What does the meltdown of the US financial system say about the efficacy of free markets?
Taher Helmy: We have been fighting for many years to promote a market economy in this country. I helped establish the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies, the first economic policy think tank in the country, independent and non-profit. The concept was basically to promote the idea that the market economy is better for this country, and for the citizens of this country. Now governments in Britain, in the United States and in Europe are literally nationalizing the banks. There are some people saying that the capitalist system is failing. Obviously, that’s not the case. What’s happening in the United States and Europe is a temporary measure to get the global economy going again. We don’t want to say there’s a retraction from a market economy in the United States or anywhere else in the world. That kind of argument is nonsensical. We in Egypt have adopted a policy of a market economy. We have adopted the policy of being part of the global economy and the global market. The interdependence
