their economic growth and standard of living. In fact, however, both of these organizations use finance to hinder, block, and destroy competitors of large multinational corporations in developing countries. It is well known that countries from the Eastern European post-Soviet bloc were forced to shutter business and power plants to receive financial help. This has increased the economic and political dependence of these countries on the institutions themselves while lowering their chance to implement locally suitable economic policies with existing market sectors.
Measurements of economic sovereignty. The economic sovereignty of a country is measured using different indicators:
• Political sovereignty to decide economic development model and policies
• Control of strategic sectors and business ecosystems
• Independence of food, energy, and technologies
• Ability to produce most strategically important goods and services
Often, poor countries or those in trouble due to war, natural disasters, or other factors are offered generous financial aid. This ostensible help from outside is always tied to political and economic conditions. Such covenants include adherence to disadvantageous terms often in the form of trade treaties, forced privatizations, forced closure of competitors, market access, political concessions, or military access to the territory.
Economic colonialism for developing and emerging markets. In developing and emerging countries, many people complain of economic colonialism base on money, finance, trade and technology. Stronger and richer countries use financial tools to impose colonialism on smaller and weaker countries, creating resentment. These tools might be any of the following:
• Currency exchange pegging to the US dollar
• Payment systems
• Credit cards
• Financial standards
• Financial education
Many large TNCs have colonized smaller or weaker countries using tools of commercial colonialism. By using their vast array of brands and goods, their financial power, and the political force of their home countries, they have pushed the door down and taken over the markets. The host countries could not impede this colonization due to their lack of economic defenses and their inherently weak economies. It is noticeable in many countries that fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) made by companies in only a few countries are available. These goods come mainly from US and UK companies, while companies from other regions, such as Europe, are completely missing from the market.
Some economic commentators have pointed out that the developed nations establish and use technological colonialism as a power lever against smaller countries. To some countries, the developed nations deny the right to buy certain technologies by making excuses or imposing sanctions. They do so to put pressure on the smaller countries or to slow their development or progress.
Use of economic instruments by leading nations is a means of geopolitical primacy. It always has been and always will be.
The Competitive Advantages of Nations
In the past, cities, trading posts, fortifications, and ports were built in strategic geographic locations for trading, security, safety, and easy access to natural resources like water and fertile land. Cities were erected near rivers and cultivable land, fortifications on easily defensible hills and mountaintops, trading posts on bustling trading routes or near production areas, and ports in defensible bays with quiet, protected waters. These strategic locations are constantly contested by many countries for military and trading advantages. Many countries still enjoy competitive advantages given by geography and have adapted their economies to take advantage of that. Therefore, most countries have some sort of advantage over others in certain categories of goods. Most times, this advantage has been built upon to create extensive economic activity and even advanced industries. Some industries have ended for various reasons, such as replacement by newer technologies or simply finite resources. It is in the interest of countries to identify such competitive advantages and build on them. They may be simple things like water, large land surfaces, or natural resources. These sectors should constitute the foundation of an economy. Catalysts to economic development are categorized into two macro groups:
• Naturally occurring competitive advantages
• Evolutionary development from agriculture, natural resources, and infrastructure
Natural competitive advantages should be used for evolutionary economic development. Once competitive advantages have been identified, both historical and new ones, the focus should be to take advantage of them by progressing and innovating to achieve quick evolutionary developments. As a base, agriculture, natural resources, and infrastructure are used to improve the economy. Even at a basic level, because they require tremendous manual input, these sectors need automation and innovation by machines, tools, materials, and technologies. The footprint of such primary goods and activity is unusually large, and there are huge margins to start production of capital goods as a part of import substitution programs. This brings a considerable drive to upgrade a country’s skills and industrialization and affects many sectors. Agriculture and food production require a vast variety of machines and industrial processes to convert raw agricultural products into tradeable goods with added value. Natural resources require many large industrial machines to transport, filter, and process raw material extracted from underground. Infrastructure, beyond the construction stages, needs machines and vehicles to transport people and goods, so it is an excellent starting point for heavy industry.
Moreover, all three «basic» industries of agriculture, natural resources, and infrastructure impact other industries, such as the chemical industry, because they require hundreds or thousands of substances for processing. A key government task is to identify the most critical or convenient industries and goods to bet on by considering their benefits to the economy. A government must assess the nation’s industrial and technological capabilities and skills, internal demand, competitiveness, exportability, and a variety of other economic and strategic factors. Once this analysis is done, a country can plan the next steps of its economic development evolution.
Regional Raison d’être of the Sovereign Economic Model
Within countries, often regions or states in a federal political system are granted a certain autonomy in economic matters. Taxation might be different, and local laws might have precedence over federal and other autonomous prerogatives. Therefore, even a semi-independent region of a country might mold its economy quasi-independently of the central government. For example, a regional legislature can certainly use the Sovereign Economic Model as an inspiration. Regional administrations have leeway given their partial autonomy to create local economic plans and investment opportunities, which are ideal for small and mid-sized companies with a large local presence and local interests. Thus, even local administrations can make smart, independent choices and apply economic policies for the benefit of both businesses and residents.
Economics of the sovereign economic model
Wealth Creation as the Economic Ideal of the Sovereign Economic Model
A long-forgotten basic tenet of economics is that wealth is created by raw resources and labor with the manufacture of physical goods. In the modern era, that concept is partly extended to goods built with non-physical, intellectual labor. Capital allows businesses to increase their production by utilizing
