Questions abound on how the Jewish state’s Prime Minister-Designate Benjamin Netanyahu, who holds a master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, can expand on his achievements as he prepares to lead a vibrant Middle Eastern economy once more.
In a Tuesday interview Netanyahu that during his time as finance minister and prime minister, Netanyahu “made Israel an economic powerhouse.”
You’re sitting on a lot of natural gas reserves in the eastern portion of the Mediterranean, which will make it even more of an economic powerhouse if you let the free market develop it, Kudlow said to Netanyahu about Israel’s recent energy discoveries.
Netanyahu, devoted chapters of his new book to detailing “how I helped lead the free-market revolution in Israel, moving it from a semi-socialist economy to one of the world’s most robust free-market economies,” in the interview.
Netanyahu’s autobiography, “Bibi: My Story,” was just released.
Netanyahu’s participation, according to Tel Aviv University economist and President of the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research, Prof. Dan Ben-David “serving as finance minister was crucial to preserving the economy. The budget was changed after Netanyahu became an office. He cut spending because it was out of control.”
Ben-David, an economist with a University of Chicago background, stated: “He must have had a lot of courage to do it. He significantly reduced welfare assistance and forced many people—mostly ultra-orthodox Jews—to leave “to look for jobs.
Netanyahu’s policies, according to Ben-David, gave “For the first time in their life, they had a reason to want to go to work. His main contribution was that.”
To quote Ben-David, “Israel has a dual economic system. Over 50% of exports are driven by high-tech industries as their main motor.”
Israel’s thriving high-tech industry has earned it the nickname “Start-up Nation.”
Israel’s economy is a “dynamic, entrepreneurial, technology-led economy, whose per-capita GDP now exceeds France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and a few other countries,” according to Kudlow in his curtain raiser before his interview with Netanyahu.
The other aspect of the dual economy, according to Ben-David, “means a lot of people who can’t work in a modern economy.” He identified those who reside in development societies far from important economic hubs, such as ultra-orthodox Israelis, sometimes known in Israel as Haredim (Hebrew for “those who dread God”).
In the midst of the COVID outbreak, “Our economy as a whole wasn’t as badly affected. In the OCED (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), only Switzerland has lower inflation “Ben-David said.
Regarding the state of Israel’s economy, he stated: “There is a healthy rate of money coming in. The shekel, the currency of Israel, is not too weak.”
However, Netanyahu’s projected coalition government with the religious parties worried Ben-David. Netanyahu is “about to give the Haredi parties a considerable rise in privileges.”
Netanyahu emphasized that “open markets and technology” were his goals for Israel. He explained to Kudlow that over time, a semi-socialist economy would not be able to support and strengthen Israel’s military the way that free-market reforms had done.
Netanyahu said that Israel’s diplomatic success with the Arab nations and, by the way, a plethora of other nations throughout the world, as a result of its military supremacy, which was supported by economic freedom.
