... is the topic of my latest Trade Tripper column in this Friday-Saturday issue of BusinessWorld. Excerpts:
"Not many people now are willing to defend the free market and even those I thought who would come out in its defense (as they were such vocal advocates in better times) are all suddenly silent. If they won’t defend it, then I will: the free market is the best system we have and we should ensure that we do not revert to a protectionist, closed economy mind-set.
To judge the global free market as defective and should be done away with it due to the events happening in Wall Street is as illogical as saying that the Catholic religion should be terminated because of a few pedophile priests. As Churchill would say, democracy may not be perfect, but it’s the best that we have. And the free market system is the best that we have, with no alternative able to credibly assert itself even in these troubled times."
