> The Shah thought he was buying development, making Iran into an advanced nation. But all he was buying was a factory, though an immense one. What he needed in

> The Shah thought he was buying development, making Iran into an advanced nation. But all he was buying was a factory, though an immense one. What he needed in order to actually be developed was what he couldn't buy: the web of thousands of companies that together enabled to US to build that factory. This brings to mind the economic development of southern Korea under the Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-hee dictatorships. Rather than buying just a factory with their available capital they used it to fund the expansion of what are known as chaebols, Korean firms involved in a wide range of enterprises. You'll have heard of Samsung, Hyundai, LG, Daewoo, to name a few. Those are examples of chaebols. To be clear, that system can have problems, but it is an amazing contrast to courting transplants [0] or buying factories. [0] http://www.rgj.com/story/news/2014/09/04/nevada-strikes-billion-tax-break-deal-tesla/15096777/ http://www.rgj.com/story/news/2014/09/04/nevada-strikes-bill...