It would depend on WHICH countries you look at, for one thing. For Burma, Iraq, Iran, No. Korea, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bassau, Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire, the last twenty years have been bad. HOWEVER, is that an indictment of the "World System" or an indictment of those nations and their patrons, if any? However, for Taiwan, Singapore, So. Korea, New Zealand, the United States, and Japan the last 20 years have been good. Does that make them "core" nations exporting dependence and poverty or nations that have more or less gotten their economic policies right?
-----Original Message----- From: Chirag Kasbekar [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 10:28 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: growth in the past 20 years 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
