Reclaiming Development: An Alternative Economic Policy Manual

After half a century of disappointed hopes, where do developing countries go from here? Two economists refute some of the main myths of free market globalization in trenchant fashion. History does not show that the free market is the best path to prosperity. It is not true that globalization is simply a technological reality that cannot be stopped. The US economy has not outperformed its competitors in the 1990s. East Asia's success does indeed have lessons which other countries can emulate. Developing countries do not need economic policemen in the shape of the World Bank or IMF or WTO. Most important of all, in each key area -- trade and industrial policy, privatization, intellectual property rights, investment and financial policies, exchange rate and currency policy, labour and social welfare -- there are alternatives to neoliberal policies that the historical experience of particular countries has shown really work.