Africanus

The African financial sector remains ill suited for industrial strategy. Many European countries had public banks mandated to invest in agriculture & manufacturing with patient capital, eg Sparkassen (savings) & Raiffesen (coop) banks in Germany. They were key to finance SMEs.

A fundamental lesson from my posts these last two weeks on modernization, industrial policy, and development is that development economics should be about understanding why South Korea got rich but Bolivia did not. The current field has largely given up on that question. Sharply identified RCTs on small micro programs are a fine way to publish in the AER and get tenure at a fancy university, but a profession that knows everything about microfinance impact evaluations and almost nothing about industrialization has misallocated its own intellectual capital on a pretty heroic scale. Four images of Seoul:

Moving forward with AI and integrating as much as possible in everyday life yet making sure that it doesn't replace human workforce...

😂😂😂

JET A1 prices currently in Angola vs SA 1.06 USD per liter 🇦🇴 (976.55 kz) 1.75 USD per liter 🇿🇦 (30 Rands)

ُThis is a breathtaking achievement that shows how special Iran is. As you see of the top 7, all are in US or UK and one is in Singapore. All rich countries. Despite all the sanctions and isolation, Iranians punch above their weight

A break in our regular programming monitoring the situation around the SoH: coming from the cinema, this movie has only reaffirmed what we have known all along: Michael Jackson was the greatest to ever do it. After him, there shall be no more 🐐

In 2024 Iran, according to official figures, spent only 2 percent of GDP on defense. Chartbook Top Links of the day just dropped, check it out:

Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State under Joe Biden, Wendy Sherman: I believe that Netanyahu has led us down a road, and we have been part of it. That has, in essence, created a genocide in Gaza, that has destabilized the Middle East.

US being ‘humiliated’ by Iran, says German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ft.trib.al/U4FfFps

Overreliance on Eurobonds is costing African countries up to US$4.2bn extra every year in interest, resources that could be going into infrastructure, jobs and long-term growth. Our new dataset shows how non-traditional bonds like Panda, Samurai, Diaspora, Masala and Sukuk can unlock better financing options. Less cost. More options. Wider investor access. 📊 Explore the data: bit.ly/3QtFevL #AfricaFinance #DevelopmentFinance #InnovativeFinance #Agenda2063

BYD’s Stella Li: “We survive and are successful without the US market today.” "Actually, we are now suffering [insufficient] capacity. Our demand is much higher than what we can supply." “We are not just a car company. We produce one-third of global smartphone components, we are a leading player in battery storage, solar panels, buses, and trucks. So BYD is an ecosystem.” bbc.com/news/articles/…

The UAE exploring a swap line with the US should give us pause that the consequences of the Iran conflict are far greater than what we see priced in markets. Such explorations do not arise lightly, even behind closed doors.

CHART OF THE DAY: The size of the 🇨🇳 Chinese strategic petroleum reserve is mind blowing: larger than 🇺🇸 US + 🇯🇵 Japan + the whole of 🇪🇺 Western Europe combined. Via @EIAgov — more: eia.gov/todayinenergy/…

This is a big deal.

This is increasingly the image of Israel in Europe: hatred and ethnic supremacy

I've now visited three provinces and two municipalities in China, and based on what I've seen, there's no clear gap in quality of life between the West and China. Some things are generally better in the West: air quality, real wages, work-life balance. Some things are generally better in China: infrastructure, urban modernity, safety. Overall, the gap that many Westerners assume exists has largely closed.

Hormuz goes from open to all, to open to none but Iran, to closed for Iran, to sorta open, but not for Iran, to not open for anyone, including Iran.

BREAKING: 'We cannot wake up every day to a president threatening the world,' says Brazil's Lula  🔴 LIVE updates: aje.news/4h6pbo?update=…

Trump refers to it as the "Strait of Iran." Clearly, he "miswrote," yet it is a mistake that reflects the new reality.