I think you see renewed imperial pressure to reduce the policy scope of third world governments by the end of the 70s (that is, Carter's term)--against tariffs, quantitative restrictions, their form of subsidies, SOE's and then liberal forms of intellectual property. After the Asian financial panic, austerity was called for by Democrats (of course ten years later, the Republicans would agree to the bail outs, fiscal stimulus, low interest rates and subsidies that both parties had worked to prevent third world governments from trying in the face of panic and crisis). Yes the stimulus in the Western World has not been as big as it should be, and monetary policy perhaps should have been more radical (though there are problems with ultra low rates such as asset bubbles in the third world) and the banks should have been nationalized. But the fundamental division in the world is still the room for policy maneuver that the First World reserves for itself and deprives poor countries from having. Greece is joining the other side. Both Democrats and Republicans are part of that system of imperial control, which was relaxed only for a short time between about 1950-1975, as Ha-Joon Chang would argue. Talking about this is the best way to reduce a size of the classroom even of its self-proclaimed radicals. Try sharing with them some of Milanovic's data on international income inequality. Lakshmi
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