, Columnist
The Rise of the Resource Curse
By 2030, roughly half of the world's economies will become giant filling stations for developing superpowers. Instead of the world moving toward greater transparency and freer markets, we could see rising corruption levels and greater income inequality.
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In many ways Mongolia is an outlier -- an exotic tourist destination filled with windswept deserts, nomads and yurts. It might also be a vision of the world's future.
With a tiny $10 billion economy and less than 3 million people, Mongolia is fantastically resource-rich. And with borders touching China, Russia and Central Asia, the landlocked nation seems to have won a geographic lottery ticket. It doesn't need to go far to find enthusiastic customers for its immense endowment of copper, gold and other minerals.