[PEN-L:3472] Re: Re: NY Times analysis of global economic crisis

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Peter Dorman wrote:

>The series is good journalism and I recommend it especially for the
>classroom.  Article 2 is poor but revealing in its analysis, however.
>Essentially, it concludes that the E. Asian countries were thrown into
>crisis because they are not enough like us: they don't have our
>sophisticated financial regulations, our equity market-based corporate
>governance, or our more liberal relationship between state and market.
>So in a sense it was their fault for being who they were, and it was
>also the fault of the US for pushing financial liberalization too
>rapidly on such flawed countries.  Lots of hubris here (especially for a
>country headed for its own wrenching adjustment at some point in the
>future).

Sure, but as far as these things go, I thought the Times conceding a lot.
For the leading daily, um, organ of the U.S. ruling class it seemed
unusually aware that free capital flows haven't been an unmixed blessing
for the world. This is progress of a sort.

Doug