"Maybe economists should study a little less mathematics and a little more history - or am I reflecting my own bias?"
I can not agree with you more. To figure out where we're going, economists need to fully understand where we've been. History, of course, is the study of cultures and how they interact.
I also think the economists who preach "completely free market competition" in a global context fail to recognise that it is not a level playing field, and the right answer has a timing context to it as well.
The Asian crisis, IMHO, is a demonstration of what happens in a totally free capitalist world market when the hundred year-old dragons of the Western economies and capital markets, with endless resources of fire in their bellies, meet the Tiger Cubs of Asia in unbridled competition. It's no contest, as evidenced by the number of half-roasted tiger cubs we see around us.....
It is not a level playing field, and maybe it should be a handicapped contest? |
