WI: Nixon administration (competently) pays off burglars, Watergate never fully revealed?

What was lost, by backing bad regimes, or at least not making aid very conditional on improving their act, was more examples of the East Asian Miracle (1960 - present)

The major missed opportunity—

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https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2017/may/tigers-tiger-cubs-economic-growth

See also the Tiger Cubs, countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and to a limited extent the Philippines.

I mean, forget about Sweden. These are the mixed economies to write home about. It's about governments supplementing markets and building them up. It's also about them changing the incentives so that real estate speculation and stock market speculation are less attractive and don't piss away people's best efforts.
well yes, because south korea was a shining example of democracy, along with indonesia...
 
Is that adjusted for inflation?
Key question. And since it shows the U.S. economy almost quadrupling in the last 30 years, I don't think so. I think it's showing both growth and inflation.

The site says, "Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate," which personally doesn't tell me a lot.
 
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well yes, because south korea was a shining example of democracy, along with indonesia...
Indonesia was bad under Sukarno, but became worse under Suharto. When he took power in the mid ‘60s, they committed a massacre against approximately half a million ethnic Chinese. Holy shit. They said it was because they were communist party members. Which may have been true in some cases (not that it justifies it) but it was primarily ethnic hatred and resentment because some of the Chinese were merchants and better off than average.

And then in 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor. And over the following years, out of a starting Timorese population of about 600,000, Indonesia went on to kill between a sixth and a third. And because Indonesia was a cold war ally, we continued to support them, minimum questions asked at best. It is hard to escape the conclusion, that on this one, my country the United States actively participated in genocide.

Obviously, all this shit hurts economic development.

And yes, I do like to focus on the cheerier subjects of building a middle class, expanding medical professions other than just doctors, successfully running multi-path in education, expanding civil and voting rights, etc.
 
I feel like even if it isn't Watergate it's something else: Nixon probably won't dial back on his paranoid chicanery not just because his psychology but he probably won't grasp the relationship between the press and politicians was changing as the public became more politically skeptical, where the secular logic for Watergate to turn into an impeachable scandal really grows out of.
 
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