Ha-Joon Chang Quotes - Page 2

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95 percent of economics is common sense made complicated, and even for the remaining 5 percent, the essential reasoning, if not all the technical details, can be explained in plain terms.

Ha-Joon Chang

Common Sense, Essentials, Details

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Democracy and markets are both fundamental building blocks for a decent society. But they clash at a fundamental level. We need to balance them.

Ha-Joon Chang

Block, Democracy, Balance

Ha-Joon Chang (2007). “Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism”, Bloomsbury Press

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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. This is what we do all the time with other products-drugs, cars, electrical products and many others.

Ha-Joon Chang

Running, Business, Long

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A well-designed welfare state can actually encourage people to take chances with their jobs and be more, not less, open to changes.

Ha-Joon Chang

Jobs, People, Chance

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People who live in poor countries have to be entrepreneurial even just to survive.

Ha-Joon Chang

Country, People, Poor

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Manufacturing is the most important...route to prosperity.

Ha-Joon Chang

Important, Prosperity, Routes

"Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism". Book by Ha-Joon Chang, 2008.

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Corruption often exists because there are too many market forces, not too few.

Ha-Joon Chang

Corruption, Force

Ha-Joon Chang (2007). “Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism”, Bloomsbury Press

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Low inflation and government prudence may be harmful for economic development.

Ha-Joon Chang

Government, Development, May

Ha-Joon Chang (2007). “Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism”, Bloomsbury Press

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The days are over when technology can be advanced in laboratories by individual scientists alone. Now you need an army of lawyers to negotiate the hazardous terrain of interlocking patents. Unless we find a solution to the problem of interlocking patents, the patent system may actually impede the very innovation it was designed to encourage.

Ha-Joon Chang

Army, Technology, Innovation

Ha-Joon Chang (2007). “Bad Samaritans: rich nations, poor policies, and the threat to the developing world”, Century

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The danger is not only that these austerity measures are killing the European economies but also that they threaten the very legitimacy of European democracies - not just directly by threatening the livelihoods of so many people and pushing the economy into a downward spiral, but also indirectly by undermining the legitimacy of the political system through this backdoor rewriting of the social contract.

Ha-Joon Chang

People, Political, Democracy

"The root of Europe's riots" by Ha-Joon Chang, www.theguardian.com. September 28, 2012.

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Assume the worst about people and you get the worst.

Ha-Joon Chang

People, Assuming, Worst

Ha-Joon Chang (2010). “23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism”, p.40, Penguin UK

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The widely accepted assertion that, only if you let markets be will everyone be paid correctly and thus fairly, according to his worth, is a myth. Only when we part with this myth and grasp the political nature of the market and the collective nature of individual productivity will we be able to build a more just society in which historical legacies and collective actions, and not just individual talents and efforts, are properly taken into account in deciding how to reward people.

Ha-Joon Chang

Taken, People, Effort

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[Good managers] know that people have 'good' sides and 'bad' sides and that the secret of good management is in magnifying the former and toning down the latter.

Ha-Joon Chang

People, Good Man, Secret

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Between the Great Depression and the 1970s, private business was viewed with suspicion even in most capitalist economies. Businesses were, so the story goes, seen as anti-social agents whose profit-seeking needed to be restrained for other, supposedly loftier, goals, such as justice, social harmony, protection of the weak and even national glory.

Ha-Joon Chang

Capitalist Economy, Justice, Goal

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All the alleged key causes of SOE [State-Owned Enterprise] inefficiency - the principal-agent problem, the free-rider problem and the soft budget constraint - are, while real, not unique to state-owned enterprises. Large private-sector firms with dispersed ownership also suffer from the principal-agent problem and the free-rider problem. So, in these two areas, forms of ownership do matter, but the critical divide is not between state and private ownership - it is between concentrated and dispersed ownerships.

Ha-Joon Chang

Real, Unique, Keys

"Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism". Book by Ha-Joon Chang, en.wikiquote.org. 2008.

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In manufacturing, where mechanization and the use of chemical processes are much easier, it is easier to raise productivity than in services. In contrast, by their very nature, many service activities are inherently impervious to productivity increase without diluting the quality of the product.

Ha-Joon Chang

Quality, Use, Economics

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It takes time and experience to absorb new technologies, so technologically backward producers need a period of protection from international competition during this period of learning. Such protection is costly, because the country is giving up the chance to import better and cheaper products. However, it is a price that has to be paid if it wants to develop advanced industries.

Ha-Joon Chang

Country, Giving Up, Technology

Ha-Joon Chang (2008). “Bad Samaritans: The Guilty Secrets of Rich Nations and the Threat to Global Prosperity”, p.47, Random House

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Above a certain level of income, the relative value of material consumption vis-a-vis leisure time is diminished, so earning a higher income at the cost of working longer hours may reduce the quality of your life. More importantly, the fact that the citizens of a country work longer than others in comparable countries does not necessarily mean that they like working longer hours. They may be compelled to work long hours, even if they actually want to take longer holidays.

Ha-Joon Chang

Country, Holiday, Mean

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To paraphrase Winston Churchill, capitalism is the worst economic system except for all the other forms.

Ha-Joon Chang

Economic, Form, Worst

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Financial markets need to become less, not more, efficient.

Ha-Joon Chang

Needs, Financial, Financial Markets

"23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism". Book by Ha-Joon Chang, 2010.

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There is a big logical jump between acknowledging the destructive nature of hyperinflation and arguing that the lower the rate of inflation, the better.

Ha-Joon Chang

Arguing, Logical, Hyperinflation

Ha-Joon Chang (2007). “Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism”, Bloomsbury Press

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It's not just about the current economic environment. History shows that slashing budgets always leads to recession.

Ha-Joon Chang

Environment, Economic, Currents

"Austerity has never worked" by Ha-Joon Chang, www.theguardian.com. June 4, 2012.

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Corruption exists because there is too much, not too little, market.

Ha-Joon Chang

Littles, Too Much, Corruption

Ha-Joon Chang (2007). “Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism”, Bloomsbury Press

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The invention of the printing press was one of the most important events in human history.

Ha-Joon Chang

Important Events, Printing, Invention

"Ha-Joon Chang: The net isn't as important as we think". Interview with William Skidelsky, www.theguardian.com. August 28, 2010.

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There is no such thing as a free market.

Ha-Joon Chang

Free Market

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Born: October 7, 1963
Occupation: Economist
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