Ragnar Nurkse (1907-1957) belongs to the handful of economic thinkers associated with early or high development theory, also referred to as classical development economics or pioneers of development. This group is typically seen to consist of the following key thinkers: Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, Hans Singer, Arthur Lewis, Albert Hirschman, Gunnar Myrdal and Ragnar Nurkse. It can be argued that collectively, their thinking epitomized the best development practices of the past 500 years. It is not a coincidence that the post-World-War- II era, when Nurkse and others ruled the development mainstream, is one of exceptionally good performance for many poor countries. During the 1980s, development economics was replaced by the Washington Consensus thinking and policies that became for all intents and purposes Washington Follies. In recent decades, most developing regions – with the well-known exception of East Asia – experienced growth rates that go clearly against the more or less positive trend of the last 200 years from a long-term historical perspective. In other words, the world after the industrial revolution has not seen such a dismal development performance.