Occupy Wall Street, Champs-Elysées, Charing Cross, Bank Square or whatever, the phenomenon has spread to more than nine hundred cities across the world. Beginning from last week of September the protestors have received support and more than fifty thousand dollars as donation from companies who sell their goods but not with well publicised brands or popular names. There have been many protest movements in history, like the students movement of the sixties that began at Sorbonne in Paris and Berkeley in California. It resulted in the formation of an effective struggle against the Vietnam War. An economic thought that can fulfill the demands of global issues is now reverberating in academic and political debates.
Near the end of the middle age the mercantile community gathered together to formulate a few basic norms to govern and protect the marketplace where goods and services could be freely exchanged for the benefit of all. The economic theory took a giant step forward with the advent of the industrial revolution and it was in the nineteenth century diverse theories of political economies emerged. The input by the utilitarian thinkers, the revolt by the economic thought on the left and through the magnum opus of many writers and scholars who tread their way to come up with theories that helped steer the marketplace to the maximum benefits of all.
The twentieth century also gave its theories of economic development and linked it with an increase of a certain percentage point of the GDP. With the oil crisis one came to understand the effects of stagflation and game theory again guided us to find solutions to the economic problems by seeking a mutually beneficial path for all. In the city of Manchester there is an eating place called Sangam where a famous video titled Everything Changes was made back in the sixties. The place is still visited by tourists from around the world and especially by the younger generation from the continent. Yes, everything changes and so should economic thought. For the last two hundred years or so it has moved forward to embrace changes in the way business and finance are conducted. At each stage of this journey it suggested and proposed appropriate measures to stay in line with the developments in the realm of political economy. There is no reason it cannot come up with plausible theory to explain and cope with the momentous and increased economic activity across the globe.
The protests against globalisation that began in 1999 against the G-8, G-20, IMF and WTO, continued to show up in different years and at different places. But the collapse of the financial system in the US that exacerbated the world economy about two years ago is nowhere in view to be remedied or showing signs of improving or reversing its trend. The academicians and economists have begun to think that without changing the parameters of the economic model that has been in vogue for some decades now the advancement in economic thought would not be possible. The environmental issues are so serious that the very survival of the world is at stake. Leaders around the world are not lending any ear to the advice of scientists. The question whether the occupy phenomenon would be able to make a reasonable thrust and bring a change in thinking of the world leaders is really not that important. But it is evident that the concern and resolve of the people to streamline and correct the course of events would continue to be strengthened in the days to come. All students of history are aware of that.
The writer has served as consultant to the United Nations and other developing economies on the issues of trade and development and can be reached at [email protected]
