How Rich Countries Got Rich ... and Why Poor Countries Stay PoorPublicAffairs, 2019 M10 1 - 432 pages A maverick economist explains how protectionism makes nations rich, free trade keeps them poor---and how rich countries make sure to keep it that way. Throughout history, some combination of government intervention, protectionism, and strategic investment has driven successful development everywhere from Renaissance Italy to the modern Far East. Yet despite the demonstrable success of this approach, development economists largely ignore it and insist instead on the importance of free trade. Somehow, the thing that made rich nations rich supposedly won't work on poor countries anymore. Leading heterodox economist Erik Reinert's invigorating history of economic development shows how Western economies were founded on protectionism and state activism and only later promoted free trade, when it worked to their advantage. In the tug-of-war between the gospel of government intervention and free-market purists, the issue is not that one is more correct, but that the winning nation tends to favor whatever benefits them most. As Western countries begin to sense that the rules of the game they set were rigged, Reinert's classic book gains new urgency. His unique and edifying approach to the history of economic development is critical reading for anyone who wants to understand how we got here and what to do next, especially now that we aren't so sure we'll be the winners anymore. |
From inside the book
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... population at Harvard in the mid-1970s, it was understood that the population carrying capacity of a nation was determined by its economic structure. Former President Herbert Hoover's 1947 report from a de-industrialized West Germany ...
... population at Harvard in the mid-1970s, it was understood that the population carrying capacity of a nation was determined by its economic structure. Former President Herbert Hoover's 1947 report from a de-industrialized West Germany ...
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... population has decreased by around 20 percent, from 2.38 million to 1.9 million since 2000. Latvian birth statistics reveal a culture under extreme pressure, as people stop having children. In 1987 42,000 children were born in Latvia ...
... population has decreased by around 20 percent, from 2.38 million to 1.9 million since 2000. Latvian birth statistics reveal a culture under extreme pressure, as people stop having children. In 1987 42,000 children were born in Latvia ...
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... population lives on less than $2 a day, and in a number of countries real wages peaked as long ago as the 1970s. It has been estimated that in 1750 the gap between the richest and the poorest nations was at a ratio of 2 to 1; since then ...
... population lives on less than $2 a day, and in a number of countries real wages peaked as long ago as the 1970s. It has been estimated that in 1750 the gap between the richest and the poorest nations was at a ratio of 2 to 1; since then ...
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... population in order to reach areas of superfluous wealth. Those who survive suffer from exploitation and hostility in their new countries, so that their relatives can be saved from outright destitution. Another feature of such thinking ...
... population in order to reach areas of superfluous wealth. Those who survive suffer from exploitation and hostility in their new countries, so that their relatives can be saved from outright destitution. Another feature of such thinking ...
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Contents
Against | |
How the Poor Get Even Poorer | |
Red Herrings at the End of History | |
Why the Millennium Goals are a Bad Idea | |
Get the economic activities right or the Lost Art of Creating | |
David Ricardos Theory of Comparative Advantage | |
Frank Grahams Theory of Uneven Development | |
Philipp von Hörnigks Nine Points on How to Emulate the Rich | |
About the Author | |
Notes | |
Other editions - View all
How Rich Countries Got Rich ... and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor Erik S. Reinert No preview available - 2019 |
Common terms and phrases
Adam Smith agriculture argued assumptions capital Carlota Perez century colonies comparative advantage core costs created David Ricardo deindustrialization diminishing returns dynamic economic activities economic development economic growth economic policy economic structure economic theory economists emulation England English Erik Reinert Europe European export factors free trade Friedrich List globalization herders history of economic human imperfect competition important income increasing returns activities industrial policy industrial sector innovations international trade London manufacturing industry manufacturing sector Marshall Plan mechanisms Mongolia Morgenthau Plan neo-classical neo-classical economics Norway paradigm Peru political poor countries poverty problems productivity explosions protection qualitative raw materials real wages Ricardian rich countries Saami Schumpeter Schumpeterian social society Standard Canon standard economics standard textbook economics Starting point strategy synergies tariffs technological change tend Third World today’s trade theory type of economic understanding United Washington Consensus Washington institutions wealth welfare World Bank