When Economist are Anti-Development

I watched ‪#‎Sunrise‬ on Channels TV this Morning and I was particularly dumbfounded when a supposed Economist and Developmental Banker opposed the CBN's Import Restriction Policy on Rice and other products the Nigerian economy is capable of producing. He even insinuated that we are not a Communist country so why the restriction on trade and that importers should import and challenge the capacity and capability of the local manufacturers. If people like this are the Economist and developmental bankers we are producing; We are set to be under-developing for generations to come.

The Key Question is; How did the West and The Asian Economic Power House grow their economies? ‪#‎HajoonChang‬ in His Book 'The Bad Samaritans' presented it perfectly when he said; My Six Years old son should get a job, Begin to manage money, should be exposed to competition, should marry, have children and manage a home of his own......Right? You say no, I need to protect and nurture the child, if i drive my six years old son into street he will probably become a shoe-shiner or a street hawker.... But he will never become a brain surgeon or a nuclear physicist.....Yet this absurd line of argument is how free-trade economist justify rapid, large-scale trade liberalization in developing countries. They say expose producers in developing countries to much competition now, so that they have incentives to raise productivity to survive. They say Protection, by contrast, only creates complacency and sloth. The earlier we debunk this nonsense argument, the better it is for economic development.

No Matter the Financial Incentives from the Unholy Trinity (World Bank, IMF and WTO), that is only half the story. The other is capability. Even if my six years old son is offered a £20m reward or, alternatively, threatened with a bullet in his head, he would not be able to rise to the challenge of brain surgery had he quit school at the age of six. Likewise, industries in developing countries will not survive if they are exposed to international competition too early. They need time to improve their capabilities by mastering advanced technologies and building effective organizations. This is the essence of the infant industry argument, first theorized by Alexander Hamilton, first Treasury Secretary of the US, and used by generations of policy-makers before and after him.

The West and The Asian Economic Powerhouse Developed Via a Mixture of;

1. Protectionism;
2. Subsidy for Local Producers;
3. Debilitating Tariffs on Import;
4. Government Driven Industrialization and
5. Effective Governmental Oversight through Super Regulatory.

That is the Reason I am an Incurable Optimist about PMB; I am a ‪#‎Buharist‬; #HajoonChang stated and presented the Economic Ideology Behind PMB's Economic Policies in the 1980's perfectly.....READ 'THE BAD SAMARITAN'