Chapter 25. Decoupling

“The Great Wall [of China] is evidence of a historical inability of people in this part of the planet to communicate, to confer and jointly determine how best to deploy enormous reserves of human energy and intellect.”

Ryszard Kapuścinśki, in Travels with Herodotus

The recovery started in emerging markets, breaking the decades-old pattern of following the lead of developed markets. The good news is that the bigger emerging markets had indeed “emerged” with strong institutions; the bad news is that their recovery seems to have been won only with unsustainably cheap money in China.

The week after the synchronized crash, Controladora Comercial Mexicana SAB (Comerci), Mexico’s third-largest supermarket chain, filed for bankruptcy. ...

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