Anybody willing to pick holes in this one? http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/1/weisbrot-m.html
Excerpt: The Mirage of Progress The American Prospect online By Mark Weisbrot Issue Date: 1.1.02 Everyone knows that the past 20 years have been an era of rapid overall economic progress for the vast majority of countries, especially in the developing world. Tariffs have collapsed and countries have flung open their borders to international trade and investment. Technology has progressed as never before, we are told, with revolutions in such cutting-edge industries as communications, computers, and the Internet spawning and spreading productivity miracles around the globe. Of course, there are problems: a widening gap between rich and poor nations; environmental destruction; and, in some countries and regions, the poor being left behind. But the engine of growth has roared ahead. So if we can fix some of the problems, then growth--and the policies that produced it--will allow future generations to enjoy a better life. Right? Actually, it's quite clear that the opposite is true. The past 20 years have been an abject economic failure for most countries, with growth plummeting. The World Bank publishes data on the growth of income per person, as do other official sources. But few economists and almost no journalists have seen fit to make an issue out of what history will undoubtedly record as the most remarkable economic failure of the twentieth century aside from the Great Depression. Regards, Chirag Kasbekar The Information Company New Bombay, India
