Reply #24: The title of the article misrepresents the intent of the original article [View All]

[grantcart]

The original article key passage was


Decrying a "false dichotomy" between the virtues of the free market and the alleged vice of state dirigisme, it said there is much to learn from the calibrated "industrial policies" of Malaysia, Sweden, Taiwan, and Finland.



In other words the idea of overthrowing a market economy for a state driven economy would be as wrong as a an unfettered free market.


The original author is clearly indicating that the free market but modified (calibrated) and not overthrown.


Finland, for example, has long had a state determined and state run market. During the cold war the famous 'Finish Solution' was to have political nuetrality with Stalinist USSR but have complete trade. They became the primary factory source for the USSR for higher quality consumer goods (but goods that would be considered largely inferior in the West). When the state economy of the USSR collapsed the state market system of Finland also collapsed and for a while Finland experienced the highest suicide rates in the world.

Had Finland been calibrated to be less directed by the state market they would have been able to develop the same export markets as Sweden and Denmark and would not have had the huge crash that it did.