QuoteProject
Economics taught in most of the elite universities are practically useless in my context. My country is dominated by drug economy and a mafia. Textbook economics does not work in my context, and I have very few recommendations from anybody as to how to put together a legal economy.
Ashraf Ghani
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote criticizes traditional economics for being irrelevant in a context dominated by illegal activities.

Ashraf Ghani's statement highlights the disconnect between academic economics and the realities faced in regions where illicit economies, such as drug trafficking, prevail. He emphasizes the need for practical, context-specific solutions rather than standard textbook theories that do not account for the complexities of such environments, reflecting the struggles of nations trying to build a lawful economy amidst entrenched criminal networks.

Themes

EconomicsContextDrug EconomyMafiaLawful Economy

In practice

Example use cases

In a lecture about the applications of economics, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of context when studying economic theories.

More from Ashraf Ghani

Money is not capital in most of the developing countries. It's just cash. Because it lacks the institutional, organizational, managerial forms to turn it into capital.
Ashraf GhaniRead

Similar quotes

With the exception of the instinct of self-preservation, the propensity for emulation is probably the strongest and most alert and persistent of the economic motives proper.
Thorstein VeblenRead
If we want corporations to act differently, we have to force them to do so through laws that are fully enforced and through penalties higher than the economic benefits of thwarting the laws.
Robert ReichRead
Once you realize that trickle-down economics does not work, you will see the excessive tax cuts for the rick as what they are -- a simple upward redistribution of income, rather than a way to make all of us richer, as we were told.
Ha-Joon ChangRead
There is no doubt that as an economy grows in a great way like India has, that you have to step back and change your tax systems, because you start to get more disparities of wealth.
Bill GatesRead
The recurrence of periods of depression and mass unemployment has discredited capitalism in the opinion of injudicious people. Yet these events are not the outcome of the operation of the free market. They are on the contrary the result of well-intentioned but ill-advised government interference with the market.
Ludwig Von MisesRead
The Federal Budget can and should be made an instrument of prosperity and stability, not a deterrent to recovery.
John F. KennedyRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.