An Exploration Of New Frontiers

A World of Three Zeros The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment and Zero Net Carbon Emissions Muhammad Yunus with Karl Weber The University Press Limited

- Syed Badrul Ahsan

Surely the biggest calamity of modern times was the collapse of the Soviet Union and with that the fall of socialism. And since that moment of inexplicable, sudden tragedy, capitalism has reigned supreme. That would have been quite all right had it not been for capitalism to mutate into pseudo-capitalism in those regions of the world where stark poverty and severe problems of governance happened to have been the norm. Not that in these regions governments and people were hugely enthused by thoughts of an entry into a world of riches promised by capitalism. There were all the constraints --- the World Bank, aid with strings, the rise of globalization to the detriment of national interests and indeed internationalism --- which pushed poor societies into spheres where capitalism did not quite fit in and yet was unavoidable. After all, socialism was gone. And communism was a lost dream. Robber barons (read Russia here) emerged from their lairs to demand slices of global wealth.