23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Product Description The acclaimed Ha-Joon Chang is a voice of sanity-and wit-in this lighthearted book with a serious purpose: to question the assumptions behind the dogma and sheer hype that the dominant school of neoliberal economists have spun since the Age of Reagan. 23 Things They Don't Tell You about Capitalism uses twenty-three short essays (a few great examples: "There Is No Such Thing as a Free Market," "The Washing Machine Has Changed the World More than the Internet Has") to equip readers with an understanding of how global capitalism works, and doesn't, while offering a vision of how we can shape capitalism to humane ends, instead of becoming slaves of the market. Praise for 23 Things They Don't Tell You about Capitalism: "A lively, accessible and provocative book."-Sunday Times(UK ) "Chang, befitting his position as an economics professor at Cambridge University, is engagingly thoughtful and opinionated at a much lower decibel level. 'The "truths" peddled by free-market ideologues are based on lazy assumptions and blinkered visions,' he charges."-Time Review “Chang, befitting his position as an economics professor at Cambridge University, is engagingly thoughtful and opinionated at a much lower decibel level. ‘The "truths" peddled by free-market ideologues are based on lazy assumptions and blinkered visions,' he charges.” ―Time “Chang presents an enlightening précis of modern economic thought--and all the places it's gone wrong, urging us to act in order to completely rebuild the world economy: ‘This will [make] some readers uncomfortable…[;] it is time to get uncomfortable.'” ―Publishers Weekly “Myth-busting and nicely-written collection of essays” ―Independent (UK) “Shaking Economics 101 assumptions to the core … Eminently accessible, with a clearly liberal (or at least anticonservative) bent, but with surprises along the way--for one, the thought that markets need to become less rather than more efficient.” ―Kirkus Reviews “For anyone who wants to understand capitalism not as economists or politicians have pictured it but as it actually operates, this book will be invaluable.” ―John Gray, Observer (UK) “A lively, accessible and provocative book.” ―Sunday Times (UK) “For 40 years, I have worked as a journalist and trained thousands of other journalists from my former perches as a University of Missouri Journalism School professor and as executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. I have written newspaper articles, magazine features and entire books with heavy doses of economics policy and business behavior. I wish the book 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism had been available when I was a rookie; I would have been more alert to the hands-off-business catechism by which Americans are relentlessly indoctrinated.” ―Steven Weinberg, Remapping Debate “I doubt there is one book, written in response to the current economic crisis, that is as fun or easy to read as Ha-Joon Chang's 23 Things They Don't Tell you About Capitalism.” ―AlterNet Executive Editor Don Hazen About the Author Ha-Joon Chang is Assistant Director of Development Studies in the Faculty of Economics and Politics, University of Cambridge.