Some economists characterize African countries as virtually doomed economically due to factors such as climate, geography, political conflicts, excessive natural resources, cultural factors, and more—despite many African countries adopting free-market reforms since the 1980s. Dismissing these explanations for the lack of growth in Sub-Saharan Africa as scapegoats designed to serve the views of free-market economists, Chang suggests that none of these factors is unique to Africa. In fact, several of today’s rich countries share similar climates, landlocked geography, propensity for ethnic conflicts, and so on. Chang adds that the growth rate in African countries was decent before they implemented free-market policies at the behest of the IMF, which have only stalled growth.