What about when correlation really is causation?

Check out this article in Reason about a recent World Bank Study (pdf).

Basically, the wealth of nations correlates very highly to just two factors: education and rule of law. This is, of course, common sense (or it should be), but it's nice to have a really cogent data set to chew on.

Now, as the article's author, Ronald Bailey, asks:

How can the people of the developing world rid themselves of the kleptocrats who loot their countries and keep them poor?

I sure wish I knew.