Brief Reminder: The 2008 financial contagion = the un-Gap (2009)

A slide I still use in the brief to show a real-world example of the Core-Gap divide.

Core countries are the reddish ones, meaning they experienced fast and furious downward market pressure once the contagion began.  The degree of change is measured across the first 90 days.  And if you toss Indonesia into the Core, as I am increasingly wont to do, the match is that much tighter.

The mostly grayed-out Gap is explained two ways:  1) no real markets; or 2) where markets exist, not much tied to Western ones.

Eventually the slowdown reaches the Gap through the reduced commodity demand of the Core, but Africa, for example, continues to grow--ever so slightly--even through the worst stretch.