- - “Yes In My Bamako Yard”
- Africa’s urban century – ~900m new urbanites by 2050; two-thirds of 2050’s cityscape isn’t built yet, and much of the continent is “urbanising while poor”.
- Regulatory knots – Oversized minimum plots (Dar: 400→300 m²), creaky colonial codes, and slow permits (e.g., Ghana) push informality, crowding, and sprawl.
- Urban Expansion (UX) beats mega-plans – A five-step, bare-bones grid-first approach (predict, control, preserve, plan, protect) proved implementable; Ethiopia pilots saw higher incomes and shorter commutes, echoing Tanzania’s Sites-and-Services legacy. !
- Capital via land value – Property taxation remains underused; Freetown’s satellite-aided cadastre and mobile billing doubled the roll (57k→110k) and 5× revenues, building credibility for cheaper borrowing.
- Capacity gap – Africa averages 0.89 planners per 100k people; tool and skills deficits (GIS, data, curricula) hobble execution—coalitions like UCCC aim to modernise training.
- Yes In My Bamako Yard – Asterisk Magazine
- & - “The failure of Macron”
- Thesis – Macronism promised supply-side dynamism plus social investment, but ended up more dirigiste, shrinking effective supply and raising costs to build, innovate, and grow.
- Fiscal reality – The French state spent >57% of GDP in 2024; debt and deficits diverged from the Eurozone, with the “quoi qu’il en coûte” playbook entrenching shock-response spending.
!
- Political arc – Gilets Jaunes set a precedent for chequebook crisis management; labour tweaks couldn’t offset heavier intervention elsewhere.
- Mandates over markets – ZAN (zero net land take), rent controls, energy and digital mandates (ICE ban from 2035, Nature Restoration Law, GDPR/AI Act) prioritised compliance targets over price signals and flexibility.
- Continental echo – Brexit weakened the EU’s anti-dirigiste counterweight; appointments (e.g., Breton) and state-aid loosening amplified a mandate-first style across Europe.
- The failure of Macron – Silicon Continent
- Nobel Prize Committee - Economic Sciences 2025
- Laureates – Half to Joel Mokyr (prerequisites for sustained growth); half jointly to Philippe Aghion & Peter Howitt (creative-destruction growth theory).
- Knowledge engine – Mokyr’s “useful knowledge” links propositional (why it works) and prescriptive (how to do it); Enlightenment methods + open institutions let science/tech co-evolve and diffuse via skilled artisans/engineers.
- Innovation ladder – Aghion-Howitt’s GE model shows R&D races where patents grant temporary rents; entrants climb the ladder, incumbents are displaced - sustained growth emerges from continual creative destruction.
- Welfare trade-offs – Society may under-invest (knowledge spillovers) yet also over-invest (business-stealing); optimal policy depends on market structure - antitrust, R&D support and flexicurity matter.
- Now & next – AI could accelerate the knowledge feedback loop; threats include market dominance, academic constraints and political blockades - sustained growth isn’t automatic.
- Economic Sciences 2025: Popular Information – Nobel Prize