Ha-Joon Chang

95% of Economics is common sense deliberately made complicated.

— Ha-Joon Chang

“It always seems impossible until it is done.’ NELSON MANDELA”

— Ha-Joon Chang

Countries are poor not because their people are lazy; their people are 'lazy' because they are poor.

— Ha-Joon Chang

Democracy is acceptable to neo-liberals only in so far as it does not contradict the free market.

— Ha-Joon Chang

The invention of the printing press was one of the most important events in human history.

— Ha-Joon Chang

Manufacturing is the most important...route to prosperity.

— Ha-Joon Chang

We are not smart enough to leave things to the market.

— Ha-Joon Chang

I'm not an anti-capitalist, or anarchist. I want capitalism to work.

— Ha-Joon Chang

[Good managers] know that people have 'good' sides and 'bad' sides and that the secret of good management is in magnifying the…

— Ha-Joon Chang

Instead of reading a paper, we now read the news online. Instead of buying books at a store, we buy them on-line.…

— Ha-Joon Chang

“all technical professions have an incentive to make themselves look more complicated than they really are so that they can justify the…

— Ha-Joon Chang

I think this notion that public enterprises do not work and therefore nationalization will be a disaster, I mean, it's not supported…

— Ha-Joon Chang

The economy is much bigger than the market. We will not be able to build a good economy - nor a good…

— Ha-Joon Chang

Democracy, despite its limitations, is in the end the only way to ensure that policies do not simply benefit the privileged few.

— Ha-Joon Chang

The Korean economic miracle was the result of a clever and pragmatic mixture of market incentives and state direction.

— Ha-Joon Chang

“The most important assumption underlying HOS is that all countries have equal productive capabilities – that is, they can use any technology…

— Ha-Joon Chang

Charities are now working to give people in poor countries access to the Internet. But shouldn't we spend that money on providing…

— Ha-Joon Chang

The higher education system in these countries (US, Korea etc) has become like a theatre in which some people decided to stand…

— Ha-Joon Chang

It takes time and experience to absorb new technologies, so technologically backward producers need a period of protection from international competition during…

— Ha-Joon Chang

The danger is not only that these austerity measures are killing the European economies but also that they threaten the very legitimacy…

— Ha-Joon Chang

“Economics is a political argument. It is not – and can never be – a science; there are no objective truths in…

— Ha-Joon Chang

Many financial and industrial companies have been bailed out with the public's money, but very few of those who had run those…

— Ha-Joon Chang

I am one of the most successful economists, according to what markets tell us, though most of my professional colleagues, who are…

— Ha-Joon Chang

What free-market economists are not telling us is that the politics they want to get rid of are none other than those…

— Ha-Joon Chang

“The issue of false consciousness is a genuinely difficult problem that has no definite solution. We should not approve of an unequal…

— Ha-Joon Chang

Above a certain level of income, the relative value of material consumption vis-a-vis leisure time is diminished, so earning a higher income…

— Ha-Joon Chang

“If there are so many successful public enterprises, why do we rarely hear about them? It is partly because of the nature…

— Ha-Joon Chang

The widely accepted assertion that, only if you let markets be will everyone be paid correctly and thus fairly, according to his…

— Ha-Joon Chang

“If the world were full of the self-seeking individuals found in economics textbooks, it would grind to a halt because we would…

— Ha-Joon Chang

“free trade economists have argued that the mere co-existence of protectionism and economic development does not prove that the former caused the…

— Ha-Joon Chang

Equality of opportunity is not enough. Unless we create an environment where everyone is guaranteed some minimum capabilities through some guarantee of…

— Ha-Joon Chang

“Recognizing that the boundaries of the market are ambiguous and cannot be determined in an objective way lets us realize that economics…

— Ha-Joon Chang

Corruption exists because there is too much, not too little, market.

— Ha-Joon Chang

As a consumer, I don't create art, but I think whatever the message is, art has to touch you.

— Ha-Joon Chang

Making rich people richer doesn't make the rest of us richer.

— Ha-Joon Chang

Corruption often exists because there are too many market forces, not too few.

— Ha-Joon Chang

People who live in poor countries have to be entrepreneurial even just to survive.

— Ha-Joon Chang

The washing machine changed the world more than the Internet.

— Ha-Joon Chang

There are different ways to organise capitalism. Free-market capitalism is only one of them-and not a very good one at that.

— Ha-Joon Chang

Overcoming the myth that there is such a thing as an objectively defined 'free market' is the first step towards understanding capitalism.

— Ha-Joon Chang