Family values in the emerging market ruling class
I have just finished reading James Wolfensohn's autobiography - a book that will inspire a few blog posts.
The new consensus is that emerging markets are lower risk than developed markets - they have more favorable demographics and more sound fiscal policies.
They also have more colorful politicians.
This - the best quote in Wolfensohn's book - should give believers in the new consensus pause:
In early 1997, I met with the Indonesian President Suharto in Jakarta. The president asked me ... what I was doing raising the subject of corruption as an issue. I told him we couldn't talk about development without addressing corruption. He replied, "Well, you come out here from Washington with these high ideas to tell us about corruption. But what you call "corruption" I call "family values".
John