On the road to Liberty

Sweeping through 2,000 years, Deepak Lal performs the vital task of making history relevant for contemporary world. I look at Prof Lal's " Reviving the Invisible Hand: The case for classical liberalism in the twenty-first century " in the Financial Express, on 23 July 2006. The trade negotiations at WTO are stalled. Clearly, ten years on, the multi-lateral platform provided by WTO has run out of steam. The focus has shifted to bilateral or regional trade talks, but this is fraught with many pitfalls. So, a few people, including this author, have been calling for unilateral trade liberalisation and economic reforms as a way to capitalise on the economic follies of nations who prefer protectionism. It is perhaps a coincidence that Deepak Lals latest book Reviving the Invisible Hand: The case for classical liberalism in the twenty-first century appeared at this time. Lal, a renowned development economist, has given a clarion call for unilateral trade and economic reforms. S...

My article titled "Going Beyond Good Intentions: A look at Amartya Sen" was published in April 1999. In the battle over economics, the victory of the market forces seemed decisive. It had not been easy. Since the days of Adam Smith, the world economy had to cross the turbulent waters of colonialism, mercantilism, socialism, fascism, and communism before liberalisation, globalisation, privatisation, became accepted part of our general vocabulary. But even before the process of consolidation is over, it now seems that free market ideas are faced with insidious threats as never before. Indeed, the popular appeal of socialist ideas was not primarily based on economic principles but on its ethical and political ones - an egalitarian worldview. (Discussions rarely focussed on the morality of the methods that would be necessary to create such a world order.) On the other hand, the advocates of free market rarely went beyond economics and utility, and generally ignored the moral basi...

Socialism has much popular appeal, primarily for ethical and political reasons. Most advocates of the free market economy did not defend it on moral grounds. This is unfortunate. The Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen is one economist who appreciates the connection between ethics and economics, and there are some half truths in his world view. However, good intentions are not enough for alleviation of poverty. My article titled " Sen Or Sense " was published in The Freeman in February 1999. In the battle over economics, the victory of the market seemed decisive. It had not been easy. Since the days of Adam Smith, the world economy had to cross the turbulent waters of colonialism, mercantilism, socialism, fascism, and communism before liberalization, globalization, and privatization became accepted as part of our general vocabulary. But even before the process of consolidation is over, it now seems that free market ideas are faced with insidious threats as never before. Indeed, the po...