Category: 2952-416 Special Topics in Economic Development

Today we will be meeting on campus in our normal room, 409. In the afternoon from 13:30-16:30 I have scheduled a make-up class in room 410.

Media and Propaganda Model:

Start with chapter 1 of Herman, Edward S. and Noam Chomsky (2002, 1988) Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books. Then check out the following articles:

• • Herman, E.S. (2000) “The Propaganda Model: a retrospective,” Journalism Studies, 1(1), p. 101-112.
  • Chomsky, N. (1997) “What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream,” Z Magazine, October.

Then watch this documentary, “Manufacturing Consent” (1992) by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick, with my accompanying notes. Alternatively, you could start here and then go back and review the readings. Key highlights include (32:50 – 46:05), (2:38:35 – 2:42:53).

• • Chapter 2 in Chernomas, R., & Hudson, I. (2016). The Profit Doctrine: Economists of the Neoliberal Era. Pluto Press.Must read: an important chapter related to the institutional analysis of the education system, specifically the economics discipline.

Then watch this documentary, “Manufacturing Consent” (1992) by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick, with my accompanying notes. Alternatively, you could start here and then go back and review the readings. Key highlights include (32:50 – 46:05), (2:38:35 – 2:42:53).

Additional articles that are relevant to this topic, but ones we likely will not have time to discuss: 

• • Herman, E.S. (1993) “The Media’s Role in U.S. Foreign Policy,” Journal of International Affairs, 47(1), p. 23-45.
• 
  Also check out, my Beginner’s Guide to Media. 

Normative Approaches:

• • Magnuson, J. (2011). Mindful economics: how the US economy works, why it matters, and how it could be different. Seven Stories Press.
    • Chapter 12: Redrawing the Institutional Map
    • Chapter 13: Mindful Ownership and Mindful Finance
    • Chapter 14: Sustainable Practices
  • Sen, A. (2001) Development As Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    • Chapter 6: The Importance of Democracy
  • Stiglitz, Joseph E. (2006) Making Globalization Work. New York: W.W., Norton & Company.
    • Chapter 9: Reforming the Global Reserve System
    • Chapter 10: Democratizing Globalization
  • Chomsky, Noam (2010) Hopes and Prospects, Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.
    • Part I: Democracy and Development: Their Enemies, Their Hopes
    • Part I: Latin American and Caribbean Unity
  • Sivaraksa, S (2011) The Wisdom of Sustainability: Buddhist Economics for the 21st Century. London: Souvenir Press.
    • Chapter 3: Development From the Bottom Up
    • Chapter 7: Buddhism in a Changing World
  • Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J.A. (2012) Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. New York: Crown Business.
    • Chapter 15: Understanding Prosperity and Poverty

Today we will be meeting online [via Teams]. Next week we will be back in the classroom. I would like to finish discussing the topic of debt, while transitioning to the topics on rule of law and trade agreements. I have provided you with plenty of material for next week’s discussion on media and the propaganda model. Please review that material so we can have some good participation.

• • Your second essay should be published on Project Pathumwan by Friday, December 2nd. If you would like to have some feedback on your second outline and you would like to have enough time to review and incorporate the feedback into your essay, try to get it to me by this week sometime, so I can get it back to you by the  23rd of November along with the feedback from your first essay.
  • If you have not received a response from me related to the second outline by the 23rd, please message me, because there is a chance it was overlooked or it was missing somehow.

Rule of Law and Trade Agreements

Legal Institutions: if we want to understand who the system is ultimately designed to benefit/serve, we need to understand…

• • What are the rules?
  • Who writes the rules?
  • In whose interest are the rules written?
  • Who enforces the rules?
  • How are the rules enforced?
  • Are the rules equitably enforced or two-tiered?

Joseph Stiglitz Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 in Making Globalization Work.

1. 1. Notes: “Two-Tiered Justice Systems and the Rule of Law“
   2. Notes: “‘Trade Agreements’: MNCs, Patents, Profit, and Their Impact on People“

John Pilger (2001) “New Rulers of the World” : Indonesian Investment Conference | IMF/World Bank | Interview with Nicolas Stern | Interview with Stanley Fischer| Seattle Protests, WTO, and MAI

Alain Supiot, “The World Bank Helps Investors Choose the Law They Want,” The Real News Network, June 18, 2019.

Kennard, M. & Provost, C. (2016, July 25) Inside the Corporate Utopias Where Capitalism Rules and Labor Laws Don’t Apply, In These Times.

Jonathan D. Ostry, Prakash Loungani, and Davide Furceri, “Neoliberalism: Oversold?” FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT, June 2016, Vol. 53, No. 2

Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, “The Rotten Roots of the IMF and the World Bank,” The Nation

Dave Johnson, “Stop Calling the TPP a Trade Agreement – It Isn’t,” Moyers & Company, 27 May 2015

Video: “The World According to Monsanto” (GMO seeds, intellectual property)

Video: “Michael Hudson: Why the US has a unique place in the history of imperialism?” India & Global Left. November 5, 2022.

Video: Glenn Greenwald and Noam Chomsky,  “How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful”

Video: “The Investigators: ALEC – The Backroom Where Laws Are Born”

Article + Video: “TPP ‘worst trade deal ever,’ says Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz“, CBC News, April 1st, 2016.

Glenn Greenwald, “In Europe, Hate Speech Laws are Often Used to Suppress and Punish Left-Wing Viewpoints,” The Intercept, 29 August 2017.

Glenn Greenwald, “How the Rich Subverted the Legal System,” Tom Dispatch, 25 October 2011.

Nathan J. Robinson, “Why Does International Law Even Matter?” Current Affairs, 14 April 2018.

Zayed Siddiki, “Digital authoritarianism in Bangladesh: Weaponising a draconian law to silence dissent in the pandemic era,” EngageMedia, July 14, 2022.

• • Kate Hodal, “Workers claiming they had to sleep with the chickens face Thai court charges,” The Guardian, 6 June 2017.
  • Kate Hodal, “Thailand: poultry workers cry fowl amid claim they ‘slept on floor next to 28,000 birds’,” The Guardian, 1 August 2016.
  • Yasmin Lee Arpon, “Thailand’s deadly rich kids,” The Straits Times, 9 April 2017.
  • Lindsay Murdoch, “Red Bull heir Vorayuth Yoovidhya stonewalls prosecutors years after alleged hit-and-run,” The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 April 2017.
  • Veera Prateepchaikul, “Even if ‘Boss’ were arrested, what happens next?” Bangkok Post, 3 April 2017.
  • Democracy Now! “Glenn Greenwald: Brazil’s Right Wing Jailed Ex-President Lula Because They Couldn’t Win at the Polls,” 9 April 2018.

Debt Issues:

• • Marwaan Macan-Markar, “Laos’ debt pressure raises specter of a China vassal state,” Nikkei Asia, September 6, 2022.
  • Ben Norton, “IMF Warns of ‘Wave of Debt Crises’ Coming in Global South, With War, Interest Rate Hikes, Overvalued Dollar,” Scheerpost, November 15, 2022.
  • Setsuo Otsuka, “Superstrong dollar threatens debt crisis across emerging economies,” Nikkei Asia, September 2, 2022.

Media:

Start with chapter 1 of Herman, Edward S. and Noam Chomsky (2002, 1988) Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books. Then check out the following articles:

• • Herman, E.S. (2000) “The Propaganda Model: a retrospective,” Journalism Studies, 1(1), p. 101-112.
  • Chomsky, N. (1997) “What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream,” Z Magazine, October.

Then watch this documentary, “Manufacturing Consent” (1992) by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick, with my accompanying notes. Alternatively, you could start here and then go back and review the readings. Key highlights include (32:50 – 46:05), (2:38:35 – 2:42:53).

• • Chapter 2 in Chernomas, R., & Hudson, I. (2016). The Profit Doctrine: Economists of the Neoliberal Era. Pluto Press.Must read: an important chapter related to the institutional analysis of the education system, specifically the economics discipline.

Then watch this documentary, “Manufacturing Consent” (1992) by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick, with my accompanying notes. Alternatively, you could start here and then go back and review the readings. Key highlights include (32:50 – 46:05), (2:38:35 – 2:42:53).

Additional articles that are relevant to this topic, but ones we likely will not have time to discuss: 

• • Herman, E.S. (1993) “The Media’s Role in U.S. Foreign Policy,” Journal of International Affairs, 47(1), p. 23-45.
• 
  Also check out, my Beginner’s Guide to Media. 

I would like to start today by wrapping up the discussion about the Vietnam War history and why it matters (notes from last week) and connect it to our figures from earlier:

Burden of Debt:

• • Full interview: John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hitman
  • [Notes] Resource Curse and the Burden of Debt
  • [Documentary] John Pilger (1992), “War By Other Means.”
  • Stiglitz (2006):  Ch 5 Lifting the Resource Curse | Ch 8 The Burden of Debt

Media and Law:

Start with chapter 1 of Herman, Edward S. and Noam Chomsky (2002, 1988) Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books. Then check out the following articles:

• • Herman, E.S. (2000) “The Propaganda Model: a retrospective,” Journalism Studies, 1(1), p. 101-112.
  • Chomsky, N. (1997) “What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream,” Z Magazine, October.

Then watch this documentary, “Manufacturing Consent” (1992) by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick, with my accompanying notes. Alternatively, you could start here and then go back and review the readings. Key highlights include (32:50 – 46:05), (2:38:35 – 2:42:53).

• • Chapter 2 in Chernomas, R., & Hudson, I. (2016). The Profit Doctrine: Economists of the Neoliberal Era. Pluto Press.Must read: an important chapter related to the institutional analysis of the education system, specifically the economics discipline.

Then watch this documentary, “Manufacturing Consent” (1992) by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick, with my accompanying notes. Alternatively, you could start here and then go back and review the readings. Key highlights include (32:50 – 46:05), (2:38:35 – 2:42:53).

Additional articles that are relevant to this topic, but ones we likely will not have time to discuss: 

• • Herman, E.S. (1993) “The Media’s Role in U.S. Foreign Policy,” Journal of International Affairs, 47(1), p. 23-45.
• 
  Also check out, my Beginner’s Guide to Media. 

Today’s plan is to continue the “Vietnam Model” and time permitting we will begin the burden of debt.

Vietnam War History and Connection to Modified Core Periphery Model:

• • Notes: Vietnam War Historical Timeline
  • Documentary Series: Vietnam: A Television History (1983) 
  • Documentary: Vietnam: American Holocaust (2008)
  • Lecture, “Deciphering Foreign Policy Jargon,” Noam Chomsky. (watch from 0:00 – 1:07:00, but focus on 26:40 onward)
  • Video: “Noam Chomsky on Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers“
  • Documentary: Winter Soldier (1972)
  • Documentary: Sir No Sir (2005)
  • Documentary: “The Quiet Mutiny – World in Action” John Pilger, 1970.
  • [Video] PragerU: The Truth About Vietnam —-see
  • [Video] PragerU: Why Did America Fight the Vietnam War?

Burden of Debt:

• • Full interview: John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hitman
  • [Notes] Resource Curse and the Burden of Debt
  • [Documentary] John Pilger (1992), “War By Other Means.”
  • Stiglitz (2006):  Ch 5 Lifting the Resource Curse | Ch 8 The Burden of Debt

 

Today’s plan is to begin the “Vietnam Model”, but first we will finish watching Pilger documentary on “The War on Democracy (38:13-1:16:49).

• • Documentary, “Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia,” John Pilger, 1979.
  • [Video] PragerU: The Truth About Vietnam
  • [Video] PragerU: Why Did America Fight the Vietnam War?
  • [Video] Amy Phan West: “Socialism/Communism Sucks!“
  • Notes: Vietnam War Historical Timeline
  • Lecture, “Deciphering Foreign Policy Jargon,” Noam Chomsky. (watch from 0:00 – 1:07:00, but focus on 26:40 onward)
  • Documentary: “The Quiet Mutiny – World in Action” John Pilger, 1970.
  • Documentary: Winter Soldier (1972)

Today we will resume in-classroom meetings.

• • Resume watching “The War on Democracy,” John Pilger, 2007.
  • The remaining time will be for discussing the Venezuela case study of the Cuba model.

The remaining meeting schedule is going to be subject to discussion. We have one make-up class we need to schedule [for last week’s holiday]. We will also have no in-person meetings on the 11th and 18th of November. For these, we have the option of online meetings or we could schedule dual meetings [morning + afternoon] on three of the remaining in-person meetings. We could also plan to meet on a day other than Fridays. We should discuss this today.

Proposed dual meetings:

• • Friday, 28th of October
  • Friday, 4th of November
  • Friday, 25th of November

Due dates for the Project Pathumwan essays and outlines:

• • First outline: next week, October 28th
  • First essay: Friday, November 4th
  • Second outline: Friday, November 18th
  • Second essay:  Friday, December 2nd

 

Since we have no class meeting this week due to the holiday, I will provide you with some material to review for the coming few weeks:

Economic Warfare and the Cuba Model: 

• • [Notes] The Cuba Model: Venezuela Case Study
  • An Ocean of Lies on Venezuela: Abby Martin & UN Rapporteur Expose Coup, Empire Files, 22 Feb 2019
  • Steve Ellner on Moderate Rebels, 24 Jan 2019: Part 1 | Part 2
  • Larry Wilkerson “Permanent War State Aims to Plunder Venezuela” with The Real News Network, 26 Feb 2019.
  • Miguel Tinker Salas and Alfred De Zayas, Democracy Now! 24 Jan 2019: Part 1 | Part 2
  • Curcio, Pasqualina C. (2017) The Visible Hand of the Market: Economic Warfare in Venezuela. Digital Edition.
  • Venezuela Analysis (14 January 2022) Unconventional Warfare against Venezuela: A Conversation with Pasqualina Curcio (Part I) + (Part II)
    • “The Bolivarian Revolution, and other revolutionary processes, teach us that every time a pueblo decides to advance toward building a new economic, social and political model, capitalist interests will react: they will heed the imperialist libretto and attempt to weaponize the economy.
    • What is happening in Venezuela also happened in Nicaragua, the Soviet Union, Chile, and in other countries that sought to implement a socialist model. The libretto that imperialism applies is basically the same: an unconventional war the aim of which is to generate internal instability in both the economic and social spheres.
    • This goes hand in hand with a discourse that blames socialism for all the country’s problems. The enemy begins talking about supposed human rights violations and a “humanitarian crisis.” From there they go on to induce street actions and violence. All this is accompanied by diplomatic isolation. These are some of the moves in the playbook of how to carry out an unconventional war.”
  • Documentary, “Zap! The Weapon is Food,” John Pilger, 1976.
  • Documentary, “Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia,” John Pilger, 1979.
  • John Bolton on Fox Business, 30 Jan 2019
  • U.S. Department of State: Briefing with Special Representative for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, 16 March 2019. (10:35-13:27)
  • Raymond Bonner, “What Did Elliott Abrams Have to Do With the El Mozote Massacre?” The Atlantic, 15 February 2019.
  • Roberto Lovato: “Elliott Abrams Is Bringing Violence of 1980s U.S. Latin America Policy to Venezuela,” Democracy Now! 14 February 2019.
  • Ian Ellis-Jones, “US blockade frustrates Cuba’s vaccine internationalism,” Green Left, 21 January 2022.
  • Sam Meredith, “Why Cuba’s extraordinary Covid vaccine success could provide the best hope for low-income countries,” CNBC, 13 January 2022.

Vietnam War History and Connection to Modified Core Periphery Model:

• • Notes: Vietnam War Historical Timeline
  • Documentary Series: Vietnam: A Television History (1983) 
  • Documentary: Vietnam: American Holocaust (2008)
  • Lecture, “Deciphering Foreign Policy Jargon,” Noam Chomsky. (watch from 0:00 – 1:07:00, but focus on 26:40 onward)
  • Video: “Noam Chomsky on Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers“
  • Documentary: Winter Soldier (1972)
  • Documentary: Sir No Sir (2005)
  • Documentary: “The Quiet Mutiny – World in Action” John Pilger, 1970.
  • [Video] PragerU: The Truth About Vietnam —-see
  • [Video] PragerU: Why Did America Fight the Vietnam War?

Burden of Debt:

• • Full interview: John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hitman
  • Documentary, “War By Other Means,” John Pilger, 1992.
  • Joseph Stiglitz (2006) “The Burden of Debt,” chapter 8 in Making Globalization Work.
  • John McBeth, “Hidden China debts come to the fore in Indonesia,” Asia Times, 18 October 2021.
    • “Using open-sourcing, the researchers assess that 35% of the BRI infrastructure project portfolio, involving 140 countries, has encountered major implementation problems, such as corruption scandals, labor violations, environmental damage and public protests.
    • The report finds that Chinese debt burdens are substantially higher than previously understood, which conceivably allows Beijing to extract political and economic trade-offs.”
  • Joseph Stiglitz (2006) “Lifting the Resource Curse,” chapter 5 in Making Globalization Work.

Media and Law:

• • Start with chapter 1 of Herman, Edward S. and Noam Chomsky (2002, 1988) Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books.Then check out the following articles:
    • • Herman, E.S. (2000) “The Propaganda Model: a retrospective,” Journalism Studies, 1(1), p. 101-112.
      • Chomsky, N. (1997) “What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream,” Z Magazine, October.

    Then watch this documentary, “Manufacturing Consent” (1992) by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick, with my accompanying notes. Alternatively, you could start here and then go back and review the readings. Key highlights include (32:50 – 46:05), (2:38:35 – 2:42:53).

  • Must read: an important chapter related to the institutional analysis of the education system, specifically the economics discipline.
    • • Chapter 2 in Chernomas, R., & Hudson, I. (2016). The Profit Doctrine: Economists of the Neoliberal Era. Pluto Press.

    Additional articles that are relevant to this topic, but ones we likely will not have time to discuss:

    • • Herman, E.S. (1993) “The Media’s Role in U.S. Foreign Policy,” Journal of International Affairs, 47(1), p. 23-45.

    Also check out, my Beginner’s Guide to Media. 

  • Ricardo Vaz, “Western Media: Venezuelan Elections Must Be Undemocratic, Because Chavismo Won,” FAIR, 3 December 2021.
  • Joe Emersberger and Justin Podur, “The Media Myth of ‘Once Prosperous’ and Democratic Venezuela Before Chávez,” FAIR, 26 August 2021.
  • Mike Prysner Breaks Down John Oliver’s Venezuela Segment

Today is our last meeting before the midterm exam. Next week we will meet online at our regular time to introduce you to the online writing platform. This should not take more than 1-2 hours. In two weeks there will be no meeting since that is midterms week. You will be given the midterm questions next week and submissions will be due on Friday, October 14th. Our regular meetings will resume in three weeks on the 14th of October.

Additional material for today:

• • Galtung, J. (1969). Violence, Peace, and Peace Research. Journal of Peace Research, 6(3):167-191.
  • Galtung, J. (1990). Cultural Violence. Journal of Peace Research, 27(3):291-305.
  • Violence vs. Crime | Cultural, Structural, and Direct Violence
  • Documentary, “The War on Democracy,” John Pilger, 2007.
  • Documentary, “War By Other Means,” John Pilger, 1992.
  • Documentary, “Nicaragua: A Nation’s Right to Survive,” John Pilger, 1983.
  • Documentary, “Zap! The Weapon is Food,” John Pilger, 1976.
  • The Hacking of the American Mind with Dr. Robert Lustig | University of California Television (UCTV), 6 Sep 2017
  • Yanis Varoufakis: Capitalism has become ‘techno-feudalism’ | UpFront, Al Jazeera English, 19 Feb 2021.