The economic genius of Naomi Klein
A little over a decade ago I published a book, This Changes Everything, which explored the reality of the climate crisis as a confrontation between capitalism and the planet.
We’re old enough to remember that book and also young enough to remember that book.
The opening argument was that there was this Canadian solar panel company, see? And then someone won a case at the World Trade Organisation against the tariffs on Chinese solar panels being imported into Canada. At which point the Canadian solar panel company went bust. This was then taken as evidence that the WTO - and trade - were vilely capitalist and anti-solar panel.
Wholly missing the point that if the Chinese panels were cheaper then this would increase installation of solar in Canada. As the only reason the Canadian company would go bust in the absence of tariffs on Chinese panels must have been that the Chinese were less expensive than Canadian therefore the absence of tariffs must have increased the installation of solar in Canada.
That is, Ms. Klein complained that expanding the installation of solar in Canada was evidence of a vile capitalist - and trade - plot to reduce the installation of solar in Canada.
We didn’t have much time for Ms. Klein’s economics before that and we’ve none since.
Her current piece is a wander through the argument about how you should donate to The Guardian so that they can continue to afford to pay Ms. Klein for her columns on economics. We’ll leave you to puzzle through the benefits of that one.
Tim Worstall