Proof, if more proof were needed

I’ve been reading a bit on economics lately – as it says on the right, Ha-Joon Chang’s Bad Samaritans, and Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, both of which I highly recommend. Between them, you get a fantastic picture of exactly what happens when ‘free trade’ destroys economies, and – in Chang’s work – why.

As an Aussie, I was happy to see the end of the demagogic Howard, but I had to roll my eyes at the optimism of some on the left when Dudd … sorry, Rudd (why do I keep doing that?) was elected. Even before that, he’d given his backing to the campaign to have Ahmadinejad charged with genocide for killing … um, well, nobody, actually. (Fun fact: did you know that there are more Jewish people in Iran than in Spain and Poland combined? I guess he just hasn’t got around to them yet.) Then there was the Kyoto protocol signing, which is nice but cost nothing, the apology to the Aborigines, which was nice but cost nothing (specifically mentioned no financial compensation), blah blah.

Now we get a picture of their aid and trade policies with the Pacific. Blah free trade blah reduce dependence blah GIVE US YOUR ECONOMIES!!!

It fired me up a bit, that – think my comment was longer than the article.