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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (59616)	12/2/2002 8:46:56 PM
From: paul_philp	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

JohnM, The structure of the argument seems to be to sketch certain characteristics of the property system in places like the US, contrast it with the property system in Africa, Latin America, etc. and note that the absence is what makes it impossible for those countries to grow. Does that sound correct? Yes. There, as I understand it, is what are the steps to get from one to the other, whether the shock therapy of the 90s is helpful or not. I start off being more sympathetic, as you might expect, with Stiglitz's argument that shock therapy sacrifices the very populations it is meant to help. They are both wrong. By analogy, they are brain surgeons arguing about how to conduct on operation on your frontal cortex. However, the problem is you have two broken feet. I have spent too many hours over the past year with the great macroeconomic theorist during my research into the cause and progress of technology driven bubbles. I have finally concluded that the entire field is based on faulty assumptions and it can be safely ignored. Paul

To: JohnM who wrote (59616)	12/2/2002 8:53:14 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Somewhere in there, hopefully, there is a mix in which the aim is to improve human welfare We can't get at the WSJ article unless you post it. I get more and more addicted to the "Drunk" analogy. These societies have to hit bottom before they can really reform. I read a comment by Milton Friedman recently in which he is supposed to have said that if he had it to do over, he would recommend "The Rule of Law" be implemented first over "Free Enterprise." That is what De Soto is getting at, and what has gone wrong in these communist conversions and third world makeovers. We had a working legal system and property rights when we industrialized, a lot of the Countries still dont.