Mini-review of *Stealth of Nations*

The February 2012 issue of Reason includes a mini-review—that is, a 165-word review— I did on Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy:

“There is another economy out there,” writes American journalist Robert Neuwirth in Stealth of Nations (Pantheon). “It is how much of the world survives, and how many people thrive, yet it is ignored by most economists, business leaders, and politicians.” The $10 trillion economy to which Neuwirth refers is made up of the ubiquitous street markets and unlicensed bazaars in cities such as Lagos, São Paolo, and Guangzhou. Its entrepreneurs are importers of fake handbags, hawkers of pirated DVDs, wholesalers of papayas, and drivers of clandestine taxis.

Read the rest here—you’ve got a-whole-nother 58 words to go.

It’s torturous trying to review a book in 165 words, which is just long enough to make 3/4 of a point.

Neuwirth’s accounts of traveling through cities in Latin America, Africa, and Asia make for a colorful read. The book is basically one story about spontaneous orders and self-organization and informal markets that is told through many anecdotes of such systems and the merchants and entrepreneurs and customers that fill them.

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Valentin Abe is spawning fish farmers in Haiti, lack of formal property rights be damned

“Everything here in Haiti,” says Dr. Valentin Abe, “takes time.” Which is a comment as insightful as it is tautological.

Abe (pronounced AH-bay), originally from Côte d’Ivoire, first came to Haiti in 1997 on a six month contract to assess potential aquaculture sites. He’d recently earned a PhD in aquaculture from Auburn University, and before he knew it the contract spiraled into two years. He’s been working with fish farmers in Haiti ever since.

In 2005, he started Caribbean Harvest, a program that turns terra farmers into aqua farmers using startup aquaculture kits and fingerlings from Abe’s hatchery in Croix-des-Bouquets, in the outskirts of the capital. Potential fish farmers rely mainly on donations to provide startup costs, but the idea is that once a farmer has a kit—two cages, 2,400 fingerlings for each cage, and feed—his operation will sustain itself once the first harvest goes to market. The 150 or so farmers Abe works with have had varying degrees of success so far.

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