Shift of power from West to East?
Asia Sentinel carries a Sarajit Majumdar article on the seeming power shift from West to East. It’s happening at an accelorated pace to be sure, but Majumdar, like so many other economists, see technocrats as anti-liberty boogeymen. Perhaps they are. What never seems to come from the economist’s pen is the implicit political assumptions they make that are essential to their worldview. Indeed economics is always political economy. The underspoken deserves greater fleshing out. Where are their boundaries? What is a sine qua non of their liberty systems? Human rights? Free trade? What about Singapore? Switzerland? Free? Why or why not? Economics seems to run from the discussion of necessary foundations. As a science, that makes it weaker.
The main issue coming up is resources… that means who has resources and who does not. North America with approx. 52% of the worlds resource base does.
The far east with approx less than 7% of the base of the world does not.
This means with 6 billion people and not enough resources for even half that number… without petrochemical green aspects… something terrible will happen shortly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImV1voi41YY&feature=channel_page
Tbone
January 10, 2009 at 6:15 pm