The Hijacking of the Development Debate: How Friedman and Sachs Got It Wrong

Abstract

From Introduction: "Thomas Friedman and Jeffrey Sachs--articulate, learned globetrotting pundits--would seem an unlikely duo to hijack the development debate. Yet, through their best-selling books--Friedman's 'The World is Flat' and Sach's 'The End of Poverty'--their prominent exposure in the U.S. media, and endorsements by celebrities like Bono, the superstar lead singer of the rock group U2, they have done precisely that. Just a half decade after protests by citizen groups in Latin America and elsewhere discredited two decades of market-oriented neoliberal dogma, Friedman and Sachs have narrowed the debate with simplistic slogans of 'more aid' and 'more trade.' They have done so by putting forward myths about the poor, economic development, and the global economy."