Brazil thread

[Brad DeLong]

>I know everybody is supposed to know this, but I don't so somebody clue me
>in. Why is it that no undeveloped nation can modernize? Why do so many of
>these countries have a good decade or two, come close, but then fade away?

There are counterexamples (albeit not as many as I would like):

Italy
Slovenia
Spain
Japan
South Korea
Taiwan
Norway
Sweden
Finland