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.

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.

Acknowledgements

PROLOGUE

Mozambique's economic miracle

How to escape poverty

1 The Lexus and the olive tree revisited

 Myths and facts about globalization

2 The double life of Daniel Defoe

 How did the rich countries become rich?

3 My six-year-old son should get a job

 Is free trade always the answer?

4 The Finn and the elephant

 Should we regulate foreign investment?

5 Man exploits man

 Private enterprise good, public enterprise bad?

6 Windows 98 in 1997

 Is it wrong to 'borrow' ideas?

7 Mission impossible?

 Can financial prudence go too far?

8 Zaire vs Indonesia

 Should we turn our backs on corrupt and undemocratic countries?

9 Lazy Japanese and thieving Germans

 Are some cultures incapable of economic development?

EPILOGUE

Sao Paulo, October 2037

Can things get better?

Notes

Index