Here’s semi-mythical classical sage Lao Tzu, with some poetic advice to authorities who long to fix things. Sometimes they’re not broken, and are best left as is:
“Those who would gain all under heaven by tampering with it — I have seen that they do not succeed. Those that tamper with it, harm it. Those that grab at it, lose it.”
Prosaic modern economists occasionally echo him, with the unexciting but sometimes correct advice: “Don’t just do something, stand there.”
As the World Trade Organization (WTO) prepares for its 13th Ministerial Conference late in February, both the ancient sage and the modern wonks are offering very good (if also very modest) advice on the most modern of all technologies: the internet and the world’s digital economy. If the WTO members take heed, they will help growth and development in lower-income countries, and simultaneously help the Biden administration achieve its goal of a more “inclusive” trading system that does more to create opportunities for the small and the less powerful “empowering small businesses to enter the market, grow, and compete.”
