Why Nations Fail is a fascinating book, by Acemoglu of MIT and political scientist, James Robinson. They posit that economies that have abundant natural resources can be easily captured by groups that become politically powerful. The authors view is that an abundance of natural resources, which may seem like a blessing, often turns out to be a blessing for a select few and, for the rest of a country’s citizens, a curse. It’s called the natural-resource curse. The natural-resource curse is well understood economic equation, there are a number of papers on it, this one by Sachs and Warner, the … Continue reading Why Nations Fail, does this apply to Texas?