Economics at the Center of Arab Spring Ground Zero by Roger Brown

In early 2011, the Arab Spring quickly ignited in Tunisia, and within weeks its fires had spread to almost every nation in the Arab World. As massive demonstrations and conflicts ignited in city after city, Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto realized that he was witnessing what was perhaps the most important event of his lifetime. One question dominated his thoughts: Exactly why would the suicide-by-fire of Mohamed Bouazizi, and insignificant fruit peddler in a dusty backwater Tunisian town, resonate so strongly that the reaction would topple four governments?

He immediately sent a research team to Tunisia and other North African countries to find out. Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) researchers worked in the streets and souks of North Africa for months. To their great surprise, they learned that there had been dozens of similar suicides by small entrepreneurs and businessmen across the region.

ILD teams interviewed as many families and survivors as they could, and the stories they heard were all eerily similar. Few of the suicides were ever motivated by politics. All were hard workers who were not permitted to work legally. All had been abused, humiliated, ejected, and robbed of their means to make a living. All simply wanted to be left in peace, to be free of petty harassment and corruption.

As the data poured in ILD research teams in North Africa, we at FTCN realized that we had the story of a lifetime. We had access to Bouazizi's family and friends and were receiving report after report of landmark ILD statistics.

Together, they demonstrated unequivocally that the Arab Spring was far more about economic inclusion than religion or politics. The data also mirrored what the ILD had documented in over 30 other developing world communities worldwide: property rights and inclusive efficient business law are far more important factors in development than suspected.

Our production crew joined de Soto and his researchers, going to ground zero of the Arab Spring: Bouazizi's family, friends, and community. Together with them, they documented Bouazizi's last day. They also filmed other small businessmen who are hopelessly trapped outside the system. 

Bouazizi's death resonated so strongly because his experience of corruption, exclusions, daily humiliation, bribery, and bureaucratic labyrinths, specifically designed to be impenetrable to those without connections, are identical to those which over 100 million people across the Arab world would experience on a daily basis. Our documentary introduces a new perspective and critical new ideas essential to the international discussion surrounding these events.

We were exploring new ground here, and, of course, we wondered how much of our finding reflected Islam or Arabic culture. These two elements are part of the picture, to be sure, but de Soto emphasizes that this is a revolution in Arabic society, not an Arabic revolution. He sees this process as one every society must go through.

The end results is the first Free To Choose Network project to be distributed, in Arabic, across the Arab world. The program is being broadcast repeatedly via Alhurra, the network set up by the United States shortly after the Iraq War. It is being used by the ILD in meeting with community groups, and is also being screened in universities across the Middle East and North Africa.

The Arab world is realizing the incredible importance of "invisible things" - property rights, efficient business law, and truly free markets open to all. We often take these for granted, like stoplights, paved streets, or electricity. But with each project I have done with de Soto, I have witnessed how the "invisible things" make all the difference in the world between poverty and prosperity.

To stream The Unlikely Heroes of the Arab Spring, click here.

Roger Brown has been the writer and producer of three FTCN documentaries with Hernando de Soto.

*This on location report was recirculated from the 2014 Spring Winning Idea News.

Globalization in the West

"Even for the most successful multinationals profit margins in international markets are, on average, lower than margins in the domestic markets." Robert Salomon, a professor of international management at the NYU Stern School of Business states, "It's the liability of foreign markets. By virtue of the fact that you are foreign, you are at a disadvantage."

When globalization was pitched as the strategic imperative du jour nearly two decades ago, that was not the case. It was supposed to act like a rising tide, lifting all boats in poor and rich countries together. Bolstered by the thought of hundreds of new assembly line jobs at multinationals in emerging nations, the middle class was expected to swell, which, in turn, would increase higher local consumption. New factories would be needed to meet this boost in demand, further raising local standards of living and handing the largest non-domestic companies a vast and enthusiastic expanded customer base.

In the meantime, in the United States and Europe, consumers would have their selection of inexpensive items made by workers thousands of miles away whose wages were much lower than theirs. In time trade barriers would drop to support even more multinational expansion and economic gains while geopolitical cooperation would flourish.

Western corporations -- hoping to find new fast-growth revenue channels and inexpensive manufacturing opportunities to amplify mature economies at home,-- set up shop in regions like China, Brazil, Russia and India, where the greatest GDP (Gross Domestic Product) gains were anticipated, as well as in so-called second tier emerging nations such as Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Nigeria.

Despite all this activity and enthusiasm, hardly any of the promised returns from globalization have materialized, and what was until recently a taboo topic inside multinationals --  to wit, should we back out, even rein in, reconsider our global growth strategy? -- has become an urgent, if still hushed, discussion. Considering some of the failures involved with globalization, virtually every major company is struggling to find the most productive international business model. Approaches like reshoring or relocating manufacturing operations back to Western factories have emerged. This is largely due to labor costs and productivity measurements. There is still some debate about how much reshoring is actually underway, but there is strong evidence of this trend: GE, Whirpool, Stanley Black & Decker, Peerless and many other companies have reopened closed factories, or even built new ones in the United States.

One thing is for certain, there is money to be made for multinationals the world over, but they have to rethink their business strategies for creating it. Globalization is still a barely profitable, complex strategy for most companies.

Globalization at the Crossroads demonstrates how the West successfully revolutionized its legal systems, property laws, and developed the modern corporation. Other nations that have instituted private property and business reforms, such as post- WWII Japan and present-day China, have seen their economies take off and their middle classes grow. Globalization is the new civilization. But unless we include the 80% of humanity currently excluded from the system, they will bring civilization down, as they have brought down other civilizations in the past. Click here to stream the full program from FreeToChoose.TV.

India Mourns the Loss of Abdul Kalam

Former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam, passed away Monday after reports claim he collapsed during a lecture at IIM (Indian Institute of Management) in Shillong during the evening.

Kalam, who would have turned 84 in October, was pronounced dead more than two hours after being wheeled into the ICU of Bethany hospital in critical condition. Doctors have reported, Kalam suffered a massive cardiac arrest. 

Kalam became the 11th head of the state and held the post between 2002 and 2007. He was an "everyman" which did not curry favor with the politician and, as a result, was denied a second term in office.

Arrangements were made to carry his body from Guwahati to Delhi, Tuesday morning, A seven-day national mourning will be declared. Both the Houses of Parliament are expected to make obituary references and adjourn as a mark of respect to Kalam's memory.

Avual Pakir Jainuladeen (APJ) Abdul Kalam rose from humble origins to become President, during the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government under Atal Biharia Vajpayee. As a aeronautics engineer from Madras Institute of Technology, Kalam was considered the brains of the Indian missile program and was the Chief Scientific Adviser to Vajpayee. He was also instrumental in the Pokhran nuclear test in 1998.


Prior to his collapse Kalam had been active on social media, tweeting about the lecture scheduled later that evening. Many political leaders and colleagues have expressed their deepest condolences for the former President.

During his Presidency Kalam seized any chance to address students - more importantly, young school children - suggesting they dream big so those dreams can be achieved in life.

"He had a special love for children and fought to constantly inspire the youth of our country," said President Pranab Mukherjee. "Dr. Kalam will long be remembered for his passion, science and innovation, along with his contributions which have enabled scientists, educationist, and writers. His achievements as leader of the DRDO
(Defense Research and Development Organization) vastly enhanced the security of our nation." 

"I got to work with him closely..., The country has lost a son who worked for the strength of India. He had spent every moment for the youth of India. No person will be able to fill the gap left by him. His work will inspire us to work for the development of the nation," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"He was the best human being I came across. I feel very sorry. He had good humour, had very good presence of mind and always wanted to give something to society," noted Former President Pratibha Patil.

"You have to dream before your dreams can come true." ~ A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

"If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.~ A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam

October 15, 1931 - July 27, 2015

Former President of India

Writer, Aeronautics Engineer, Scientist  

Europe's Debt: America's Crisis?

After the country's voters rejected the terms of the proposed bailout, the next 48 hours will determine the fate of the Euro.

Political leaders and central bankers must make two major, linked decisions. They must determine whether there is a future for Greece in the Euro at the heels of a No vote, and with Alexis Tsipras as a negotiating partner - and by extension, whether to press on with talks for a bailout package. Meaning, they must decide if they can maintain the emergency cash support that is keeping Greece's ruined banks from collapse. Without the maintenance of these emergency loans, the major banks could come toppling down within days - forcing Greece to introduce a new form of currency. 

What does all of this mean for America? Our banks should be fine, however the global stock market and American exports are directly affected by Greece's economic crisis. 

Take a look at this video clip from our program, Europe's Debt: America's Crisis?

Click here to view the entire program online, for free!

"The drive for the Euro has been motivated by politics not economics. The aim has been to link Germany and France so closely as to make a future European war impossible, and to set the stage for a federal United States of Europe. I believe that adoption of the Euro would have the opposite effect. It would exacerbate political tensions by converting divergent shocks that could be readily accommodated by exchange rate changes into divisive political issues. Political unity can pave the way for monetary unity. Monetary unity imposed under unfavorable conditions will prove a barrier to the achievement of political unity." ~ Milton Friedman 

Free or Equal: Following Milton Friedman's Footsteps in China

Free To Choose Network recirculated this Field Report from 2010-2011, to demonstrate the significance of Freedom and Milton Friedman's journey as we celebrated the Fourth of July.

Report from the Field by Barbara Potter, Field Producer

Every production has its challenges, but this was one we never expected. A long-dormant volcano in Iceland erupted in 2010, and threatened to shut down Free or Equal before filming had even begun.

Jim and I flew to Hong Kong in April, five days before our program host, Johan Norberg, was to arrive. Part of our mission as director and field producer was to find the exact location where Milton had stood in Free To Choose to describe the powerful Hong Kong economy of 1980. We were armed with still frames captured from the then thirty-year-old public television series. That meant taking Johan to some of the most interesting places Milton presented in 1980. Well, if we could get Johan to us. Hong Kong, you see, was our first location. Those first few days, Jim and I worked with a local production assistant named Ho. Ho was himself a producer, who was very familiar with the city and would help us on our search. The most important matching location was an overview of the impressive Hong Kong skyline. The idea was to position Johan just where Milton had been, so that the angle and size of the buildings matched the old footage, and we could see the changes. We knew that we needed to be positioned across Victoria Harbor, shooting from the Kowloon side, but we had no idea how many of the original structures would still be there. 

Once we had ridden the Star Ferry across the bay, it took a couple of hours to figure out where we needed to be, and to determine that we could walk through a large parking garage to access the second story of a cruise ship dock and get our angle. Milton had been right here. We would dissolve from Milton to Johan, standing in the same spot, with the twenty-first century version of Hong Kong appearing behind him at dusk. The new International Commerce Center would appear over his left shoulder. At 108 stories, it is the fourth tallest building in the world, and would illustrate the city's growth.

For the next couple of days, we continued with our preproduction location scouting. With Ho, we toured the city with our camera and script, deciding on what to shoot, as well as where, (and when) the daylight would be most advantageous.

In the meantime, Europe's busiest airports were in complete chaos under the giant, slow-moving ash cloud. We realized that Johan probably wouldn't arrive from Stockholm on time, or maybe even at all that week. We watched CNN, checked our iPhone weather and news apps constantly, called Sweden, and tried to figure out how to get Johan out of there and to Hong Kong. If he didn't arrive, it would be weeks before his super-busy schedule would allow him to travel to China for five days again. And we had booked other locations to go to after Hong Kong. Newspaper headlines screamed, "Ash cloud expected to linger for several days" and, "Airlines consider using buses to transport passengers to other airports." But nobody could tell in what direction the ash was moving, or which airports were likely to open. I found out online that Heathrow Airport was closed, (his flight connected there), and Johan's ticket would be refunded. British Airways was not optimistic. Trains were fully booked and there was no way out of Sweden on public transportation. 

It was now Wednesday, two days after Johan's expected arrival and six days since Jim and I had arrived in Hong Kong. We decided to start shooting scenic shots of the ferry, rush hour, Victoria Peak, and other background material. I was unable to book any new airline tickets for Johan online. 

Finally, I called the American Express international travel agency number. It seemed that Arlanda Airport in Stockholm might open at 4 p.m. that day for a short time. It looked like there was a clear spot in the cloud of ash. There was one seat left on Qatar Airways, connecting in Doha, Qatar. It was our only option. I booked the reservation, and asked Johan to go to the airport. He was skeptical, but he did. He soon emailed us a photo of the huge Arlanda schedule board with every flight listed as cancelled. All but one: Qatar was still expecting to go, and it actually did. It was one of the only flights that left Stockholm during the hour that the airport opened that afternoon. We were thrilled.

Now we only had three days with Johan in Hong Kong out of the expected five. We had chosen all of our locations, but there was a lot of material to cover. Johan and Jim had worked many hours in advance of the shoot to get the script into a "final" form, but there are always changes on location. We were thoroughly impressed by Johan. He was amazingly adept at memorizing and personalizing the script segments on the spot. After the first hectic day, we knew that we would be able to squeeze five days worth of on-camera scenes into three, with a few minor changes. The skyline shot was one of many, as we raced around the city, back and forth on the Star Ferry, from one side of Victoria Harbor to the other.

One of the most memorable things about our shoot in Hong Kong was the man we met on Ladder Street. Ladder Street is a cobblestone, pedestrian thoroughfare that has broad, shallow steps, gradually climbing through four or five blocks in the middle of Hong Kong Island. It was one of the locations that Milton appeared in for Free To Choose, and we had rediscovered it during our scouting. There are small businesses along Ladder Street, and a number of vendors with tiny stalls of clothing, paintings, and tourist items. One older man, whose sign read "Cheung Kee Copper and Iron," sold metal goods like mailboxes and pails.  As we were carrying our equipment up Ladder Street with Johan, it struck Jim that this man looked very familiar. He asked Ho to find out whether the man had been around in 1980, in the same spot. It turned out that this Mr. Cheung had been profiled by Milton as he welded metal water containers in his shop. Over the footage of Mr. Cheung, Milton had narrated, "Only the businessmen who can adapt, who are flexible and adjustable survive." Today, Mr. Cheung survives, and now makes smaller products that appeal to visitors and locals. We thought that Milton would be pleased to know that he had adapted to the market's demands. We interviewed Mr. Cheung, with the aid of our translator, and bought a little red mailbox that now hangs in Johan's home in Sweden. It was sweet ending to our adventure in Hong Kong. And Johan was able to fly back to Stockholm without any problems.

To stream the full program click here. If you want to find out more about us and our other programs visit our media website here.

Milton Friedman July Bundle Sales

July commemorates Independence Day and signifies Freedom for the United States, but July is also Milton Friedman's Birthday Month! So we created TWO different sales bundles for you!!!

The first is Friedman Freedom Favorites, bursting with programs that help illustrate Freedom to compliment Independence Day!!! 

The second is the Milton Friedman Birthday Bundle packed with all our Milton Friedman media to help honor this economist's values, ideas and influence.

Click here to see all our special offers.

Milton Friedman:

Born: July 31st, 1912 in Brooklyn, New York 

Died: November 16th, 2006 in San Francisco, California

"A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both."

From the Founder: Between the Ideal and the Possible

The ultimate goal of our efforts can be started simply: reduce the role of government in order to increase individual freedom. The tough part is agreeing on the specifics. What's the size and scope of government that's desirable? By what means do we get there? What is the right balance between accepting the need for incremental change and advocating for core principles?

First we must establish a vision of limited government, but we have to do so recognizing the electorate will ultimately decide to what extent they'll accept that vision.

Therefore we must devise messages that are convincing to the majority of citizens and find distribution channels that reach millions. The millions on which we focus are students who are still forming their vision of a just world. 

The second challenge relates to the first. People are naturally "conservative" in their behavior; once they've formed an opinion they are resistant to change. Bring them a radically new insight and they are likely to refuse to give it any consideration. But with young people, this isn't always the case.

Consider two aspects of Milton Friedman's thought: his definition of the limited role of government and his advocacy of school choice. He thought government had only three functions: 

"The basic functions can be listed very simply. They are, first of all, to prevent one man from coercing another- the internal police function. They are, second, providing for external defense. These two are really part of the same: to prevent coercion- to prevent coercion from within, to prevent coercion from without, and beyond this to promote voluntary cooperation among people by defining the terms under which we are going to cooperate together and by adjudicating disputes." 

Providing education was not included, yet Friedman did not join Marshall Fritz's effort to abolish compulsory state-funded education. He agreed with Marshall in principle and applauded him for outlining the arguments in favor of taking education out of the hands of government, but he thought to push for immediate repeal of tax-supported education was a push too far.

Instead Friedman conceived the concept of school choice, leaving compulsory education in place. He felt that it was unrealistic to expect to counter 150 years of entrenched government control of education in one stroke. So he devised an approach that would lead to competition between private and government schools, resulting in improved outcomes- thus setting the stage for future repeal of tax based school funding.

We grapple with this kind of decision every day. Whether developing material for our prime audience of 6 -26 year olds or public TV viewers, we must decide how far we can take them on the path to awareness of the power of free markets, the effectiveness of market-based solutions to public policy problems, and the increased well-being from reducing government's role in our lives.

I am saddened when I hear someone accuse Friedman of being a statist because he put forth ideas for incremental change. We need to constrain our tendency to demonize those who opt for less than complete and immediate realization of ideal. We need both; those who set forth a vision of the ideal society and those who can formulate the steps that can get us closer to it.