I personally don't have to deal with IMF and WB folks though I do have friends and colleagues who work there and they far from libertarian in their outlook. Besides, I think it is easier to argue with IMF and WB ideas since they don't invoke Ayn Rand and privatization of the post office (privatization has mysteriously disappeared from India's reform process btw). And there are street protests that actually resist IMF WB ideas in various places, although I must admit that the train has left the station at this time.
While these institutions want to functionally make capitalism work in the periphery through their standard recipes, which at one level the intent is fine in the absence of any serious alternatives, they also correctly point out the massive theft that is going on by the ruling classes (except they don't realize that it is precisely their ideas of greater transparency that is leading to this robbery of national resources). So in the end we are left with defending what we value in whatever little spaces are left and fortunately there are many people who understand that they are being looted and doing their political bit as well in the context of unequal power relations. Anthony On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 3:33 PM, Jim Devine <[email protected]> wrote: > Anthony D'Costa wrote: > > Fortunately, the economists I am around are 'political economists' of > the heterodox sort otherwise I am mostly around non-economists. Generally > studying the problems of the global south will automatically veer you to > political economy understanding of really existing capitalism...< > > don't you have to deal with the IMF & World Bank people who toe the > "libertarian" line? > > (I like the phrase "really existing capitalism." It's reminiscent of > the distinction made in the old Soviet bloc between the ideal > socialism described in official propaganda and actually-existing > socialism. The "libertarians" push their version of the former.) > -- > Jim Devine / If you're going to support the lesser of two evils, at > the very least you should know the nature of that evil. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Anthony P. D'Costa Professor of Indian Studies and Research Director Asia Research Centre Copenhagen Business School Porcelænshavens 24B, 3.78 DK-2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark Ph: +45 3815 2572 *GLOBALIZATION AND ECONOMIC NATIONALISM IN ASIA*** *http://tinyurl.com/9lpxma2 ** **A NEW INDIA?* <http://www.anthempress.com/index.php/a-new-india-1.html>* http://www.anthempress.com/pdf/9780857285041.pdf* http://uk.cbs.dk/arc http://www.thisismodernindia.com/this_is_modern_india_about_us.html xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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