As East Asia enters a long period of economic slowdown or even contraction, social stability becomes harder to achieve without such insurance. The key to economic recovery is reform. Increased social instability makes reform more difficult to implement. An increase in social spending, even at the expense of the fiscal balance, is in the long-term interest of the economies in Asia, in my view.
Globalization is more economical than political.
If there is a trickle down economy, then it is not wealth which trickles down worldwide. Wealth is squeezed up. Use the poor and let them eat pollution, says the world bank. Ninety-five percent of the article reproduces parts of a purloined memorandum sent by Lawrence Summers, chief economist of the World Bank, to some of his colleagues. He presents three supporting arguments, which, though it goes unstated, apply equally to dumping in urban ghettoes rather than wealthy suburbs.