http://www.williamboot.net/2007/03/26/part-iii-of-the-trap/ A weblog on economics and psychology Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:07:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 http://www.williamboot.net/2007/03/26/part-iii-of-the-trap/#comment-6316 Mon, 26 Mar 2007 22:10:57 +0000 http://www.williamboot.net/2007/03/26/part-iii-of-the-trap/#comment-6316 [...] It also explored the ways in which, as Curtis put it, Western anti-Communism had created a ’strange mutant idea that used the techniques of violent revolution to create a world of negative freedom’, and how economic freedom had been used as a form of ’shock therapy’ in both Russia and Iraq, with catastrophic results that were not predicted by those who recommended and implemented it. I’d previously expressed my reservations about this aspect of the programme, and all I can really say is that they were confirmed by watching it and that there’s a very good piece about it at Fixed Point. I would, though, add that Curtis gave a very misleading impression of how privatisation was handled in Russia, in that he completely ignored the way that much of the economy was already effectively in the hands of the private sector before; it was just that then it was called ‘the black market’ and ‘the Russian mafia’ (many of whom were also members of the nomenklatura. Privatisation, to a great extent, was merely a legitimisation of what had already happened, accompanied by a great deal of corruption from which some Western consultants and financial institutions had the good fortune to profit, inadvertently, I’m sure. [...] […] It also explored the ways in which, as Curtis put it, Western anti-Communism had created a ’strange mutant idea that used the techniques of violent revolution to create a world of negative freedom’, and how economic freedom had been used as a form of ’shock therapy’ in both Russia and Iraq, with catastrophic results that were not predicted by those who recommended and implemented it. I’d previously expressed my reservations about this aspect of the programme, and all I can really say is that they were confirmed by watching it and that there’s a very good piece about it at Fixed Point. I would, though, add that Curtis gave a very misleading impression of how privatisation was handled in Russia, in that he completely ignored the way that much of the economy was already effectively in the hands of the private sector before; it was just that then it was called ‘the black market’ and ‘the Russian mafia’ (many of whom were also members of the nomenklatura. Privatisation, to a great extent, was merely a legitimisation of what had already happened, accompanied by a great deal of corruption from which some Western consultants and financial institutions had the good fortune to profit, inadvertently, I’m sure. […]

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