Economics

Michael Brown concludes a three-part North-South dialogue with longtime colleague Koffi Kouakou on African realities, American assumptions, and the China factor. They examine Africa's youth surge, technology adoption, political risk, and the race between transformation and instability.

Part two of a North-South dialogue with Koffi Kouakou examines critical minerals, China's role, Western assumptions, and whether Africa can turn resource demand into leverage rather than another extraction cycle.

Michael Brown sits down with longtime colleague Koffi Kouakou for a North-South dialogue on African realities, American assumptions, and the China factor. They challenge single-story narratives about Africa and look at what outside observers routinely miss.

This episode argues that one of the most consequential developments in the Israel-Palestine landscape is labor migration and replacement. Michael Brown examines what India's workers in Israel reveal about political incentives, economics, and the future for Palestinians.

The American offset model lets the United States outsource the visible costs of mining, emissions, standards, and consumption while preserving a cleaner story about itself. This episode connects copper, carbon, supply chains, and geopolitical risk.

America needs copper and strategic minerals for energy, defense, and industrial resilience, but its own permitting and political choices often block the mines it says it needs. This episode examines the contradiction between clean-energy ambition, resource dependence, and policy reality.