Re: Economic Policy

[jsdwd@ksc.th.com]

on 6/11/01 10:38 AM, Jean-Marie Gogue at jmegogue@wanadoo.fr wrote:

> In free market economy, governments adopt various economic policies,
> depending on whether they are conservative or liberal. The point is the
> trade-off between free competition and government control. But anyway I
> think that the market must be in the service of men, not men in the service
> of the market. I hope that all the DENizens will agree with me.
> 


Hi,

May I suggest a book.  It is "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" by Thomas
Friedman.  Friedman writes for the NY Times and is an engaging writer.
While you may or may not agree with his analysis on any given point, he does
set out the various questions well and has developed some interesting
metaphors for thinking about them.

I also recommend George Soros' book, "The Crisis of Global Capitalism".  His
more recent book was, I thought, rather over-bearing and not a particularly
useful contribution to the discussion.  Again you may not agree with him (I
don't on several main points), but he does put forth the salient issues
well, I think.

Finally let me recommend "False Dawn" by John Gray (former Thatcherite
turned leftward...)  I found this book alarming in its dispassionate
statistically laden view of the widening and disheartening gap between
'haves' and 'have-nots' not only in the developing world, but in the U. S.
as well.  Exhaustively foot-noted and documented.

Robert D. Kaplan's book, "The Coming Anarchy" is not for the faint hearted,
but also an important work (In my view).

John Dowd
jsdwd@ksc.th.com