Confessions of a teenage communist

When I was a child (i.e. a couple of years ago), I decided I was going to go into economics, after seeing the work done by Jeffrey Sachs (who wrote The End Of Poverty, a high profile book endorsed by Bono, among others), Joseph Stiglitz (who wrote Globalization and Its Discontents, besides being a Nobel economics laureate, and widely credited with Clinton's now-revered economic policies) and Suze Orman (who does a personal finance talkshow, helping ordinary people with their financial problems, a modern-day financial Mother Teresa, in my books).

A couple of years ago, I was against free trade, globalization and capitalism ;and for redistribution, protectionism, socialism, and maybe a little bit of Marxism.

A couple of basic economics lectures later, I dropped all my principles and ideals, and now am a dyed in the black supporter of economic freedom.

Anyone who hasn't done Econs 101, would be excused to be in the state of mind I was in a couple of years ago. I remember the worldwide protests against globalization in the early part of this decade and wishing I was there, fuelled with Rage Against the Machine angst and Michael Moore delinquence.

Now, I'm nearing the end of my degree, which should put me in good stead to answer the economic conundrums we face. Should, right? But no, I still can't understand much of what goes on in the world. There are too many players, too many different ways of understanding civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights.

The only thing to do is to learn, read, read, and read some more, learn from the people who know what they're doing.

Last year, I found myself seated across from Malaysia's pre-eminent social scientist, a Fulbright scholar, a pioneer in Islamic finance and a few scholars in their own right, listening in open-mouthed awe, to Joseph Stiglitz delivering his ideas on the way forward in growth and development. I had just read his book on how the IMF is pure evil, and how everyone else in the world's institutions could do things better.

I just read another perspective, which serves as a lesson in how diverse economic thoughts are, thoughts I will not be able to get a grasp on at least for another few years.

An Open Letter to Joseph Stiglitz
by Kenneth Rogoff,
Economic Counsellor and Director of Research,
International Monetary Fund