Reform as contagion
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 12:31AM BUSINESS: "The World Bank's Doing Business report: Reforming through the tough times; A World Bank report makes surprisingly cheerful reading," The Economist, 12 September 2009.
The report says most govs have handled the recent crisis well: despite the rise in protectionist measures, there's also been a 20% uptick in pro-biz reform measures. Low and middle-income economies accounted for 2/3rds of the reforms. Rwanda topped the list. It's the first time a sub-Saharan African nation has done so.
Others at top: Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Belarus, UAE, Moldova, Colombia, Tajikistan, Egypt and Liberia.
All these leaders spawn imitators in their regions.
Factoid: only one gov increased its corporate rates to cover the shortfall in tax revenues (Lithuania).
Takeaway: "The willingness of governments to keep reforming in such tough times strengthens the prospects for recovery."
Ah, but America needs to replace capitalism with democracy, says Michael Moore.
Thank God the rest of the world doesn't see it that way.
Reader Comments (1)
I thought the Jefferson - Adams dialogue gave us everything we needed to know.