A forum posting:


"Intuitively political stability is an important factor in influencing economic growth. I have always assumed it to be applicable in all situations before a tutorial mate mentioned during tutorial that there are, in fact exceptions to the rule.

Quoting him, Israel is one of the most politically unstable countries in the world, yet it has enjoyed a tremendous amount of economic growth since its independence.

I have read up on articles about Israel and its economic growth, and it seems amazing to me that a country which has experienced so much warfare could actually be so vibrant economically. There are many factors as to why political stability does not seem to affect Israel's economy, and they are nicely summed up in this article here: http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2002/issue3/jv6n3a3.html"

"Until the advent of Palestinian suicide bombings in 1990s, much of the violence associated with the Arab-Israeli conflict never entered Israel proper (i.e., inside the Green Line dividing Israel from the West Bank and Gaza Strip), so the physical infrastructure of Israel’s economy remained largely unharmed."
Chee Soon Juan shouting "We are peaceful and non-violent" does not count as destroying infrastructure.

"The lack of security did not deter successive waves of Jewish immigration to the state... the influx of so many people, including highly educated and skilled workers, created an instant domestic market and a rich reservoir of human capital."
If you come to NUS you can see just how successful we have been in attracting Foreign Talent. So we have this base covered already.

"Israel attracted large amounts of foreign capital driven by political, rather than economic, motives."
This is what CPF money and the reserves are for. Voila.

"Perhaps most important, Israel’s urgent defense needs gave rise to a domestic military-industrial complex that became an unmatched engine of economic growth, spurring technological advancement and netting significant export income."
If we continue selling landmines to Burma and hawking the SAR21 at trade shows, we've got this covered too.

Bring it on, IMF protestors!


Bloody hell. I knew the people at S-cube were hiding something from us. How could I have forgotten the example of Israel? Survival, Security and Success my foot.

Then again, at least they didn't try to claim that peaceful demonstrations and periodic changes of government (ie the normal functioning of a democratic system) were signs of political instability (since their purpose was to con people into accepting Slavery, rather than continue voting Correctly), so we must give them credit for that.