Asim Khwaja walks us through Pakistan's current economic crisis, and why the real solutions lie in long-term productivity increases. In the process, he also tells us what he learnt from a 5th grader during his recent visit to Pakistan, and on the important role that optimism plays both at a personal and structural level. This episode was recorded before floods started wreaking havoc across the entire country.  Here is a list of Pakistan and US-based charities involved in flood relief efforts. Please donate generously. Asim Khwaja is the Director of the Center for International Development and the Sumitomo-Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development Professor of International Finance and Development at the Harvard Kennedy School, and co-founder of the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP).  Some links to what we talked about:  Atif Mian's and Asim's own Twitter threads on the causes of the economic crisis. Asim's Twitter thread about his field trip where he met the budding brain surgeon. Asim mentioned my research on what politicians know about citizens. Here is a blog about it and here is the full paper. Asim complained that I asked him about everything but his own research. Until I ask him about it in a future episode, you can read about it here.