by Jason Hickel
traditional explanations of, 3, 9–10, 13, 97–98
unequal exchange in, 96–97, 105
see also elites, economic; poverty
intellectual property rights, 25, 29
see also TRIPS
International African Association, 91
International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), 194–98
International Energy Agency, 235
International Labour Organization, 202, 253
International Organizations Immunity Act (1945), 155
international poverty line (IPL), 40–42, 47–51, 56, 57
investors, power of, 200–201
investor-state disputes, 195–97, 250
Iran, 21, 109–10, 168
Iranian Revolution (1979), 142
Iraq, 24, 106, 159, 207, 285
Ireland, 79–80, 82, 84, 215
Israel, 31, 116, 140
ITT Corporation, 112, 124, 307n
ivory trade, 91–92
Japan, 64–65
Johnson, Lyndon, 20, 112
Joly, Eva, 118
Jordan, 140
Jubilee 2000, 171
Jubilee Campaign, 258
Kennedy, John F., 20, 112
Kenny, Charles, 34
Kenya, 216, 225
Keynes, John Maynard, 63, 102, 144, 175–76, 200
Keynesianism, 102–5, 109, 118–19, 121, 144, 176
fairness as principle of, 104, 176
stagflation and, 128, 129
Kim, Jim Yong, 164, 204
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 4
Kissinger, Henry, 15, 139
Klein, Naomi, 236
Köhler, Gernot, 166, 290–91n
Kuznets, Simon, 263, 264
labour:
cheap, 97, 160–61, 178–79, 193, 252–53
crises of over-accumulation and, 159
theoretical mobility of, 186
see also wages
Labour Party, 103
labour theory of property, 80–81
labour unions, 93, 103, 108, 119–20, 130, 159, 194
Lahoti, Rahul, 50
laissez-faire capitalism, see free-market capitalism
land enclosure and improvement, 74–79, 81–85, 91
land grabs, 81–82, 111–12, 202, 203, 221, 222–23, 253, 257, 258–59, 321n
agriculture and, 223–24, 255
climate change and, 256
corruption and, 223
definition of, 220
deforestation and, 224–26
Land Matrix, 222, 224, 321n
land reform, 106, 108, 111, 112, 124
Lane, Charles, 51–52
Larosière, Jacques de, 144
Las Casas, Bartolomé de, 67
Latin America:
developmentalism in, 105–6, 122–23
European colonialism in, 18, 19, 67–70, 72
foreign debt in, 142
income inequality in, 107, 152
independence movement in, 94–95, 302–3n
land grabs in, 111, 112
loss of potential GDP in, 150
neoliberalism in, 126–28
poverty in, 50, 151
regional economic integration in, 258
structural adjustment in, 149
sumak kawsay in, 284–85
US GDP per capita vs., 165, 165, 313n
US Good Neighbor policy and, 104–5
US interventions in, 18, 24, 95, 110–13, 124
US investment in, 124
La Via Campesina, 258–59
leakages (form of capital flight), 26, 289n
Least Developed Countries (LDCs), 139, 315n
Lebanon, 104, 167
Leopold II, King of Belgium, 91–92
liberalisation, economic, 40, 52, 112–13, 114, 145, 149, 153–54, 171–72, 179, 180, 183–84, 186, 188, 200
see also free trade, theory of
Liberia, 215, 223
Libya, 207–8
life expectancy, 64–65, 77, 107, 272, 296n
Locke, John, 80–81
Lumumba, Patrice, 115
Maddison, Angus, 86
malaria, 34, 36, 190, 231
Mali, 182–83
Mandela, Nelson, 117, 173
market saturation, 158–60, 162
Marx, Karl, 19, 73, 179
material throughput, 267–68
maternal mortality, 14, 34, 36, 287n, 292n
Mayans, 64
M’ba, Léon, 117
meningitis, 231
methane, 270
Mexico, 47, 67–68, 69, 95, 143, 145, 151, 193–94, 218
Middle East, 106, 140, 165, 285
Milanović, Branko, 51
Millennium Declaration, 33, 37
Millennium Development Goals (MDG), 15–16, 23, 50, 57, 59, 63
child and maternal mortality rates and, 34, 36, 292n
hunger and, 33, 34, 43–47
misleading statistics of, 42, 43, 46
poverty and, 33–34, 37–39, 39, 42, 47, 48
minimum wages, 202, 203
global, 252–53, 258
Mitterrand, François, 117
Mobutu Sese Seko, 115–16
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, 110
Monroe Doctrine, 95, 105, 112
Montezuma, Aztec emperor, 67–68
Mont Pèlerin Society, 120
Mossadegh, Mohammad, 109–10
Multilateral Debt Reduction Initiative, 171
Nasser, Gamal Abdel, 106, 107
National Academy of Sciences, US, 282
National Bureau of Economic Research, 253
National Health Service, UK, 103, 159
nationalisation, 106, 108, 110, 114, 116, 124, 194–95
national sovereignty, 104, 138, 194, 196, 198, 199
Native Americans, see indigenous Americans
Native Lands Act (1913), 92–93
Nehru, Jawaharlal, 106, 107
Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism (Nkrumah), 115
neoliberalism, 121–22, 123, 126–31, 144, 164, 172, 176, 204–5, 217, 258
Neto, Angotinho, 117
New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, 223–24, 255
New Deal, 102–3, 120, 158
New Development Bank, 246
New Economics Foundation, 50, 245, 275, 279
New International Economic Order (NIEO), 138–39
New York Times, 194
NGOs, see development industry
Nicaragua, 95, 96, 113
Niger, 48, 118
Nigeria, 90, 118, 151
Nightingale, Florence, 83–84
1984 (Orwell), 33
nitrous oxide, 270
Nixon, Richard, 124, 128, 140
Nkrumah, Kwame, 106, 107, 114–15
Non-Aligned Movement, 107, 114, 115, 139, 187
North, global:
average incomes in, 2
climate change and, 228,
“climate debt” owed to South by, 231–32
overconsumption in, 262
wealth transfer from South to, 166–67
see also inequality, global
North Africa, 106, 165
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 193–97
Norwegian School of Ecnomics, 24
Nyerere, Julius, 106
Obote, Milton, 116
Occidental Petroleum, 197–98
OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), 166, 275
offshore accounts, 115, 170, 210, 211
oil prices, 128–29, 137, 140, 141, 142–43, 159, 219
Opium Wars, 87–88, 175, 205
Organization of African Unity, 169
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), 128–29, 137, 140
Ortega, Daniel, 113
Orwell, George, 33
over-accumulation, crises of, 158–60, 162
Oxfam, 16, 222, 231
Palestine, 30–31
Pan-Africanism
, 115
Panama, 96, 113, 215
Paris Agreement:
as lacking limits on fossil fuel use, 233, 257
voluntary pledges in, 232–33, 256, 269
warming thresholds in, 232–33, 256, 269, 271, 272
Patel, Shailja, 99
patents, 12, 26, 29, 187–91, 224, 250–51
Perón, Eva, 106
Perón, Juan, 105–6
Peru, 68, 94, 226
pharmaceutical companies, patents of, 12, 26, 29, 189–91, 250
Philippines, 227
Pinochet, Augusto, 125
Pizarro, Francisco, 68
Pogge, Thomas, 42, 47
Pollin, Robert, 149
Portugal, 90, 91, 116–17
Positive Money, 277
postcolonial world, see South, global
Potosi, Bolivia, 68
poverty:
and conundrum of charity, 241–43
development industry’s failure to eradicate, 13, 14–15, 244
development myth and, 30–32
direct cash transfers and, 280
foreign debt and, 167, 172
GDP growth and, 55–56, 266
global economic system and, 12–13
global increase in, 2, 17
good news narrative about, 34–35, 39
land enclosure and, 77, 79
as legacy of colonialism, 30
Millennium Development Goals and, 33–34, 37–39, 39, 42, 47, 48
misleading statistics on, 15–16, 35, 36–43, 39, 47–51, 49, 57–59
moral issues of, 38–39, 47
North-South divide in, 32
politics of, 35–36
Rome Declaration and, 37
Sachs’s blame-free theory of, 23–24
standard measures of, 15–16
structural adjustment and increase in, 149, 151, 257
traditional explanations for, 17, 244
in US, 266
poverty lines, 39–40
international (IPL), 40–42, 47–51, 56, 57
national, 47–49, 50, 252
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, 157, 208
Prebisch, Raúl, 105, 122, 134
Prebisch-Singer hypothesis, 301n
Pritchett, Lant, 50
privatisation, 144–45, 161–62
property, labour theory of, 80–81
protectionism, 154, 174–75, 176, 179, 180–81, 184–85
Puerto Rico, 95, 208
purchasing power parity (PPP), 41, 58
Qianlong, Emperor of China, 86–87
racism, colonialism and, 94
rainfall patterns, 230–31
Ravallion, Martin, 39–40
Reagan, Ronald, 129–30, 159
REDD (emissions reduction programme), 225–26, 255–56, 259
Reddy, Sanjay, 42, 50
renewable energies, 233, 236, 257, 270
resources, depletion of, 261–62, 265–73
Rhodes, Cecil, 89–90
Ricardo, David, 177
Road to Serfdom, The (Hayek), 120
Rodale Institute, 282
Rome Declaration, 37
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 102, 104, 112
Roosevelt, Kermit, 110
Roosevelt, Theodore, 95
Roosevelt Corollary (1904), 95
Rosling, Hans, 34
Rostow, Walt Whitman, 20, 24
rubber trade, 91–92
rule of law, FTAs and, 198, 199
Sachs, Jeffrey, 23, 172
Sanders, Bernie, 51–52
Sankara, Thomas, 169–70, 260
Sano, Yeb, 227–28
Saudi Arabia, 141
Savimbi, Jonas, 117
School of the Americas, 113
Science, 282
Scotland, 274
scramble for Africa, 90–91
Second Treatise of Government (Locke), 80–81
seeds, high-yield, 231
patents on, 224, 251, 259
Segal, Paul, 52, 53
sex trade, 185–86, 187
shareholder returns, maximising of, as legal imperative, 275–76
Shleifer, Andrei, 204
silver, Spanish conquest and, 68–70
slaves, slavery:
Africans as, 70–72, 298–99n
indigenous Americans as, 67, 68–69, 70
Industrial Revolution as facilitated by, 18–19
Smith, Adam, 73, 175
Social Security, 103
social services, in global South, 21
repayment of foreign debt given priority over, 12, 144–45, 148, 153, 166–67, 244
soils:
degradation of, 262, 266, 270, 282
regeneration of, 282–83
Soros, George, 243
South, global:
alternatives to standard development model in, 283–85
average incomes in, 2, 149
bank loans to, 141–42
basic minimum income in, 280
capital controls in, 108, 112, 114
capital outflows from, 24–30, 27, 145, 166–67, 210–12, 214, 217, 254, 258
as captive market for European goods, 73
climate change and, 29, 228, 231–32, 257, 271–72
corruption in, see corruption; tax evasion
cost of goods and labour in, 28
debt crisis in, 143–46
decolonisation in, 104, 302–3n
developmentalism in, see developmentalism
European plunder of, 66–73
financial crisis of 2008 and, 208
foreign debt in, see foreign debt
foreign ownership of land in, 29
IMF and World Bank’s unspoken goals in, 157–58
IMF riots in, 152–53
income collapse and GDP growth in, 164
income inequality in, 16
Keynesianism and, 105
land grabs in, see land grabs
land reform in, 108, 111, 112
life expectancy in, 107
low wages relative to North in, 96–97
nationalisation in, 106, 108, 110, 114, 116, 124, 194–96
1960s–70s income growth in, 106
Non-Aligned Movement in, 107, 114, 115
political power and, 138, 139, 172
privatisation in, 144–45
self-directed economic and social policies in, 19–21
social services in, see social services, in global South
structural adjustments imposed on, see structural adjustment programmes
tariffs on foreign imports in, 106, 108, 114, 304–5n
third way policies in, 107
trade union movement in, 108
2007 food-price crisis in, 44, 218–19
unequal exchange in, 165–66
US-backed dictatorships in, 113, 142
US GDP per capita vs., 164–65, 165
South Africa, 246
AIDS crisis in, 189
apartheid regime in, 93, 117
labour costs in, 93
land enclosure in, 91, 92–93
poverty in, 94
reserve system in, 92–93
South Centre, 258
South Sudan, 222, 224
sovereign immunity, 195–98
Soviet Union, 7, 120
Spanish conquest of America, 67–70
spatial fixes, 162
Spectator, 35–36
Stages of Economic Growth, The (Rostow), 20
stagflation, 128–29
standard of living, 64, 88
Starbucks, 243, 323n
Steinbeck, John, 223
Stiglitz, Joseph, 156
Stockholm Environment Institute, 232, 257
stock market crash of 1929, 100
Strike Debt, 258
structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), 21–22, 28, 40–41, 42, 52, 59, 144–57, 177, 186–87, 195, 207, 208, 243, 260, 310n
debt cancellation and, 245, 246
debt repayment prioritised over publ
ic services in, 144–45, 148, 153, 166–67
as fix for crisis of over-accumulation, 159–60
IMF riots and, 152–53
increase in poverty under, 149, 151
insiders’ criticisms of, 156–57
loss of potential GDP under, 149, 150
as profitable for Western corporations, 161
transfer of power from South to West in, 147, 172
as undoing of developmentalist progress, 145–47, 148–49, 153–54
unequal exchange and, 165–66
wealth redistribution and, 161
World Bank and, 147–48
sub-prime mortgage crisis, 219
subsidies, double standards for, 182–83
sugar, in slave economy, 18, 71–72
Suharto, 114
Sukarno, 107, 113–14
sumak kawsay (living in harmony), 284–85
supply and demand, 97
supply-side economics, 130–31
Supreme Court, U.S., 275
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 57–59
Swaziland, 1, 11–13, 184–86, 187, 188–89, 240
Syria, 104, 106, 140, 285
Tandon, Yash, 183
Tanzania, 91, 106, 224
tariffs, 86, 96, 106, 108, 114, 145, 154, 174–76, 179, 180–85, 203, 249
tax evasion, tax havens, 210, 211, 213, 214–17, 243, 253, 254, 258–59, 281
Tax Justice Network, 258
technologies, patents on, 26, 29, 187–88
Tenochtitlán, 67–68
textile industry, 184–86, 280
Thatcher, Margaret, 130
Third World Debt Crisis, 143–46
Third World Network, 258
This Changes Everything (Klein), 236
Thoreau, Henry David, 239
Time, 23, 114
Tobin, James, 281
trade:
abusive transfer pricing in, 26, 289n
bilateral agreements on, see free-trade agreements
capital flows in, see capital flows
cost of goals and labour in, 28
fairness in, 249–52, 260
flow of goods in, 24–25, 199–200
liberalisation of, 179, 183–84
tariffs in, see tariffs
unequal exchange in, 28, 96–97, 105, 143, 165–66, 290–91n, 301n
see also free trade; World Trade Organization
trade misinvoicing, 26, 210, 211–13, 254, 287n
trade mispricing, 214
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), 198–99
transfer mispricing, 212–13, 254
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), 198, 199, 208
Transparency International, 210
Corruption Perception Index of, 209, 217–18
TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), 25–26, 187–91, 192, 250, 315n
Truman, Harry, development and, 8, 10, 12, 17–18, 19, 131–32
Ubico, Jorge, 110–11
Uganda, 116
unemployment, 151, 185–86, 253, 279
unequal exchange, 28, 96–97, 105, 165–66, 290–91n, 301n
United Fruit Company, 111
United Kingdom, 49, 232, 265, 277
see also Britain