Asia's trump card

I recently read a report from a small fund that specializes in stock picking in some of the less glamorous Asian countries. His economic views were refreshingly naff and cynical, which suits me very well. In my experience of being very cynical and always right I can say that the two must be linked.

'All governments are stupid (except Singapore's)'. I think the point he was making is this: Asian governments are a lot less... democratic than the West. Putting aside the lack of welfare this is probably how things need to be (at the moment). At the expense of hedging stupid decisions out of parliament we are now at a situation that we can only hinder ourselves as there are too many people in power and too many of them are too accountable to the electorate.

Accountability is a great motivator, but we have forged it into an awful inhibitor. I wouldn't like to assume that the entire British electorate are unable to think for themselves, but as a closet misanthrope I am apprehensive about their ability to decide our political/economic future.

If the rebellion in the recent vote for a referendum on the EU had been successful we would have had a nation of mostly uneducated, financially bruised, easy to incite people voting on our EU membership. The reason we at Smutonomics are so confident in this view is that we know few political commentators who have a resolute view on the matter. Furthermore, it is such a divisive issue that it surely implies complexity. I would rather have a bunch of ex-Etonians study the subject and decide for me.

With the exclusion of Kim Jong Il's economic brilliance Asia looks like it will continue to benefit from the lack of electorate interference for some time.