ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. It covers the four fundamental determinants of long-term growth that tend to receive insufficient attention in the literature but represent critical and fundamental choke points which could severely constrain economic development in future generations, possibly in both Global South and North. Crisis in development is a non-issue, since development is powerful and robust and difficult to stop. The September 2008 financial crisis hit Wall Street and triggered the Great Recession, the worst global downturn since the Great Depression, income concentration has increased about 95 percent of income gains in 2009-2012 went to the wealthiest 1". The debt crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s, the austerity and Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) imposed on debtor nations by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank resulted in a 'lost decade of development' or more for most of Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa.
