Bad samaritans: the myth of free trade and the secret history of capitalism

PROLOGUE: Mozambique’s economic miracle
How to escape poverty

1 The Lexus and the olive tree revisited
Myths and facts about globalization

    • The official history of globalization
    • The real history of globalization
    • Neo-liberals vs neo-idiotics?
    • Who’s running the world economy?
    • Are the Bad Samaritans winning?

2 The double life of Daniel Defoe
How did the rich countries become rich?

    • Britain takes on the world
    • The double life of the British economy
    • America enters the fray
    • Abraham Lincoln and America’s bid for supremacy
    • Other countries, guilty secrets
    • Learning the right lessons from history

3 My six-year-old son should get a job
Is free trade always the answer?

    • Free trade isn’t working
    • Poor theory, poor results
    • The international trading system and its discontents
    • Industry for agriculture?
    • More trade, fewer ideologies

4 The Finn and the elephant
Should we regulate foreign investment?

    • Is foreign capital essential?
    • The Mother Teresa of foreign capital?
    • ‘More dangerous than military power’
    • Borderless world?
    • ‘The only thing worse than being exploited by capital …’

5 Man exploits man
Private enterprise good, public enterprise bad?

    • State ownership in the dock
    • State vs private
    • State-owned success stories
    • The case for state ownership
    • The pitfalls of privatization
    • Black cat, white cat

6 Windows 98 in 1997
Is it wrong to ‘borrow’ ideas?

    • ‘The fuel of interest to the fire of genius’
    • John Law and the first technological arms race
    • The lawyers get involved
    • Making Mickey Mouse live longer
    • Sealed crustless sandwiches and turmeric
    • The tyranny of interlocking patents
    • Harsh rules and developing countries
    • Getting the balance right

7 Mission impossible?
Can financial prudence go too far?

    • ‘Mugger, armed robber and hit man’
    • There is INFLATION and there is inflation
    • The price of price stability
    • When prudence isn’t prudent
    • Keynesianism for the rich, monetarism for the poor

8 Zaire vs Indonesia
Should we turn our backs on corrupt and undemocratic countries?

    • Does corruption hurt economic development?
    • Prosperity and honesty
    • Too many market forces
    • Democracy and the free market
    • When democracies undermine democracy
    • Democracy and economic development
    • Politics and economic development

9 Lazy Japanese and thieving Germans
Are some cultures incapable of economic development?

    • Does culture influence economic development?
    • What is a culture?
    • Dr Jekyll vs Mr Hyde
    • Lazy Japanese and thieving Germans
    • Changing culture
    • Reinventing culture

EPILOGUE: São Paulo, October 2037
Can things get better?

    • Defying the market
    • Why manufacturing matters
    • Don’t try this at home
    • Tilting the playing field
    • What is right and what is easy

Notes