Any reaction to the following op-ed defense of Mankiw by Bhagwati. I observe two flaws:
1) a complete misunderstanding of competition; Bhagwati attacks Kerry because, Bhagwati thinks, Kerry is unable to see the connection between outsourcing of jobs and the "improve[ment of] the competitiveness of American companies." And then he goes and says this: "jobs disappear in America ...because technical change has destroyed them, not because they have gone anywhere" as if this technical change a God-given or conspiratorial phenomenon rather than the very imposition of "improved" (I would say, intensified) global competition.
2) a racist blindfoldedness and arrogance in his unsolicited advice to Craig Barrett, chief executive of Intel; I would argue that Barrett's perception has a quality of superior understanding and realism of a functioning capitalist regarding the high quality of researchers in the South.
Ahmet Tonak
------------------------------------------------------------- February 15, 2004 OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Why Your Job Isn't Moving to Bangalore By JAGDISH BHAGWATI
Greg Mankiw, head of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, has been widely criticized for telling reporters the simple truth that "outsourcing" of jobs is beneficial to the United States economy (even though he hedged his comment with a "perhaps"). John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, described executives who import services
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Here is the link for the op-ed:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/15/opinion/15BHAG.html
