CNE Monatsmagazin Digest
October 2004

English Summary

If someone cements the misery in developing countries, then it is eco-imperialism, says Paul Driessen in his book "Eco-Imperialism", reviewed by Hardy Bouillon. He defines eco-imperialism as the expression of a global claim to power on behalf of nature. To him this claim rests on insufficient or false theories that help to cement misery in third world countries by inhibiting people in those countries to find a way out of poverty, epidemics, famines and miserable conditions of life.

"No fool like a noble fool - at least in economics", says Gerard Radnitzky in his essay on patent false estimations by nobel prize winners. The worst of all to him in this respect was Paul Samuelson. In 1989 - the annus mirabilis of the imploding Sovjet economy - Samuelson included in the new edition of his bestseller "Economics" the following remark: "The Soviet economy is proof that, contrary to what many skeptics had earlier believed, a socialist command economy can function and even thrive.", Economics 1989, p. 837).

"Unbelievable as it may sound, it is a sad truth: Most economists do not know what money is", says Roland Baader. "Though they know its functions, they do not know its essence. … And those few, who know it, know that the central banks all over the world - following the Fed - serve only as stokers to the boilers in which all our savings are burned and converted into the hot steam of easy money."

"If one is to solve Germany's biggest problem - its high unemployment rate - one should keep in mind that it is not an end-state. Instead it is a development that continuously leads to a growing number of unemployed", writes Georg Wilhelm Wahnschaffe in his review of the new book by Magedeburg economists Schoeb und Weimann, Arbeit ist machbar (You can create jobs). Hence the cure proposed by the authors - namely subsidising wage costs - hardly heels the true causes of the problem. It is like calf pecking to lower fever.

"According to World Bank report, Doing Business 2005, German economic policy conditions are the worst in all industrial countries" concludes Gunnar Sohn. "The World Bank studied the conditions for 145 countries. Its findings show that Germany only matches developing countries and those with emerging markets. Comparing rich countries, firms in Germany meet conditions that are lower mean, sometimes not even that", he quotes World Bank Vice-President Michael Klein.

The antitrust case against Microsoft is founded upon theories that disregard the true nature of competition, say Alberto Mingardi und Paolo Zanetto in their IBL-Report. They assume that Mario Monti's decision is to be brought before the European Court, which has repeatedly rejected his cases and economic analyses. "Mr. Monti's decision is based upon complaints raised by competitors of Microsoft, and favours them rather than consumers. … It weakens European business, setting a precedent for what has been called "a welfare state for losers".

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Dr. Hardy Bouillon is Head of Academic Affairs at the Centre for the New Europe.