South Africa

I recently went to a conference about the economics of South Africa. They had swithched their government process about a decade ago and their economy has been headed up ever since. They dropped the procedures that they had been using, cleaned house, and started fresh. In The Rise and Decline of Nations Mancur Olson talks about how an upheaval and change is a way that many economies get a boost. Finding out some of the information about how much more successful the new economy has been was just more evidence to Olson's stance. Everything that he stated in that book, particularly in Chapter 4 was validated in this conference. Although they still have a long way to go the economy there is looking up, and it is because they had a complete restart on the way they do things. I have tended to agree with Olson anyway, but this was just more validation for what he states in his book.