Last week I posted some cautionary thoughts about the outcome of what we have to call the military coup in Egypt. More details on the incentives and habits, and indicative recent decisions, of the army mandarins are coming out, and the picture is not pretty, whether you care about political or economic freedom. A clientist kleptocracy is not going to do much for the millions of Egyptians who are famously living on two dollars a day. So far, it’s not unfair to view the “revolution” as little more than the regime getting rid of accessories, catspaws, and figureheads that have become unfashionable and unuseful, to better set itself up for another couple of decades of profitable rule.
I hope I’m wrong.