Prologue : into the wild -- Introduction : impermanence -- People matter -- The circle of life -- Good billionaires, bad billionaires -- Perils of the state -- The geographic sweet spot -- Factories first -- The price of onions -- Cheap is good -- The kiss of debt -- The hype watch -- The good,...

Propagation of rule: a theory of economic success and stagnation -- The propagation of rule -- Historical origins of rule propagation -- Applying the theory: why the West got rich and the Middle East did not -- Bans on taking interest -- Restrictions on the printing press -- Printing & the...

'Asia, like other continents outside Western Europe and North America, was poor and considered a least-hope region for breaking the poverty trap in post WWII. However, Asia has surprisingly become the most dynamically growing region in the world in the recent decades with extraordinary speed and...