Capitalism

The Great Leveler: Capitalism and Competition in the Court of Law by Brett Christophers; Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2016; pp 360, $46.50.

​The Globalisation of Inequality by Francois Bourguignon, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2015; pp 210, $27.95.

Globalisation has lost legitimacy in its homelands. The emerging economies of Asia need to carry extra weight in favour of global prosperity and away from xenophobia and autarky.

Tackling the question of how to recalibrate the relationship between history and theory in our favour without falling into the trap of either an unqualified universalism or a naïve historicism, this article proposes that we move from the position of being a critic of Western theory to that of being a composer and assembler of a new theory from different sources and different histories.

In a recent article published in Finance and Development, an International Monetary Fund magazine, three economists have critically evaluated the policies the IMF promotes. They acknowledge evidence that suggests that economic growth under neo-liberalism is difficult to sustain, that it leads to an increase in inequality, and that continuing inequality is harmful for sustainable (or continuing) growth.