The Days Are Over When Technology Can

We Are Not Smart Enough To Leave Things To The Market.

All The Alleged Key Causes Of Soe [state-owned Enterprise] Inefficiency - The Principal-agent Problem, The Free-rider Problem And The Soft Budget Constraint - Are, While Real, Not Unique To State-owned Enterprises. Large Private-sector Firms With Dispersed Ownership Also Suffer From The Principal-agent Problem And The Free-rider Problem. So, In These Two Areas, Forms Of Ownership Do Matter, But The Critical Divide Is Not Between State And Private Ownership - It Is Between Concentrated And Dispersed Ownerships.

As South Korea Shows, Active Participation In International Trade Does Not Require Free Trade. Indeed, Had South Korea Pursued Free Trade And Not Promoted Infant Industries, It Would Not Have Become A Major Trading Nation. It Would Still Be Exporting Raw Materials (e.g., Tungsten Ore, Fish, Seaweed) Or Low-technology, Low-price Products (e.g., Textiles, Garments, Wigs Made With Human Hair) That Used To Be Its Main Export Items In The 1960s.

There Are Different Ways To Organise Capitalism. Free-market Capitalism Is Only One Of Them-and Not A Very Good One At That.

The Washing Machine Changed The World More Than The Internet.