The social ills of the Philippine economy—rampant unemployment, poverty, the income gap, and a high degree of extralegalism—are the focus of a great deal of well-meaning attention (at least from people not associated with the current Administration), and that’s good. But socially conscious aspirations are not enough, as this cautionary tale from South Africa should remind us:

Back in 1998, an investment firm called Theta Securities owned by two South African business partners, Leon Kirkinis and Gordon Schachat, bought the securities license of a failed bank called the African Bank, and over the next year absorbed three small lending banks to create African Bank Investments Ltd., or ABIL.

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