They’re not complete incompetents and it does no one any good to underestimate them.

The problem is that even very bright, effective leaders are prey to systemic inertia. In development states, levers of economic power grow to manipulate whatever model arose to allow rapid growth; it’s incredibly difficult to untangle that sort of mess and move forward to a new model once your “catch-up” paradigm is no longer beneficial.

Japan, Brazil, and Mexico all failed, Germany mostly so but concealed by a captive market, South Korea and Taiwan are struggling.