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> The intellectual zeitgeist is also different. Industrial policy is back in vogue, big time; performative infliction of pain on workers and the poor in the name of fiscal discipline is now frowned upon; concern over inequality is more salient (including among economists); and even the IMF now questions the virtues of neoliberalism (by which I mean market fundamentalism)

I don't see how the rise of industrial policy makes fiscal predunce less relavent. The East Asian economies primarily relied on domestic capital to finance their investments and have not defaulted on their debts in modern history.

The fact that so many African countries ended up with a debt distress situation within 20 years proves that Africans can't be trusted to accomplish high risk high reward policy making.

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This is an amazing post. I just discovered your substack today and subscribed because I learned so much. I am Ghanaian and I wrote about the specific balance of payments crisis in Ghana a few days ago. Have a look!

https://open.substack.com/pub/yawboadu/p/how-countries-get-into-currency-crises?r=garki&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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Nice piece. All I'd add is a paragraph or two about why SSA govts can't save themselves to prosperity, when so many in Asia can, and some in Africa can (thinking Morocco / Mauritius as examples in the last 20 and 40 years respectively). The why appears to be related to fertility and the ability of families to save money (pretty well impossible for many families with 4+ kids, but possible and normal when the average drops to 2-3 kids). The Time Travelling Economist published last year flagged this link. To avoid another default/borrowing/default scenario in 20 years, some countries need to consider this link - and the attention of widespread female education as a support for this change

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