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Business

Chomsky on Global Myths and Realities

We live in the era of the global free market. Or do we? And now that the Cold War is over, why are the arms manufacturers still looking so prosperous? Political theorist Noam Chomsky thinks he knows why, as Mike Fuller explains.

Here’s one widely accepted version of how things stand in the world today, expressed as three propositions.

Firstly, the contemporary world operates more and more on a free market, free trade agenda which emphasizes market forces of supply and demand and competition. State planning and state intervention in the economy are minimal and protectionism is frowned upon.

Secondly, as economic models, state planning and Keynesian-style state intervention in the market have been discredited as being variously inefficient, inflationary, low in productivity, unjust or tyrannical. Such ‘rolling back’ of the State’s activity leaves the way open for a purer form of market activity.

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