans
The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism
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Narrated by:
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Jim Bond
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By:
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Ha-Joon Chang
About this listen
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, the International Monetary Fund, and the 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.
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In How Asia Works, Joe Studwell distills extensive research into the economics of nine countries - Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and China - into an accessible narrative that debunks Western misconceptions, shows what really happened in Asia and why, and for once makes clear why some countries have boomed while others have languished.
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The best economic development book I’ve ever seen
- By Jay on 02-17-20
By: Joe Studwell
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Free to Choose
- A Personal Statement
- By: Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose, teamed up to write this most convincing and readable guide, which illustrates the crucial link between Adam Smith's capitalism and the free society. They show how freedom has been eroded and prosperity undermined through the rapid growth of governmental agencies, laws, and regulations.
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Fantastic
- By Erik on 01-21-08
By: Milton Friedman, and others
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A Capitalism for the People
- Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity
- By: Luigi Zingales
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Born in Italy, University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales witnessed firsthand the consequences of high inflation and unemployment - paired with rampant nepotism and cronyism - on a country’s economy. This experience profoundly shaped his professional interests, and in 1988 he arrived in the United States, armed with a political passion and the belief that economists should not merely interpret the world, but should change it for the better.
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Enjoyable but a tad predictable.
- By Kevin on 12-24-12
By: Luigi Zingales
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The Great Reversal
- How America Gave Up on Free Markets
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Why are cellphone plans so much more expensive in the United States than in Europe? It seems a simple question. But the search for an answer took Thomas Philippon on an unexpected journey through some of the most complex and hotly debated issues in modern economics. Ultimately, he reached a surprising conclusion: American markets, once a model for the world, are giving up on healthy competition.
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Eye-opening, but better as a book - a must-READ
- By Ash on 11-29-19
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Economics for the Common Good
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When Jean Tirole won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics, he suddenly found himself being stopped in the street by complete strangers and asked to comment on issues of the day, no matter how distant from his own areas of research. His transformation from academic economist to public intellectual prompted him to reflect further on the role economists and their discipline play in society. The result is Economics for the Common Good, a passionate manifesto for a world in which economics, far from being a "dismal science," is a positive force for the common good.
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A Great Overview of the Challenges of Modern Econ
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By: Jean Tirole, and others
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Postcapitalism
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Over the past two centuries or so, capitalism has undergone profound changes - economic cycles that veer from boom to bust - from which it has always emerged transformed and strengthened. Surveying this turbulent history, Paul Mason's Postcapitalism argues that we are on the brink of a change so big and so profound that this time capitalism itself, the immensely complex system within which entire societies function, will mutate into something wholly new.
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some good ideas...
- By "ge-ko" on 06-19-16
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The World Turned Upside Down
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- Unabridged
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When China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, most experts expected the WTO rules and procedures would liberalize China and make it "a responsible stakeholder in the liberal world order". But the experts made the wrong bet. China today is liberalizing neither economically nor politically but, if anything, becoming more authoritarian and mercantilist. In this book, renowned globalization and Asia expert Clyde Prestowitz describes the key challenges posed by China and the strategies America and the Free World must adopt to meet them.
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Informative and engaging
- By Christopher P Pratt on 02-28-21
By: Clyde Prestowitz
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China's Economy
- What Everyone Needs to Know®
- By: Arthur R. Kroeber
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China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® is a concise introduction to the most astonishing economic growth story of the last three decades. In the 1980s, China was an impoverished backwater, struggling to escape the political turmoil and economic mismanagement of the Mao era. Today it is the world's second biggest economy, the largest manufacturing and trading nation, the consumer of half the world's steel and coal, the biggest source of international tourists, and one of the most influential investors in developing countries from southeast Asia to Africa to Latin America.
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An interesting insight
- By Cole Peters on 11-28-18
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Putinomics
- Money and Power in Resurgent Russia
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In Putinomics, Chris Miller examines the making of Russian economic policy since Vladimir Putin took power in 1999. Miller argues that Putin's economic strategy has functioned far more effectively than most Westerners realize. While acknowledging that part of Putin's successes - above all, quadrupling per capita GDP in just a decade and a half - can be attributed to cashing in on high oil prices, Miller details the government policies that have also been fundamental to Russia's growth.
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Go find something better
- By Anonymous User on 08-04-21
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Right Here, Right Now
- Politics and Leadership in the Age of Disruption
- By: Stephen J. Harper
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The world is in flux. Disruptive technologies, ideas, and politicians are challenging business models, norms, and political conventions everywhere. How we, as leaders in business and politics, choose to respond matters greatly. Right Here, Right Now sets out a pragmatic, forward-looking vision for leaders in business and politics by analyzing how economic, social, and public policy trends - including globalized movements of capital, goods, and services, and labor - have affected our economies, communities, and governments.
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Excellent book on Politics for Canadians AND Americans
- By John Fernandes on 10-19-18
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What listeners say about Bad Samaritans
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- LOUI5
- 03-13-24
Top Reads/Listen on Economics
One of the best and most thorough book/audiobook on Economics and Geopolitics. A must listen.
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- Oldtimer
- 11-20-08
Not Convinced!
I read this book as someone in favor of free trade looking for counter arguments from someone who is not. This book, however, failed to change my view. The author makes several good arguments, but ultimately fails to see practical implication of his own views. He repeatedly uses the success of Japan and S. Korea as best evidence that protectionist policies work. In another attempt, he compares an infant industry to a human infant and argues just as an infant needs care until reaches self-sufficiency, infant industries need protection until they are capable of withstanding foreign competitions.
I see several things wrong here. First, the protectionist policies are successful precisely because other countries are not protectionists. If protectionism were to be adopted as a wholesale policy by all countries, it would certainly bring about economic disaster as companies will be squeezed to sell only to their own nationals.
Second, the comparison of infant industries to infants has some validity, but it is too simplistic to be meaningful. Trying to prove a general point using one example is dangerous since often the opposite point can be proved using a counter example.
At last, the author argues for a dynamic protectionism. That is to protect different industries at different periods for different length of times. To pretend to know where, when and for how long help must be provided is sheer madness. Governments can't plan for much simpler things, let alone, the whole economy. Besides, once a company obtained protection, it will devise everything in its power to keep it. It will choke off other potential candidates for help. In long-run, country will have only few companies or industries that will benefit from this policy and other companies or industries are choked off at their infancies. Perhaps, this is why countries like S. Korea (Samsung, Hyundai) or Finland (Nokia) have only a few companies accounting for most of their exports.
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31 people found this helpful
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- John
- 10-20-11
after three listens, i still want to come back
this book is phenomenal. the perspective is fascinating, and the arguments provide an enlightening counterbalance to free market talk show hosts who forget the important functions of government. i don't know when i read this again, but i've kept coming back to it over the years, and will again soon.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Doug
- 02-24-13
Good points, but driven into the ground
This text is first and foremost an argument based on history. That is not to say it isn't valid, however. Chang does an excellent job reminding us how the "rich countries" got that way and he cites example after example of countries that have developed remarkably well doing exactly the opposite of what neo-liberalism prescribes.
Most importantly Chang rightfully exposes the track record of neo-liberal policies and points out what very few in the mainstream press are willing to point out. That the disasters caused by these economic policies far outnumbers the few moderate success stories. Free Market thinkers talk a big game, but essentially have nothing to show for their policies.
If you are looking for an in-depth look at the world economy today this probably isn't the book for you, but if you want a break from the neo-liberal revisionist histories and gain some insight on how economic policies have shifted then this book is definitely worth it.
I especially like the last chapter where Chang discusses the perception of different cultures and how that affects and distorts our opinions of poor countries.
His personal experiences of growing up in an impoverished Korea and witnessing it's rapid ascent into economic success is very powerful, and rare to hear coming from an economic intellectual.
The biggest weakness of the book is repetitiveness. Chang is keen on making his point with many examples and case studies, which is understandable, but at times it can seem like he is repeating the same things over and over. I wouldn't listen to this book in one sitting or in large chunks. Keep the listening to around 1-2 hours at a time and the repetitiveness doesn't seem so bad.
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- K. Meyer
- 09-25-22
Pretty good book
I enjoyed listening to this audiobook. The narrator was great. performance is perfect. I learned a lot about world economics.
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- Muhammad Arrabi
- 03-03-19
great book to balance the free market theories
i love to read books in pairs, each arguing for a side.
however with economics vat majority of books are pro free markets. this is a great book from a Cambridge professor that pays a lot of attention to practicality above theory.
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- JACQUELINE BURRIS
- 03-29-17
Interesting details throughout.
Would you consider the audio edition of Bad Samaritans to be better than the print version?
Never had the print version.
Who was your favorite character and why?
No characters. This is non-fiction
Which character – as performed by Jim Bond – was your favorite?
???
What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?
All of it. Extremely interesting
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- Carroll
- 09-08-11
A unique counterpoint to the media
A well positioned series of counters to the much lauded "conventional wisdom" spouted in the press. All I verified checked out. So a useful way to hear both sides of our 'rich country' spin on trade & money.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Len V
- 09-12-12
Brilliant as history
Chang has written a fine corrective to the reigning conservative tradition of developmental economics. The strengths of his approach are a grasp of the long duree of historical development (which doesn't usually figure in most economic theory), a strong narrative style (as evidenced in his account of South Korea and the "science fiction" with which he imagines Mozambique's rise to prosperity), and the witty use of detail (the reconstruction of how Germans and Japanese were widely regarded as stereotypically "lazy" in the nineteenth century is both interesting and historically accurate). His historical depth allows his view to avoid doctrinaire claims -- he certainly doesn't argue that protectionism is always good. There are not a lot of weaknesses, other than the fact that he is too quick to discount culture and religion as factors in economic development. (He should take Weber more seriously.) I would have liked to see the historical range pushed back even further -- the paradoxical connections between the rise of the bourgeoisie and absolute monarchy could be another support for his argument. I will definitely be looking for other books from this provocative thinker.
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- Ginger Stuckey
- 10-20-08
Everyone should have to read this book
If you couple this book with Alan Greenspans book and hold our current economic crisis against them you can easily see where we have failed to apply what we know but instead began to believe our own propaganda.
The only truly successful Free MArket Societies are regulated one. It is not arguable. History simply proves it.
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19 people found this helpful