It's the economy, stupid

And property rights. In Egypt as everywhere else. In a country where the most enterprising people have no stake in society things are likely to go belly-up as they seem to have. done. Hernando de Soto explains in the Wall Street Journal.

On a related theme: I am rather intrigued by people who are screaming abuse at the United States and the West in general for abandoning their "good ally" Mubarak. In the first place, President Mubarak is not the world's greatest ally and in the second place what exactly can the West do? Invade Egypt? The days of Lord Cromer are long gone. Perhaps that is a bad thing but it is an inescapable fact of life.