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Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

nytimes.com

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Re: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

#31

Post by akhilcacharya »

sremani wrote: post #23
skdd8 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Normally I would agree with you but, that hasn't been the case for the past 3 weeks or so.

US under Trump is still a better place in terms of Human Rights and Quality of Life than life in an Average city in China under the Xi. Of the two there is no debate who is an Autocrat. Xi's opponents went to Jail and the purges are still continuing. How many of Trumps opponents went to Jail? Lets be level headed in conversations here, rather than hyperbole. But hey, you are welcome to go to China and behind the fire…

> How many of Trumps opponents went to Jail?

I don't disagree overall but this is perhaps not the best example to use.

Re: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

#32

Post by ww520 »

kevindong wrote: post #5

> For Djibouti, the debt is especially daunting, amounting to 60 percent of its gross domestic product. This seems absolutely insane to me.

GDP is per year while debt is spread over time, like 30 years. Assuming 5%/yr for the amount of interest and principle repayment, 5% x 60% = 3% of GDP for debt service per year. Not too bad. Assuming the project adds 1% to GDP growth, it would boost the GDP by 35% at the end. Adding 2% would boost by 81%. And the effect will continue after the debt has been paid off. That's a good investment.

Re: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

#33

Post by sremani »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #31
sremani wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US under Trump is still a better place in terms of Human Rights and Quality of Life than life in an Average city in China under the Xi. Of the two there is no debate who is an Autocrat. Xi's opponents went to Jail and the purges are still continuing. How many of Trumps opponents went to Jail? Lets be level headed in conversations here, rather than hyperbole. But hey, you are welcome to go to China and behind the fire…

> How many of Trumps opponents went to Jail? I don't disagree overall but this is perhaps not the best example to use.

Of course that is not the standard you should hold an American president, but that does demonstrate the day-light between the two systems.

Re: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

#34

Post by tomohawk »

ww520 wrote: post #32
kevindong wrote: post #5

> For Djibouti, the debt is especially daunting, amounting to 60 percent of its gross domestic product. This seems absolutely insane to me.

GDP is per year while debt is spread over time, like 30 years. Assuming 5%/yr for the amount of interest and principle repayment, 5% x 60% = 3% of GDP for debt service per year. Not too bad. Assuming the project adds 1% to GDP growth, it would boost the GDP by 35% at the end. Adding 2% would boost by 81%. And the effect will continue after the debt has been paid off. That's a good investment.

Good solid World Bank math

Re: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

#35

Post by gozur88 »

zhemao wrote: post #21
skdd8 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Normally I would agree with you but, that hasn't been the case for the past 3 weeks or so.

Maybe that's Trump's plan to MAGA. Get rid of all those pesky civil liberties and democratic procedures getting in the way of progress. /s

Except there's no actual indication he has any such intentions. I wish people on the left would recover from their hysterical election freakout.

Re: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

#36

Post by sctb »

popobobo wrote: post #6

Screw u. USA has been and always will be leading the world. Just wait till we build a wall along the african border. Guess who will pay for that? African! That is the power I am talking about.

We've already asked you to post civilly and substantively, and we ban accounts that won't, so please stop this. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13602887 and marked it off-topic.

Re: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

#37

Post by selimthegrim »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #15
grardb wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read another comment on HN about this recently. Their explanation was that it's due (at least in part) to the high savings rate of the Chinese compared to the USA (and other countries, I guess)[1]. The idea is that when people are stashing their money into bank accounts, the banks have a lot more money to work with. For example, Americans will use their money to buy cars. The Chinese would save their money, and the…

If you are interested in this, I highly recommend 'The Great Rebalancing' by Michael Pettit. He explains the causes and implications of China's high savings rate, and the relationship with other countries' savings rates. His explanation of the causality is contrary to most of what you will have read in the popular press.

Surely you mean Michael Pettis?

Re: Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, with China’s Help

#40

Post by thisrod »

TL;DR: The railway from Ethiopia to Djibouti failed because no one could afford to maintain it. A few years later, the Djibouti government took out a loan for the value of 9 months production from the entire country, and paid some Chinese firms to build them a brand new one.
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