Share this page!

Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
Twitter logo
22 Dec, 4 tweets, 1 min read
Development stories that I'm especially enthusiastic/optimistic about right now:

1. Bangladesh
2. Dominican Republic
3. Vietnam
4. Indonesia
Look at those beautiful curves! Image
If fast-growing Asian economies are "tigers" and fast-growing African economies are "lions", what are fast-growing Caribbean economies? Jaguars?
Sharks!

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Noah Smith 🐇

Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Noahpinion

Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
21 Dec
An overview of Jamaica's industrial development situation, and what it might do to bring about an economic miracle:

noahpinion.substack.com/p/jamaica-is-d…
Here's Jamaica compared to some other countries in the region... Image
And here it is compared to exponentially-growing countries like the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. Image
Read 4 tweets
Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
17 Dec
The thing is, while I think activists, intellectuals, media figures and politicians would benefit from crafting patriotic narratives that fit the middle option in this poll, I myself am not sure which I would pick.
Eight years ago I was very sure that America was one of the best countries in the world. I couldn't say THE best, having been to countries that were in their own way just as good. But definitely one of the best.

Now, I am not sure anymore.
Our culture has become far less gentle, tolerant, and accepting - and, possibly as a result, less creative. Our institutions haven't collapsed as much as some believe, but many are cleaely dysfunctional in a way most other rich countries' institutions are not.
Read 8 tweets
Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
16 Dec
This thread illustrates what always, to me, seemed like the fundamental problem with the BBB bill. No one could ever really decide what it was *about*. I had my own ideas for what it should be about, but everyone else had their own ideas.
For a long time the bill's main selling point was "it's big". That seemingly allowed every progressive to sort of graft their dreams onto the idea of the bill, even though it only really had the potential to be transformative in a couple of areas.
I feel like BBB has become a symbolic stand-in for the fact that a lot of progressives want America to change in a lot of different ways, all at once.

And the bill was just never going to be able to do that.
Read 15 tweets
Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
16 Dec
These reports paint Xi Jinping as a mercurial, arrogant micromanager -- the kind of leader who is good at scaring everyone into saying he's a great leader, but who is bad at actually managing an organization.
Apparently Xi is personally responsible for China maintaining its "Zero Covid" policy in the face of new variants, even though everyone is advising him to scrap it. China's whole economy will probably suffer as a result.
I feel like I called this one.

noahpinion.substack.com/p/what-if-xi-j…
Read 4 tweets
Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
14 Dec
Instead of canceling math because we think Americans don't have the IQ to handle it, how about we copy the math education systems of countries who do it better than we do?

usatoday.com/story/news/edu…
The frustrating thing about these math education debates is that the people trying to cancel math (yes, this is a loose figure of speech) seem to believe deeply and instinctively that American kids are dum-dums who can't learn math, so we should give up...
...But trying to convince these education policy people that IQ isn't the most important thing when it comes to math education (which is true) isn't super effective, because they already seem to spend all their time trying and failing to convince *themselves* of this very thing.
Read 6 tweets
Noah Smith 🐇 Profile picture
13 Dec
Tether is what Bitcoin believers always thought Bitcoin was going to be.
Think about it. In crypto-land, Tether is the unit of account and the medium of exchange. Bitcoin is used a long-term store of value like gold, but Tether is money.
Tether is a free bank (because it prints its own dollars) that engages in fractional reserve banking (because its dollars are not actually backed 1-for-1 by USD asset reserves). It is the reinvention of the way we did money in the 19th century.
Read 9 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @Noahpinion has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @Noahpinion!

Read all threads by @Noahpinion

:(