Democracy and markets are mutually reinforcing. Markets work best when personal freedoms are protected and democracy does the best job of safeguarding those. Free market give thos individual interest in securing democracy.
According to Professor Morici, this is the basic foundation for poevrty alleviation. Ethiopia has an authoritarian government with no plans or timetable for relinquishing power. The government is engaged in business in vioaltion of the rules of the free market.
Ethiopian is asking us to endorse and passively accept the broadlight robbery committed by the government of PM Meles. This is to say, nevermind if democracy is violated. It is OK if market economy is violtaed. We have to do this to fight poverty and bring prosperity to the country. The only problem is authoriterian govenemnts that violate the rules of the market never alleviate poverty of the masses.
