Voodoo Economics: Oust Outside Theory and Adopt Local Solutions

Abstract

Vientiane, 1990. I was sitting in an office provided by Madame Pany Yathotou, then central bank governor of Laos. Outside the window: the street could have been a postcard from any bucolic French country town, except for the jungle overgrowth and restaurants with creaking ceiling fans serving sticky rice in small tightly woven baskets alongside croissants. Long boats navigated the Mekong River that sluggishly rolled past.