Bad samaritans : the myth of free trade and the secret history of capitalism / Ha-Joon Chang.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prologue : Mozambique's economic miracle : how to escape poverty -- 1. The Lexus and the olive tree revisited : myths and facts about globalization -- 2. The double life of Daniel Defoe : how did the rich countries become rich? -- 3. My six-year-old son should get a job : is free trade always the answer? -- 4. The Finn and the elephant : should we regulate foreign investment? -- 5. Man exploits man : private enterprise good, public enterprise bad? -- 6. Windows 98 in 1997 : is it wrong to 'borrow' ideas? -- 7. Mission impossible? : can financial prudence go too far? -- 8. Zaire vs Indonesia : should we turn our backs on corrupt and undemocratic countries? -- 9. Lazy Japanese and thieving Germans : are some cultures incapable of economic development? -- Epilogue : Sao Paulo, October 2037 : can things get better?

"Ha-Joon Chang blasts holes in the "World Is Flat" orthodoxy of Thomas Friedman and other neo-liberal economists who argue that only unfettered capitalism and wide-open international trade can lift struggling nations out of poverty. On the contrary, Chang shows, today's economic superpowers - from the United States to Britain to his native South Korea - all attained prosperity by shameless protectionism and government intervention in industry. We in the wealthy nations have conveniently forgotten this fact, telling ourselves a fairy tale about the magic of free trade and - via our proxies such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organization - ramming policies that suit ourselves down the throat of the developing world." "Both justice and common sense, Chang argues, demand that we reevaluate the policies we force on weaker nations. Bad Samaritans calls on America to return to its abandoned role, embodied in programs like the Marshall Plan, to offer a helping hand, instead of a closed fist, to countries struggling to follow in our footsteps."--BOOK JACKET.