Tag Archives: capitalism

Ten Ways To Tell if You’re an Anti-Semite (with apologies to David Letterman)

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10. You’re careful to specify that you’re not an anti-Semite, only anti-Zionist.

9. Your definition of a non-violent protest is one in which the Palestinians only throw rocks and Molotov cocktails.

8. You think Israel is a racist state because it’s mainly for Jews, but you don’t think the 52 Islamic states are racist because they’re mainly for Muslims.

7. You think BDS (Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions) just wants Israel to go back to its 1967 borders (that are in reality the 1949 Armistice lines).

6. You believe that the Mavi Marmara, one of the six ships sent from Turkey to break the Israeli blockade of Hamas-run Gaza, was just carrying aid to the Palestinians.

5. You believe that suicide bombing against Israeli civilians is okay, but you’re horrified at the Boston bombing.

4. You believe that Palestinians can do what they want to Israelis, but any counter measures by the Israelis are automatically war crimes.

3. You’re willing to speak out and volunteer for the Palestinian cause, but you wouldn’t do so for the Tibetan, Cypriote, Kurdish or other causes.

2. You feel that because you’re against many of the things the West does, including capitalism and intervention in Third World countries, that you automatically have to be against Israel, the invention of the West.

1. After reading the above nine reasons, you still think you’re only anti-Zionist.

Why The World Isn’t Flat: Debunking Thomas Friedman

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Ha-Joon Chang, a South Korean economist, gave a lecture for the New America Foundation on February 1, 2008 titled Why The World Isn’t Flat. The lecture was on why developing nations should look at the history of successful nations, rather than just adopting the orthodox free market approach being demanded of them. Chang’s speech was based on his book , in which he demonstrates why unfettered capitalism is not a good idea for developing countries.

The conventional wisdom states that out of thirty or so successful countries, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan were the only ones to succeed with subsidies and government intervention while all the others had an orthodox free market, but Chang says that the opposite is actually true – the Netherlands, Hong Kong, and Switzerland were the only countries that managed to succeed with an orthodox free market.

Chang gives Japan’s support of Toyota as one example of the success of protectionism. He also brings up Alexander Hamilton’s support for a protected manufacturing economy in the United States.

A metaphor Chang uses to refute Thomas Friedman’s “flat world” in which all countries compete on a level playing field, is that of boxing’s weight classes. It makes no sense for an economic lightweight like Honduras to want to go up against a heavyweight like the United States. The global economic competition is a game of unequal players. The developing countries like Honduras need a titled playing field on which they can protect and subsidize their producers in order to compete.

Ha-Joon Chang’s full lecture is available to view below: