Sunday, March 23, 2003

On Economics

Returning to Jeff Madrick "Paying the Price for Isolation", I feel the need to 'deconstruct' his thesis a bit. Madrick is arguing that the recent evolution of the world's economy has reinforced the need for tight economic and political integration and that the recent isolationism push of the Bush administration is causing friction that could have serious economic consequences. To my mind, this is indisputable, but he neglects to discuss the political rationale for isolationism, which are what Madrick refers to as "fanciful and ideological claims". To my mind again, there is no good political rationale and these ideological claims are little more than fanciful, but they need to be refuted either on ideological grounds or by demonstrating that their purported benefits are not worth their economic costs.

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