People like to misrepresent Joseph Stiglitz' work to just rail against free markets when that wasn't really the point at all. He has a great paper comparing the transition to capitalism in China and Russia. The former's epic rise is well known. The latter was a sudden "shock therapy" without any methodical development of the institutions and culture of entrepreneurship. Well, since during Soviet times the only people experienced with markets were mobsters working in the black market, these mobsters became the titans of industry, the famed oligarchs.
Hernando de Soto's seminal works and the entirety of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics should have made it common knowledge, by this point, that "free markets" do not exist in a vacuum, but involve an intricate co-evolution of policy, legal and physical infrastructure, and culture, that is, institutions.
You are on point Magatte. Ease of business will en Africa and Africans prosper. On the other hand self love mentality is also a must to go with it. Businesses will generate prosperity, while the right mentality will make it truly last.
Thank you always Magatte for your fearless and hopeful writing.
I was traumatised the other day by actual footage of the beheading of the 70 Christians in the DRC. I should never have clicked. The security situation with ISIS-backed forces in so many areas causing havoc and terror. Is Africa addressing this? My own husband was travelling in convoy of three in Ivory Coast in 2018 and was shot at on their way to a mine site. One bullet got my husband's driver, but he survived getting to the hospital quickly by helicopter. Safety is number 1 for everyone. I think the lawlessness (and the foreign meddling and stoking unrest) is holding Africa back.
Curious if you have data backing up the permitting process and redtape problem in mainland Africa? I tried to compare with a vibrant economy, such as California, and it appears the California has more agencies to register with and permits than, for example, Senegal, Nigeria, or Zimbabwe, to name a few. I would have a hard time believing any African country has more required permits than a western economy, although they may be harder to obtain. Can you elaborate?
P.S. Mauritius, at a cursory glance, appears to have many foreign-owned businesses. In addition to that, the population or geography is not representative of mainland Africa, so I am not so sure it is a great comparison.
On point.
People like to misrepresent Joseph Stiglitz' work to just rail against free markets when that wasn't really the point at all. He has a great paper comparing the transition to capitalism in China and Russia. The former's epic rise is well known. The latter was a sudden "shock therapy" without any methodical development of the institutions and culture of entrepreneurship. Well, since during Soviet times the only people experienced with markets were mobsters working in the black market, these mobsters became the titans of industry, the famed oligarchs.
Hernando de Soto's seminal works and the entirety of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics should have made it common knowledge, by this point, that "free markets" do not exist in a vacuum, but involve an intricate co-evolution of policy, legal and physical infrastructure, and culture, that is, institutions.
You are on point Magatte. Ease of business will en Africa and Africans prosper. On the other hand self love mentality is also a must to go with it. Businesses will generate prosperity, while the right mentality will make it truly last.
Thank you always Magatte for your fearless and hopeful writing.
I was traumatised the other day by actual footage of the beheading of the 70 Christians in the DRC. I should never have clicked. The security situation with ISIS-backed forces in so many areas causing havoc and terror. Is Africa addressing this? My own husband was travelling in convoy of three in Ivory Coast in 2018 and was shot at on their way to a mine site. One bullet got my husband's driver, but he survived getting to the hospital quickly by helicopter. Safety is number 1 for everyone. I think the lawlessness (and the foreign meddling and stoking unrest) is holding Africa back.
Curious if you have data backing up the permitting process and redtape problem in mainland Africa? I tried to compare with a vibrant economy, such as California, and it appears the California has more agencies to register with and permits than, for example, Senegal, Nigeria, or Zimbabwe, to name a few. I would have a hard time believing any African country has more required permits than a western economy, although they may be harder to obtain. Can you elaborate?
P.S. Mauritius, at a cursory glance, appears to have many foreign-owned businesses. In addition to that, the population or geography is not representative of mainland Africa, so I am not so sure it is a great comparison.