Bad Samaritans
#1869 of 2,654 all-time
Bad Samaritans
Ha-Joon Chang
4 people recommended it in 3 threads, 2015–2017.
What people on Hacker News said
The developing countries that did adopt free trade policies (at the behest of the IMF/World Bank/WTO) all grew slower than they did before those policies were in place.
The analogy in Chapter 3 titled "My six-year-old son should get a job" is brilliant.
This book changed my mind, while also helping me realize that much of economics is completely divorced from reality.
Learned that free trade is generally bad for developing countries, countries need to build out high productivity industries to grow their economy in the long term and avoid a balance of payments deficit (unless blessed with oil or something).
"free markets" are a constantly evolving political definition with numerous inherent double standards.
a neat illuminating read on economic development matters that are not typically articulated in discussions of relevance and dominance.
Where it comes up
- Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models? 2017 · 2 recommendations
- Summer Reading List 2017 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What book that you read in 2015 significantly affected how you think? 2015 · 1 recommendation