- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Allen Lane (2 Sep 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1846144159
- ISBN-13: 978-1846144158
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 13.4 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,018,553 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
86 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lucid and fun to read! - a book by an economist that's intelligible to human beings,
By Bogus Photographer (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism (Hardcover)
The financial crisis has sparked renewed debate about the free-market orthodoxy of the last 30 years, particularly in the so called Anglo-Saxon economies (US and UK), but also through international institutions like the WTO and World Bank. The crisis has even brought the debate to popular science magazines, asking if our current economic models should be torn up and re-formulated in exactly the same way as any other scientific theory doesn't agree with the results. Climate change is forcing us to face up to the unintended consequences of industry and consumption, forcing us to consider the 'true costs' of our activities and their effects on the wider environment. Many people are left to wonder if complex financial instruments created by hedge funds and banks, have ended up doing more damage to the real economy they were meant to benefit. Capitalism, in the form encouraged for three decades, appears to have turned on itself.Ha-Joon Chang's book, brings these issues into lucid focus. This however isn't a socialist pamphlet - Capitalism is argued to be the least worse economic system we have invented (he doesn't trumpet for its superiority or inevitability). Like Nassim Taleb's 'Black Swan', the tendency is to go beyond 'what they tell you' (theory) and wish to explore what's really happening. The 23 things brilliantly de-mythologize tenants of 'free market' ideology, through wonderfully lucid examples and lively discussion of the issues. The style isn't cold or academic (he's actually quite an amusing writer), so it's a lot of fun to read and lands its punches with strong arguments over slogans or empty rhetoric. He's not saying we shouldn't have a market, but he is saying our ideas about their development and nature are often idealised, lead to the opposite of what we wish to achieve, or don't match the facts. The puritanical conversation about capitalism we have suffered from up to now is wonderfully dispelled in this book, leading to some startling conclusions and eye opening historical examples. My feeling having read it is of optimism, as it seems we finally have economists that can write books for mere mortals to read, but also have a more sceptical and perhaps practical outlook on our economy (on what works and what demonstrably doesn't, the limit of markets and of governments, with an eye on greater social aims and values). It's a book that more than makes up for its unpromising front cover. I can't recommend it enough.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Makes you feel you were sane and the world is mad!!,
This review is from: 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism (Paperback)
A South Korean economics academic working in Cambridge has written this very useful book that arms you for arguments you may have with yourself (!) or friends about how economics actually works. He has the intellectual self confidence (teaching at Cambridge) and the independence of mind (an Asian living in Europe) to be more objective about economics than anything else I can think of. We are all blinkered in our outlook, but he is far less so. This book explodes many right wing ideological myths that have become accepted.Let's face it, a lot of gunk we hear from people objecting to capitalism is even more nonsensical than the self-serving quasi-religious beliefs in the free market you get from people "earning" (well more accurately "being paid") hundreds of thousands a year for moderate work. We need academics who can think independently and objectively, and explain their work. This book does just that both
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read this book.,
By Heli "Bookwurm" (Amsterdam) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism (Hardcover)
Neo-liberalism is a religion based on dogmas and myths. It has created the crisis we are in now and will be responsible for more crises if we let them. This book gives you an understanding of the myths created by 'free-market' capitalism.
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