The collapse of Arab economies ponders Stephen Glain

  Cecil Brewster
   The economic disparities of the Arab world with the rest of the world is the theme of  book written by someone named Stephan Glain. In "Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants", Glain trys to explain why the Muslim world went fro the center of world trade and prosperity to the modern day economic collape that most of their states find themselves. the situation would be worse for these ancient lands if the western world and an increasingly oil hungry China had not put high value on a sticky residue in the dirt needed to move machinery. the author travels to several Middle Eastern countries talking to local businessmen and merchants to get an insight to why heir economy sucks.

He goes into the heart of Lebanon, Syria ,Jordon, Palestine, Iraq, and Egypt to find out what is the problem and why an area that once had the largest empire and dominated the global economy now is so inept by perpetual violence. The role of western powers in balkanizing and dividing the region along with the inability of people in the region to get credit as some sort of international punishment for attacking the Jewish state seems to be the underlying problem of these Arab states. The exodus of white collar skilled workers into Europe and America over the years has also drained the local economy of talent that is being served elsewhere empowering other nations to power over Arab states. Western governments then use these extra resources to prop up leaders in Arab lands to further corrupt the system and implant authoritarian rule over the population where those outside the system have no realistic goal of enrichment. A special emphasis of this book is look at Egypt where a once multi-ethnic successful trading and economic country as withered down to a authoritarian state where only radical Muslims have been the main opposition. nothing best illustrates the failures of the Arabs than a big nation with an important location like Egypt not being able to partake nor have an important place in todays global marketplace. this is a good historical book that attempts to cover the current dismal performance of this region while showing the potential ability of this region if given the opportunity b foreign investors that have showered other regions turning them around to prosper more easily and provide a healthy and spiritually rewarding existence