There is a very interesting article in the May - June 2008 edition of AdBusters Magazine entitled “A New Kind of Capitalism”. The article features former Harvard Law School professor Roberto Mangabeira Unger. Unger, now the Minister of Strategic Affairs, is known for his (sometimes radical) leftist leanings and is now pushing what he calls “radical pragmatism”.

What piqued my curiosity is Adbusters’ summary of his view to stimulate the economy in Brazil: “Instead of a tiny business elite dropping crumbs for the country’s poor, a broad middle class of small business entrepreneurs would form Brazil’s engine of growth. These small enterprises would get access to the credit and tax benefits that big businesses more typically enjoy. The benefits of the market should be shared broadly, not monopolized by big business”.

Adbusters, admittedly, concludes “In a way, the idea is very much free-market orthodoxy”. So how does a man known for his leftist leanings come to promote a decidedly free-market (i.e. right leaning) idea? I’ve got a few thoughts, namely, that perhaps what the right has promoted as free-market is, in essence, not truly free-market, but big business communism; and, secondly, that Unger may be right (as in correct).

Especially, when you consider that famed international financier, George Soros, said at the recent World Economic Forum, “central banks have lost control” and that the global economy as we know it is heading for “systemic failure”. For additional food for thought on global economics I recommend reading Revolution Wealth by Alvin and Heidi Toffler.