Critical Junctures

Not all people who allow and encourage vicious cycles of corruption and greed do so in the name of personal profit. Not everyone purposefull...

In Thailand, police are having to deal with thousands of protestors who  overran the capital and  cut power to the Finance Ministry accordin...

In Chapter 3, A & R argue that  politics determine the institutions a nation has and the nature of an economy is determined by incentive...

Besides political vicious cycles, there is another, less publicized version of the vicious cycle, one that haunts us here at UVa . We witn...

For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. Mat...

Argentina used to be a complicit partner in the international drug trade through its participation as a hub and trade route for drug s...

I n Why Nations Fail,  Acemoglu and Robinson talk about the "iron fist of oligarchy." Under this notion, new leaders replace old o...

Though not an especially inclusive economy under former President Hugo Chavez by any means, Argentina's new president Nicholas Maduro se...

As exampled in this clip   (starting around :20) from a documentary filmed in Africa, extractive political and economic institutions ca...

Less than two years ago, a revolution in Egypt to oust its authoritarian regime became a central storyline for the world to follow. Less tha...

Migrant Laborer's Strife in Qatar In a twist on labor extraction in the modern world economy, there are rising allegations that migra...

Recently, the M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo were defeated by the Congolese army and UN peace-keeping force. Prior to this, ...

One will know that a country's extractive political institution is at its worst state when a judge, that supposedly upholds the const...

Surprise! Christmas came early. Or at least it did this year when Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro declared November 10th Christmas ...

The Air Force in Afghanistan has reached a new milestone, marking a huge development since its creation, according to  USA Today . The Air F...

http://uwire.com/2012/04/20/editorial-amazons-dirt-cheap-e-book-prices-hurt-authors/      Writers and creative minds alike are often demo...

     This article by CNN's Errol Barnett offers a look into the life of one of Africa's most distinguished photographers, David Gold...

The country on Mongolia has experienced growth recently, with economic growth rates upwards of 10% the past three years in a row. This growt...

In Why Nations Fail, Acemoglu and Robinson discuss at end about the importance of the Industrial Revolution and the roll it played in a coun...

An Ivory Coast court has sentenced 15 prominent "cocoa barons"  for embezzlement that began during the tenure of former President ...

In Chapter 10 of Why Nations Fail  Acemoglu and Robinson highlight the beneficial and inclusive impact of the introduction of adult white m...

- [Knock, knock] - Who is it? - Room Service (in Hotel) / Checking water usage (at Home)! - Ok. [Open the door] - Freeze! Polic...

On October 30th, Jon Stewart joked about Google's newest ventures that seemed to have little to do with their search engines. It's ...

The Congo literally is too rich for its own good. It boasts “abundant deposits of copper, gold, diamonds, cobalt, uranium, coltan, an...

Acemoglu and Robinson discuss at length the issues with extractive institutions, arguing instead for more inclusive ones that maximize and b...

                 In 1980, IBM owned about three-quarters of the computer market. They were huge, and the CEO, John Opel, had plan...

In one of the poorest regions of the world lie the resources that allow some men to make a killing.  Diamonds, iron ore, and especially oil ...

The recently released Ibrahim Index of African Governance has Liberia ranked as the most improved nation " in terms of overall governan...

     For fifteen million Americans that utilize private health insurance, challenges with Obamacare are incredibly frustrating. The anxietie...

Google Glass The new "connected eyeware", Google Glass , provides an excellent example of the economic innovation that contract ...