Ha-Joon Chang Quotes

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Ha-Joon Chang

Profession : Economist

Birth : October 7, 1963

It is impossible to objectively define how free a market is. This is a political definition. Government is always involved, and those free marketers are as politically motivated as anyone.

Ha-Joon Chang

Overcoming the myth that there is such a thing as an objectively defined 'free market' is the first step towards understanding capitalism.

Ha-Joon Chang

Few countries have become rich through free-trade, free-market policies, and few ever will.

Ha-Joon Chang

The economy is much bigger than the market. We will not be able to build a good economy - nor a good society - unless we look at the vast expanse beyond the market.

Ha-Joon Chang

Instead of reading a paper, we now read the news online. Instead of buying books at a store, we buy them on-line. What's so revolutionary? The Internet has mainly affected our leisure life.

Ha-Joon Chang

Charities are now working to give people in poor countries access to the Internet. But shouldn't we spend that money on providing health clinics and safe water? Aren't these things more relevant? I have no intention of downplaying the importance of the Internet, but its impact has been exaggerated.

Ha-Joon Chang

People always think they're in the middle of a revolution while they tend not to realize the enormity of a change that has happened in the past. The telegraph was a revolution, but who looks at it that way these days? The telegraph sped up the transportation of messages over long distances by a huge factor.

Ha-Joon Chang

If we are really serious about preventing another crisis like the 2008 meltdown, we should simply ban complex financial instruments unless they can be unambiguously shown to benefit society in the long run.

Ha-Joon Chang

The truth is that the free movement of goods, people, and money that developed under British hegemony between 1870 and 1913 - the first episode of globalization - was made possible, in large part, by military might rather than market forces.

Ha-Joon Chang