Wealth of Nations Podcast

In December of 2020, the first announcement of effective vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer heralded the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, additional vaccines developed by AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, and by the Russian, Chinese and Indian companies have showed effectiveness. Nations across the developed world have raced to vaccinate as many people … Continue reading "Winning the Vaccination Race: Chile’s Success in Mass Vaccination"

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the most dangerous public health threat faced by the United States was the spectacular rise of drug overdoses in recent decades. Between 1999 and 2019 the number of drug overdoses has increased from 19,000 to 77,000. While the early days of the drug overdose epidemic was driven by the unethical prescription … Continue reading "More Lows Than Highs: The Fight Against Drugs in China, Mexico and the Philippines"

On February 1st, 2021 the military of Myanmar, called the Tatmadaw, launched a coup against the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on paper thin claims of massive voter fraud. The people of Myanmar have decisively rejected the coup, with protests organizing almost immediately after the coup, with hundreds of thousands of people … Continue reading ""

On March 17th 2014, Sergio Moro, a little known judge from the Brazilian state of Curitiba, authorized an investigation of suspicious money transfers at a gas station. The resulting investigation, known as Operation Car Wash or Lava Jato, uncovered a web of corruption that shook Brazilian society to its core. The largest construction companies in … Continue reading "Closing The Shop Down: The Dispiriting End of Operation Car Wash in Brazil"

Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global health crisis that kept the most public health experts up at night was the rise of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) microbes. According to the World Health Organization, 700,000 people lose their lives to multi-drug resistant microbes a year. If no steps are taken to control the growth … Continue reading "The Ghost of Pandemics Future: Can India Stop The Rise of Superbugs?"

On February 1st, 2021 the armed forces of Myanmar, called the Tatmadaw, under Min Aung Hlaing, launched a coup against the democratically elected leader Aung San Su Kyi ending Myanmar’s ill fated experiment with democracy. In 1962, the Tatmadaw launched a coup to create an unusually brutal and xenophobic dictatorship. Myanmar’s ethnic minorities have long … Continue reading "Singing The Irrawaday Blues: The Tatmadaw Overthrows Democracy in Myanmar"

In the last episode of the Wealth of Nations podcast, I discussed Ukraine’s spectacular economic implosion in the aftermath of independence, democracy and market reforms. However, Ukraine’s experience was far from universal. Nations such as Poland, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia successfully adapted to the political and economic transformations of the 1990s, and are … Continue reading "Why Nations Don’t Fail: Building Institutions in Romania"

On August 20th 2020, Alexei Navalny became violently ill on a flight to Moscow. Navalny, who was evacuated to a hospital in Germany, had been poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok by the FSB, Russian security services. Navalny, a long time pro-democracy and anti-corruption activist, had been a thorn in Vladimir Putin’s side. Navalny was … Continue reading "Courage to the Point of Insanity: Alexei Navalny’s Return to Russia"

On August 24th, 1991 Ukraine declared its independence from and dissolution of formal ties with the USSR. Ukraine was supposed to be entering a new era of independent rule, democratic governance and a vibrant free market economy. However, this optimistic vision quickly proved to be a mirage. Between 1991 and 1999, Ukraine’s GDP PPP per … Continue reading "Socialism Without a Plan, Capitalism Without Markets: Ukraine’s Economic Collapse in the 1990s"

On August 13th, 2021 Uganda held general elections for president and parliament. The elections pitted Yoweri Museveni, the 75 year old president of Uganda since 1986 seeking a sixth term, against Robert Kyagulanyi, a 38 year old Reggae star better known as Bobi Wine. The results of the elections themselves are not in question. Businessmen … Continue reading "Aging Autocrat vs. The Ghetto President: Uganda’s Spectacularly Unfair Elections"

On February 16th, mass protests, bringing nearly 1 million people onto the streets erupted in Algeria. These protests were in response to Abdelaziz Bouteflika, long serving president and dictator of Algeria, announcing his ambitions to run for a fifth term in office for the presidency. Bouteflika had suffered a massive stroke in 2013, and had … Continue reading "The Revolution Of Smiles: Can Algeria Go From Stagnation To Progress?"

Between October 2016 and January 2017, the Tatmadaw, the armed forced of Myanmar, massacred more than 6,700 Rohingyas. Nearly a million Rohingya fled the genocide, the overwhelming majority of whom ended up in refugee camps in Bangladesh. The Kutupalong refugee camp has emerged as the largest refugee camp in the world, with a population of … Continue reading "Stateless and Forgotten: The Continuing Plight of Rohingya Refugees"

At the turn of the 20th century, Argentina was one of the wealthiest nations in the world with the GDP PPP per capita comparable to Western Europe and the United States. Argentina’s high standards of living attracted massive flows of immigrants, and Buenos Aires culture and sophistication earned it the title the Paris of Latin … Continue reading "Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, Populism Never Left You"

On October 5th 2020, Indonesia passed the Omnibus Law on Job Creation, a massive overhaul of all laws related to business, will rewrite of amend 77 separate laws, marking a fundamental change to Indonesia’s institutions. The law makes massive changes to labor law, including reducing severance payments for fired workers from 32 months to 19 … Continue reading "Omni-Bust or Boom: How Will Sweeping Business Reform Effect Indonesia"

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has seen a massive economic crisis of unprecedented scope. Just as COVID-19 has hit the elderly, those suffering from pre-existing health conditions, the poor the hardest, the economic crisis resulting from COVID-19 has disproportionately harmed the most economically most vulnerable. In particular, individuals and countries in … Continue reading "Maxing Out the Credit Card: Debt Management in Cambodia, Zambia and Peru"

On August 9th, 2020 Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, dictator of Belarus since 1994, claimed to win an overwhelming victory against the opposition. However, it was clear that the election was rigged, and a massive protest movement that at their peak brought more than a quarter million people to the streets demanded Lukashenko resign and free and … Continue reading "The Belarussian People Want to Evict Lukashenko From Power: Is Lukashenko Really Packing His Bags?"

On January 30th, Nathuram Godse assasinated Mohandas Gandhi, the founding father of India, as Mahatma Gandhi conducted a multi-faith prayer meeting because Godse saw him as too accommodating to Muslim interests. Nathuram Godse had long been a member of multiple Hindu nationalist organizations, although the most powerful the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) has disclaimed any … Continue reading "Hate Thy Neighbor: The Rise of Hindutva in India"

On November 5th, 2020 Ant Group, China’s leading fintech company, was slated for an IPO expected to raise $30 billion. However, Ant Group was forced to cancel its IPO as financial regulators in the PRC had intimated to Ant Group that new regulations would make its business model untenable. Ant Group controls Alipay, the dominant … Continue reading "Like Crushing Ants: China’s Changing Relationship With Its Emerging Tech Giants"

In 2017, the the world first heard of horrific human rights violations against the Uighur people of Xinjiang, in the northwest quarter of China. An estimated 1.5 million people, out of a total ethnic Uyghur population of 12 million people in China, have been interned in approximately 380 “re-education” camps. The region has been turned … Continue reading "The Bitter Roots of Modern Hatred: The Origins of Genocide in Xinjiang"

On April 2nd, 2018 Abiy Ahmed assumed the position of Prime Minister of Ethiopia. From 1991 to 2018, Ethiopia had been governed by a complex political system that masked the fact ultimate political authority lay in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). 57 out of the 61 most senior government positions were controlled by ethnic … Continue reading "Tigray on the Brink: Can Abiy Ahmed Avoid Civil War?"

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned to roll a boulder up a hill every day of his life, only to watch it come tumbling down as he reached the top. Economic development in many developing countries is a Sisyphean task, as strong decades long progress can be rapidly be undone by adverse international conditions or … Continue reading "Free Trade, Open Borders and Weak Institutions: Why Is Development In Côte d’Ivoire So Fragile?"

On October 18th, 2020 socialist Luis Arce won a surprise victory over the moderate Carlos Mesa. Pre-election polls had predicted a close race between the two candidates, and a run-off victory for Carlos Mesa before the elections. However, the Bolivian people gave a resounding victory to the Movement to Socialism (MAS), with Arce winning 52% … Continue reading "MAS Strikes Back: Luis Arce’s Unexpected Victory in Bolivian Elections"

On November 10th, Evo Morales announced his resignation under duress from his position as president of Bolivia after the head of the armed forces requested he resign to restore social peace to Bolivia. According to opponents of Evo Morales, the former president of the country was forced from office by massive popular protests fighting Evo … Continue reading "Bad Blood: How Political Polarization Got So Bad in Bolivia"

Through September and Ocober of 2020, the government of Narendra Modi ushered three major reforms to India’s agricultural sector. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Indian government created a series of regulations intended to protect farmers from exploitation by big business and moneylenders. These law created the Mandi system, whereby farmers were only allowed to … Continue reading "Farm Bill to Table: Reforming Agricultural Markets in India"

Rajesh Chouhan, a construction worker in the city of Bangalore, walked for ten consecutive days and 1,200 miles to reach his home village of Srinagar Babaganj in Bihar. Rajesh Chouhan was one of millions of migrants who, in the aftermath of COVID-19 and the government response to the pandemic, chose to return to their home … Continue reading "No Migrants In My Backyard: How Bad Urban Planning Created a Humanitarian Disaster in India"

From the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lack of adequate testing capacity has bedeviled developing countries attempts to contain COVID-19. The most important type of testing for COVID-19 is PCR testing, a complicated process that requires skilled staff to administer the test, complex reagents to extract viral DNA from a sample, and lab … Continue reading "Cheap, Fast and Accurate Enough: The Development of COVID-19 Tests in the Developing World"

Every year, more than 3.4 million people die of waterborne illnesses across the world, the overwhelming majority of whom are young children. Diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, and parasitic worms can cause young children to suffer extreme diarrhea, eventually leading to death by dehydration. Moreover, many waterborne diseases are known to cause lifelong effects … Continue reading "Clean Water is Life, Dirty Water is Death: The Devastating Consequences of Waterborne Illnesses in the Developing World"

On August 31st, 2020 the government of Rwanda announced the arrest of Paul Rusesabagina, the man who sheltered thousands of Hutus during the 1994 genocide, was arrested on charges of terrorism, arson, murder and kidnapping. It appears that Rusesabagina was lured from his exile in San Antonio to Dubai, where agents of the Rwandan government … Continue reading "No Checkout From Hotel Rwanda: The Arrest of Paul Rusesabagina"

On August 9th, 2020 Alexander Lukashenko cruised to victory in Belarus’s presidential election, winning 80% of the vote according to official statistics. The people of Belarus have begged to differ, and the country has seen a wave of massive peaceful protests calling for Lukashenko’s ouster. However, in Belarus, official statistics have no collection to reality. … Continue reading "Europe’s Last Dictator’s Last Days?: The People Against Alexander Lukashenko"

On August 19th, 2020 the seven day average for the number of deaths from COVID-19 peaked at 978 and has for the past nine day slowly declined, marking an important turning point in India’s fight against COVID-19. Youyang Gu’s prediction models, so far the most accurate in forecasting COVID-19, expect deaths from COVID-19 to slowly … Continue reading "Searching For Silver Linings: Has COVID-19 in India Peaked?"

Medellin was once synonymous with violent crime and the homicidal rule of Pablo Escobar and his Medellin Cartel. In 1991, the city of Medellin in Colombia had a homicide rate 381 per 100,000, making Medellin the most dangerous city in the world. The combination of rampant drug smuggling, intertwined with constant warfare between left and … Continue reading "A Tale of Two Cities: How Medellin Transformed Itself From the Crime Capital of the World Into a Model For Urban Governance"

Few nations have been hit as hard by COVID-19 as Brazil. Nearly 100,000 people have already died, with over one thousand people losing their lives everyday. While all of Brazil has been hit hard, the Amazonian region in particular has been devastated. Over 12,000 people in the northern region have died so far, 44% more … Continue reading "River of Tears: COVID-19 Devastates Communities Along Amazon River"

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, economies throughout the world have been suffering as strict lockdown policies and massive drops in aggregate demand have created the sharpest economic contraction since the great depression. Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit especially hard, with imports falling by 21% and exports by 36% since the beginning of the … Continue reading "Pulling Up the Drawbridge to Trade: How COVID-19 and Rising Protectionism Are Blocking Trade From Ethiopia, Senegal and Rwanda"

In mid-June of 2020, Pakistan appeared on the verge of public health disaster, as cases and deaths from COVID-19 soared. The number of new cases of COVID-19 detected increased from 490 on May 14th, to 6825 in June 14th, and by mid-June Pakistan was recording more than a 120 deaths a day. The response of … Continue reading "Gone in a Puff of Smoke: The Sudden and Unexplainable Decline of COVID-19 in Pakistan"

In 1973, the country of Lebanon was thriving. Beirut, known as the Paris of the Middle East, was famous for its architecture and vibrant nightlife and tourists from across Europe and the Middle East flocked to Lebanon’s beaches. Lebanon acted as an essential financial intermediary between the oil reach Gulf nations, and multinational corporations in … Continue reading "Two Wolves and a Lamb Deciding What’s For Dinner: How Lebanese Bankers, Politicians and Militias Destroyed the Lebanese Economy"

On July 7th, 2020 Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19. Jair Bolsonaro, who had long downplayed the effects of COVID-19, and has often refused to wear masks, has led one of the most disastrous attempts in the world to combat COVID-19. Bolsonaro might want COVID-19 to magically dissapear, … Continue reading "Bolsonaro Fiddles as Brazilians Die: Bolsonaro’s Spectacular Failure to Contain COVID-19"

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the Indian healthcare system has been tested as never before. Over 400,000 cases of COVID-19 have been detected by public health officials so far, and at least 4,000 people have lost their lives. India’s hospital system has been overwhelmed by COVID-19, forcing state government to turn train cars … Continue reading "The Little Engine that Couldn’t: Why COVID-19 Overwhelmed India’s Healthcare System So Fast"

In February of 2020, Iran detected its first case of COVID-19 in the city of Qom from a businessman returning from China. COVID-19 quickly accelerated into one of the worst outbreaks in the world. Iran was quickly seeing more than 3,000 cases and 150 deaths of COVID-19 a day. The first wave of COVID-19 in … Continue reading "COVID-19 Strikes Back: The Second Wave in Iran"

Since the fall of Suharto and the beginning to democratic government in 1998, Indonesia has implemented a series of reforms to build a health system that would reflect both the diversity of the 16,671 islands of the Indonesian archipelago, and the aspirations of ordinary Indonesians for access to healthcare. Under the dictatorship of Suharto, healthcare … Continue reading "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: The Complicated Process of Reforming Healthcare in Indonesia"

The people of Afghanistan, long suffering in the war against the Taliban, face a new foe in COVID-19. Afghanistan has recorded nearly 30,000 cases and 600 deaths from COVID-19, although given minimal levels of testing, it is likely both numbers are massive under counts. Afghanistan has only conducted 64,000 tests, on a per capita basis … Continue reading "For Sicker and Poorer: War, Poverty and Fighting COVID-19 in Afghanistan"

In March of 2020, when panic about how the Coronavirus pandemic would effect global supply chains was at its peak, the Indian government banned the export of 26 key APIs, or active pharmaceutical ingredients, including those used in Tylenol and Hydrochloroquine. The Indian government has since then partially lifted the ban. On the other hand, … Continue reading "Cheap, Fast and Good Enough: How India Became the World’s Pharmacy"

Few countries in the developing world have been hit as hard by COVID-19 as Mexico. Mexico has seen 114,000 cases of COVID-19 and 14,000 deaths and the disease continues to accelerate. Mexico has so far conducted worryingly few COVID-19 tests. So far, only 336,000 tests have been conducted, and on a per capita basis Mexico … Continue reading "Governing is Hard: AMLO Struggles to Contain Mexico’s COVID-19 Pandemic and Economic Crisis"

Although most listeners to the Wealth of Nations podcast are only vaguely aware of Chinese technology giants Alibaba and Tencent, the two companies play a dominant position in China’s technology ecosystem. Alibaba and Tencent both have market capitalizations over $500 billion, a market capitalization more than 8 times greater than their largest domestic competitors. As … Continue reading "Chinese Tech’s Godzilla Vs. Kong: How the Battle Between Alibaba and Tecent Will Shape the Future of Technology"

In the early stages of Covid-19, it appeared that Russia would be spared from the worst of the pandemic. However, over the last month the total number of COVID-19 cases has exploded since then, with 400,000 cases of the Coronavirus recorded so far. Despite this, if one trusts official statistics, the government of Russia has … Continue reading "To Russia, Without Love: Russia’s Fight Against COVID-19"

No country in the developing world has been hit harder by the Coronavirus pandemic than Ecuador. Government officials have recorded nearly 35,000 cases and 3,000 deaths from Covid-19, although these are almost certainly massive undercounts. For example, excess mortality in Guayaquil, the city suffering the most from Covid-19, is eight times regular levels. At the … Continue reading "No Dollar, No Cry: Dollarization, Covid-19, and Economic Disaster in Ecuador"

Pakistan saw its first case of Covid 19 on February 26th, 2020 when a student returning from Iran tested positive in Karachi. Since then, the Coronavirus has grown at a rapid rate, with 46,000 deaths causing 1,000 deaths, with then number of active cases increasing by 5% a day. Moreover, it is likely that counts … Continue reading "Give Me Liberty, and Give Me Death: Pakistan’s Muddled Response to Covid-19"

On May 15th, 2020, the World Health Organization announced the discharge of the last Ebola patient in the city of Beni, the last hotspot for Ebola in the DRC. The Ebola outbreak in the Kivus infected at least 3,645 and killed 2,271 people, and assuming no cases will be discovered in the next weeks, will … Continue reading "Juggling Ebola, Measles and Covid 19: Dealing With the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Many Epidemics"

Although the toilet paper and cleaning supplies disappeared off the shelves almost immediately after the announcement of shelter in place across the United States, most grocery stores remained well stocked with essential foods. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has put the American food supply is chain under severe strain, and millions of Americans are forced to … Continue reading "A Spoonful of State Capacity Helps Public Health Measures Go Down: Fighting Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia"

Peru confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 6th, 2020. Just 6 days later, Peru closed down its schools, 3 days after that the government closed international and inter-provincial travel, and imposed a complete lockdown on all non-essential travel the day after. One cannot leave the house for any reason between 8 PM and … Continue reading "Even The Best Laid Plans of Go Awry: The Fight Against the Coronavirus Pandemic in Peru"

At first glance, it appears Indonesia has avoided the brunt of the damage caused by COVID-19. Indonesia has had more than 12,000 cases of the Coronavirus resulting in the death of nearly 900 people. After considering Indonesia’s population of nearly 270 million people, Indonesia has, according to official statistics, been relatively unaffected by the current … Continue reading "The Fog of Pandemic: Is Successfully Indonesia Fighting COVID-19?"

In the previous episode of this miniseries, I explored the exponential growth of the HIV pandemic, which has infected 75 million people and led to the deaths of 32 million people. In the second part of this miniseries, I want to explore the decline of HIV over the last 15 years. Although the prevalence of … Continue reading "The Ghost of Pandemics Present: How Botswana, Thailand and Senegal Are Defeating HIV"