That isn’t a headline from the left-leaning Huffington Post, or a comment on Glenn Beck’s right-wing populist blackboard. It is, instead, the conclusion of a rigorous analysis bearing the imprimatur of the U.S. establishment: the paper’s lead author is Michael Spence, recipient of the Nobel Prize in economic sciences, and it was published by the Council on Foreign Relations. – Reuters Blog/ Chrystia Freeland
Dominant Social Theme: It’s official. Free markets don’t work very well. Or maybe they work too well. In any case, they need help.
Free-Market Analysis: This thoughtful article that Chrystia Freeland has written for her Reuters’ blog presents the conclusions that capitalism is not lifting all boats equally; or, to mix metaphors, technology is proving to be a two-edged sword. Productivity has risen but middle class wages and opportunity have not kept pace.
The conclusion is not hers alone but that of Michael Spence and co-author, Sandile Hlatshwayo. In her blog-article published a few days ago, Freeland reports on their scholarly paper examining the past 20 years of corporate and economic history. In this article, we’ll examine Freeland’s analysis to try to show how once more how arguments developed in a certain manner inevitably lead to certain conclusions.
As she is a mainstream business reporter, we are not surprised that Freeland comes to the conclusions she does, but it is instructive to follow the logic. What we end up with is a situation where the arguments have been framed in a certain way to develop a certain result. For anyone interested in thinking beyond this format, understanding how this occurs is critical.
Freeland doesn’t come right out and say it, but if technology is leading to increasing middle class difficulties, then some extracurricular force will have to be brought into play to rectify the situation. This is one of the oldest and hoariest dominant social themes of the power elite: Market failures demand government relief. It is elaborated on many ways round the world every day.
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