Considering that most were among the least developed and poorest patches of the planet at the onset, their collective makeover is among history’s greatest economic success stories. Three things helped: First, the Americans steadily outsourced their own industry to the Asian states. That provided an excellent rationale for the Asians’ debt-driven model, as well as ensuring ravenous American (and in time, global) demand for the Asians’ products. Second, that foreign demand proved robust and stable enough to make the Asians’ exports profitable enough that all four managed to (for the most part)
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