Oslo conference, “Financial Crises in Capitalism”, Aug. 27, 2007 I first met Erik Reinert in 1994 at an economic history conference in Germany, and have been a member of his Reality Economics group since its founding. Erik Reinert’s Reality Economics group has revived the awareness of economists whose names have disappeared from most histories of economic thought, even as many schools have dropped courses in that topic itself. Most students only are taught today’s mainstream orthodoxy, not being informed of the equally long history of another canon – one that turns out to be more helpful in explaining economic history and today’s dynamics. Looking at today’s global economy, the obvious question to ask is why more economies haven’t achieved the technological potential reached by North America and Europe. Given the fact that ...