Economy & public finances

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From Sugar Exports to 90% of Advanced Chips: Inside Taiwan’s TSMC Industrial Architecture

How Taiwan transitioned from sugar and umbrella exports in the 1960s to manufacturing over 90% of the world’s sub-5nm semiconductors via ITRI, Hsinchu Science Park, and the pure-play foundry model.

Cesar Zanis

Oct 14, 2026

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Macroeconomics

Oct 146 minArticle

How an Island Without Fresh Water Surpassed US Per Capita Income

When Singapore became independent in 1965, it had no oil, no farmland, and imported its drinking water. How logistics speed, zero tolerance for corruption, and human capital built an $88,000+ per capita economy.

Macroeconomics

Oct 146 minArticle

Why Brazil’s Neutral Real Interest Rate Sits at 5% While Advanced Economies Near 1%

A macroeconomic breakdown of r-star (the neutral real interest rate): how public debt trajectories, earmarked credit, and low domestic savings keep Brazil’s structural cost of capital near 5% in real terms.

Macroeconomics

Oct 145 minArticle

Poland’s Engineering Shock: How Tripling Higher Education Drove 20% of Productivity Growth

How Poland escaped the post-Soviet collapse, tripled tertiary education attainment between 1990 and 2015, and achieved 30 years of uninterrupted per-capita income convergence with Western Europe.

Macroeconomics

Oct 145 minArticle

In 1960 South Korea Was Poorer Than Brazil. How the 3i Strategy Changed Everything

An executive breakdown of the World Bank World Development Report 2024 on the Middle-Income Trap: how South Korea executed the Investment, Infusion, and Innovation sequence while Latin America stalled.

Macroeconomics

Oct 145 minArticle

How Estonia Attracted 7x More Foreign Investment With 0% Reinvested Profit Tax and X-Road

How a post-Soviet nation of 1.3 million citizens built the OECD’s #1 ranked tax code, eliminated corporate tax on reinvested earnings, and architected a 100% digital state via X-Road.

Macroeconomics

Oct 145 minArticle

Chile’s Salmon Miracle: Why Technology Infusion Beats Reinventing the Wheel

Salmon is not native to the Southern Hemisphere. Yet Chile became the world’s second-largest producer behind Norway by importing, adapting, and scaling proven foreign engineering through Fundación Chile.

Macroeconomics

Oct 145 minArticle

Growing Old Before Growing Rich: The 2041 Demographic Cliff in Emerging Markets

Why the demographic window in major emerging economies like Brazil is closing twice as fast as it did in Europe, and why output per worker must replace workforce expansion before 2041.