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Quote by Isabel Allende

“The upper middle class and the economic right, who had favored the coup, were euphoric. At first they were a little shocked when they saw the consequences of their action; they had never lived in a dictatorship and did not know what it was like. They thought the loss of democratic freedoms would be temporary and that it was possible to go without individual or collective rights for a while so long as the regime respected the tenets of free enterprise.”

Book:The House of the Spirits

Work

The House of the Spirits

Isabel Allende's 'The House of the Spirits' is a sweeping narrative that intertwines the personal and the political. The story follows the Trueba family, highlighting their struggles and triumphs in the face of historical events. The novel is renowned for its use of magical realism, blending the supernatural with the everyday, and its vivid portrayal of the political landscape of Latin America. more

Author

Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende, born on August 2, 1942, is a renowned Chilean writer known for her magical realism style. Her works have gained widespread popularity, with notable titles including 'Love in the Time of Cholera' and 'The House of the Spirits'. more

“The old imperialism had the ‘advantage’ that the leading metropolitan power of the time, Britain, could keep its economy open to the goods of the then newly-industrializing countries, without getting indebted (on the contrary it became the largest capital exporter in the years before the First World War). For at least four decades up to 1928, India had the second largest export surplus in the world (second only to the USA); and this despite the imports of goods that caused domestic de-industrialization. But this export surplus was entirely appropriated by Britain not only to pay for its current account deficit with continental Europe, North America and regions of recent European settlement, but also to allow it to export capital to these regions.”

Capitalism India Colonialism Imperialism Free Trade British Colonialism

Book:The Veins of the South Are Still Open: Debates Around the Imperialism of Our Time

Source: The Veins of the South Are Still Open: Debates Around the Imperialism of Our Time

“Protectionism does not produce wealth, and free trade and economic openness are ultimately in everyone’s interest”

Economics Free Trade Piketty

Book:Capital in the Twenty First Century

Source: Capital in the Twenty First Century

“Page 61-2 ... Rome expanded rapidly ... and became master over the entire Mediterranean Basin. It then had unlimited resources in terms of land, money, and slaves. It collected taxes or tribute throughout its empire and was able to transfer to the central capital massive quantities of foodstuffs and manufactured items. The peasants and the artisans of Italy saw their economic base disappear as this Mediterranean economy was "globalized" by the political domination of Rome. The society was polarized between, on the one hand, a mass of economically useless plebeians and, on the other, a predatory plutocracy. A minority gorged with wealth oversaw the remaining proletarianized population. The middle-classes collapsed, a process that brought about the end of the republic and the beginning of the political form known as "empire" in conformity with the observations made by Aristotle about the importance of intermediate social classes for the stability of political systems. Since one could not eliminate the plebeians, intractable but geographically central as they were, they came to be nourished and distracted at the empire's expense with "bread and circuses." Page 64-5: The positive American trade balance, when only "advanced technology" is counted, dropped from 35 billion dollars in 1990 to 5 billion in 2001 and had disappeared entirely to become one more element in the overall trade deficit in January 2002. This fall in economic strength is not compensated for by the activities of American-based multinationals. Since 1998 the profits that they bring back into the country amount to less than what foreign companies that have set up shop in the United States are taking back to their own countries. Page 68: In conformity with classical economic theory, the general opening up of commercial exchange has brought about an increase in inequality throughout the world. This general exchange tends to introduce into each country the same disparities in revenue that exist at the level of the whole planet. ... The compression of worker revenues caused by free trade revives the traditional dilemma of capitalism that has now spread across the globe: low salaries do not allow for the absorption of increases in production. Page 17: In developed countries a new class is emerging that comprises roughly 20 percent of the population in terms of sheer numbers but controls about half of each nation's wealth. This new class has more and more trouble putting up with the constraint of universal suffrage.”

Democracy Immigration Globalization Free Trade

Book:After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order

Source: After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order