Power Struggles Cause Fall from Grace

“The business community cannot endure yet another crisis.”  The country’s industries, which produce more than one-third of the world’s GDP, badly need sprucing up. That will not happen if the country slides into chaos. Businessmen are conscious that they have already missed out on much of the recent spurt of investment.

The pity is that country could recover quickly if only its politics were sorted out. Its infrastructure is still relatively good. It could again become the world’s economic motor.

The passage above is taken from yesterday’s The Economist.  I removed and altered references to specific industries, ports, and regions, because of how this passage could easily be interpreted differently if taken out of context.  The paragraphs above do not in fact describe the mess on Capital Hill.  They describe Africa’s Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire) after run-off elections that could easily turn violent.

After similarly comparing current US economic policy to that of 1980’s Latin America, I continue to be amazed and discouraged that a political system, once the envy of the world, is falling from grace.  Due to the same power-struggle shackles that cripple growth and development in Africa, America is falling victim.  Exchanging “the cocoa industry’s share of world supply” for “the country’s share of world GDP” and removing a sentence about an Abidjan refinery and port are the only differences above between the US and the Ivory Coast.

Power Struggles Cause Fall from Grace