Economists We Like: Ha Joon Chang. 23 things they don't tell you about Capitalism.

Our house economists here at the Greater Good Coalition include Robert Reich, Dean Baker, Joe Stiglitz, Roubini and Paul Krugman. With the sixth Beatle being Lori Wallach over at Public Citizen. I worked with her early in the 90s as well. A new addition would have to be Ha Joon Chang, an economist out of Britain. Let's learn all we can about Ha Joon Chang.


First, here's an article he wrote called "23 things they don't tell you about Capitalism".

What they tell you

Markets need to be free. When the government interferes to dictate what market participants can or cannot do, resources cannot flow to their most efficient use. If people cannot do the things that they find most profitable, they lose the incentive to invest and innovate. Thus, if the government puts a cap on house rents, landlords lose the incentive to maintain their properties or build new ones. Or, if the government restricts the kinds of financial products that can be sold, two contracting parties that may both have benefited from innovative transactions that fulfill their idiosyncratic needs cannot reap the potential gains of free contract. People must be left "free to choose," as the title of free-market visionary Milton Friedman’s famous book goes.

What they don’t tell you

The free market doesn’t exist. Every market has some rules and boundaries that restrict freedom of choice. A market looks free only because we so unconditionally accept its underlying restrictions that we fail to see them. How "free" a market is cannot be objectively defined. It is a political definition. The usual claim by free-market economists that they are trying to defend the market from politically motivated interference by the government is false. Government is always involved and those free-marketeers are as politically motivated as anyone. Overcoming the myth that there is such a thing as an objectively defined "free market" is the first step towards understanding capitalism.

What's that? You're too tired to read? Then you should read books the way I do now: by way of Youtube.





Or this:



and part 2:



He also gives an hour long talk here.

The kind of candidate that the Greater Good Coalition could indirectly support.

Cheri Honkala would be a perfect candidate to try our tactics on. We need money though.



Here's her longer press conference:



Press release about the press conference:

Cheri Honkala’s run for Sheriff comes as a last resort to help people and families who have nowhere to turn after a corrupt Sheriff’s Office still can’t come up with millions of dollars worth of real-estate auction receipts. It has been reported that the current Office of the Sheriff has kept an unknown amount of money from Philadelphia residents after their foreclosed homes were sold and back taxes and utility bills were paid. Honkala vows to fight for the working class homeowner who has been left to live in the streets after the Wall Street financial class was bailed out.

Speakers endorsing Honkala at the Press Conference include CEO of Liberty Resources Tom Earle, former President of District Council 47 Tom Paine Cronin, and Sister Margaret McKenna from New Jerusalem. Jim Moran Director Emeritus of Philaposh* and 16 year Chair of the Philadelphia Labor Day Parade Committee will be speaking in support of Honkala and will also be announcing his role as her Campaign Manager. Reverend Robert Johnson will be speaking on behalf of Philadelphians who have been made homeless through mismanaged Sheriff sales, and Hugh Giordano will be speaking on behalf of the Green Party.

Honkala is also the mother of writer/director/actor/activist Mark Webber (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Snow Day) who grew up surviving the harsh Philadelphia winters in abandoned houses and buildings while his mother began to organize with other impoverished and homeless families. Webber shot his film that put a spotlight on poverty and the failure of the healthcare system entitled “Explicit Ills” (Rosario Dawson, Francisco Burgos) in Philadelphia. The film was released in 2008, and won several awards at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival.

“Our politicians aren’t doing anything about the foreclosure issue. There isn’t a moratorium, and there needs to be, so I have no other choice than to step forward and to choose to stop throwing families out of their homes by becoming the Philadelphia Sheriff.” Honkala says. “When one in five families is at risk of foreclosure in this country, something is really wrong.”

“I want to encourage people across the country that can’t keep families in homes to run for Sheriff as well and refuse to throw families out on the street.

Disclaimer: Our 527 doesn't endorse candidates but we can support candidates who share our views.

What the Greater Good Coalition Can Do

The Greater Good Coalition was officially incorporated on Jan. 21st 2011. I designed this company to work on behalf of the public good in multiple ways.

Sometime back, on Firedoglake, I came up with the idea that what progressive outsider candidates needed was money. We should seek out 300000 like minded candidates to give 10 dollars a month to build a real budget for progressive candidates who will actually fight for progressive values. And I don't mean people that fight like Al Franken or Bernie Sanders, losing on both net neutrality and the public option (the 20 billion that Bernie Sanders got in exchange for the public option also looks to have been cut from the House budget...). We need progressives that will fight dirty like republicans Tom Coburn and Jim Demint. Here's a revelation: we should shoot for five senators and not worry about the presidency. Under Supermajority rules, senators pretty much have veto power over bills. That's a personal opinion.

That 300000 times 10 comes out to 3 million a month or 36 million a year. That's enough to fund my oft repeated 5/25 plan.


Here are the public interest ideas outlined in our articles of incorporation.

The primary public interest purpose of The Greater Good Coalition (GGC) is to help the American public better understand and change the policies that affect their lives by using whatever means necessary including, but not limited to, cell phones, internet tools, old fashioned door knocking (canvassing), fliers and petition campaigns that can result in the greatest good for the greatest in number (My definition of "Progressive"). These local, state and federal policies include, but are not limited to (includes all policies that affect the greater good), unemployment and jobs policy (international job killing trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA), tax policy, environmental policy, election fairness, election integrity, voter access, net neutrality, college debt forgiveness, consumer protection, affordable health care, big telecom/cable issues, the off-shoring of jobs and affordable and accessible public transit. As a general rule, we also support any policy that gets us closer to living like a citizen of France or Norway (as of 2010) and working to defeat any policy that gets us closer to the vast unemployment and misery of the majority population of Mexico (as of 2010) or some other Third World plutocracy. This primary purpose will be articulated by an online paper/website presence. (http://greatergoodcoalition.blogspot.com/ initially but this might change! It will certainly be expanded.)

The second public interest purpose of the Greater Good Coalition is non partisan voter education, registration and get out the voter activities in conjunction with elections.

The third public interest purpose of the Greater Good Coalition is finding and identifying candidates throughout the United States that are most supportive of our progressive public interest positions. (See primary purpose.)

The fourth public interest purpose of the Greater Good Coalition will be to seek out and create better non profit models for newspapers, journals of criticism, fiction and original businesses virtual and otherwise that can be started by citizens of limited means (defined as making less than a living wage).

Disclaimer: As a 527, we can't endorse anybody! But we can work indirectly for candidates that share our viewpoints.