William Easterly

Just discovered him on YouTube as a recovering expert in a Cato presentation. In a TheEconomist presentation "William Easterly and Dambisa Moyo: Emerging Economies in 2013" Easterly is downbeat about China because its authoritarian regime doesn't allow market and news feedback to redirect the economy. Moyo brings up Singapore as an authoritarian state that grew and Easterly answers as if he hadn't thought about it much.  Earlier though, he explains China's recent boom as coming from the expansion of freedom after Mao's death. Possibly the explanation for Singapore is that freedom expanded as the economy grew.  Another example is Pinochet in Chile who did the country a favor by putting himself up for election and losing, never the less the boom was on and with the conversion to democracy at the appropriate time, the prosperity continued!