Amity Shlaes, Columnist

Arab Democracy Needs More Than Markets

May 24, 2011 at 11:58 PM UTC

Amity Shlaes, chairman of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation, is the author of "Great Society" and co-editor, with Matthew Denhart, of a new edition of Coolidge's autobiography.

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"The only way to help the new republics build free markets is to stimulate private investment. The main magnet is oil."

This advice sounds like it comes from inside Hillary Clinton’s State Department, part of a confidential file set aside for the day when the Jasmine Revolution succeeds in the Middle East. Or perhaps from the notes for President Obama's strategic Middle East speech, delivered May 19. Actually the words were written two decades ago, in reference to Russia and Eastern Europe.