#86- Ha-Joon Chang : Why We Need A New Global Economic Order

Thank you for checking out The Front Row Podcast and my interview with Hajoon Chang.Ha-Joon Chang is a South Korean economist and one of the most widely read critics of neoliberal orthodoxy working today. He is currently a professor of economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). He is best known for his book 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism, published in 2010, which challenged the foundational claims of free-market economics with rigorous historical and empirical argument. His earlier work, Kicking Away the Ladder, demonstrated how today's rich countries used protectionism and industrial policy to develop — before turning around and telling developing nations to liberalise.Chang's research spans developmental economics, the history of economic thought, and the political economy of globalisation. He has been a vocal proponent of what he calls "non-mainstream" economics: not a single doctrinal school, but a pluralist approach that draws on institutional, Keynesian, and developmentalist traditions to analyse how economies actually grow and change.In this conversation, Chang offers a sweeping critique of neoliberalism's track record on growth and inequality, a dispassionate assessment of Donald Trump's industrial policy ambitions, and a pointed analysis of the AI boom as a speculative bubble shaped by concentrated wealth rather than genuine demand.TIMESTAMPS:0:00 Trailer1:08 Introduction1:54 Growing Up in South Korea's Economic Miracle4:36 Why Ha-Joon Chang Is Not "Heterodox"4:58 The Gwangju Massacre and the Limits of Neoclassical Economics10:45 How the Neoliberal Turn Happened18:32 The Real Cost of the Free-Market Experiment25:20 Why Singapore Works29:58 Trump's Industrial Policy: Will It Work?37:50 The Three Elements of Good Industrial Policy40:54 The Right Lessons From China44:44 How Bad Is Inequality in the US?53:18 The AI Bubble58:36 AI as Public Infrastructure1:00:48 How to Build a More Just World1:06:14 Closing