Reddit mentions of Trade, Development and Foreign Debt

America accomplished similar growth in the Gilded Age, Korea did in the 60s-80s, China in the last two decades, and Japan after WW2, and all did so in a far more sustainable fashion. I'm taking real issue with your assertion, which doesn't seem to be based on anything other that yelling louder.

The USSR followed a version of what we now call the Asian Growth Model, pushing down consumption and income to subsidize investment. It's not witchcraft, and only with the USSR did they pay such a high price. In every other example, the price was an unsustainable buildup in debt (Brazil, Japan, S. Korea, PRC, USSR in the 50s and 60s, USA).

Check out this book for history of the English application of the model:

http://www.amazon.com/Trade-Development-Foreign-Michael-Hudson/dp/3980846695/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1360154889&sr=8-6&keywords=michael+hudson

Or read into the works of Friedrich List and Alexander Gershenkron. If you're really interested, I have no problem going into this in detail. Alexander Hamilton was a major proponent of the this early on. Now there are major limitations to the AGM, which is why it's not a magic bullet. Arguably, the negatives outweigh the positives. But the negatives are more to do with debt and structural imbalances (overinvestment above the social capital constraint and malinvestment) than anything else.

Your assertion that "He sacrificed millions to do it, but because he did that, Russia was far more ready for war than it had been in World War One" is horribly ignorant, offensive, and is presumably motivated a leftist ideology which has blinded you so much that you are defending a not just a murderous tyrant, but a ruthless yet incompetent one.

Please explain how the AGM needed Stalin to work in the USSR where it "worked" in all these other places. Don't just say "No.... No.... Just no."

Socialism/Communism

A People's History of the World

Main Currents of Marxism

The Socialist System

The Age of... (1, 2, 3, 4)

Marx for our Times

Essential Works of Socialism

Soviet Century

Self-Governing Socialism (Vols 1-2)

The Meaning of Marxism

The "S" Word (not that good in my opinion)

Of the People, by the People

Why Not Socialism

Socialism Betrayed

Democracy at Work

Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA (again didn't like it very much)

The Socialist Party of America (absolute must read)

The American Socialist Movement

Socialism: Past and Future (very good book)

It Didn't Happen Here

Eugene V. Debs

The Enigma of Capital

Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism

A Companion to Marx's Capital (great book)

After Capitalism: Economic Democracy in Action

Capitalism

The Conservative Nanny State

The United States Since 1980

The End of Loser Liberalism

Capitalism and it's Economics (must read)

Economics: A New Introduction (must read)

U.S. Capitalist Development Since 1776 (must read)

Kicking Away the Ladder

23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Traders, Guns and Money

Corporation Nation

Debunking Economics

How Rich Countries Got Rich

Super Imperialism

The Bubble and Beyond

Finance Capitalism and it's Discontents

Trade, Development and Foreign Debt

America's Protectionist Takeoff

How the Economy was Lost

Labor and Monopoly Capital

We Are Better Than This

Ancap/Libertarian

Spontaneous Order (disagree with it but found it interesting)

Man, State and Economy

The Machinery of Freedom

Currently Reading

This is the Zodiac Speaking (highly recommend)