Even at today's anemic rates, however, the market has begun to function.
The Russian economy, a wreck for most of the 1990's, has begun to function in a manner that would appeal to Alan Greenspan.
A parliament has begun to function, and the de facto leader of the opposition, Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from years of house arrest only late last year, seems to have been accepted by the government as a partner.
Iraq's first electronic clearing system has begun to function in Baghdad's main branch of the Rafidain Bank, Iraq's largest lender, which is owned by the state.
But foreigners in Benghazi say it has begun to function a lot better.The NTC is keen not to appear to represent only the east of the country, so it has expanded to embrace a wide geographical spectrum, with as many members from Tripoli as from Benghazi.
"Regarding the AIIB, it hasn't actually begun functioning yet but two things are clear.
The popularity of the buildings has created what is surely the most bizarre and wonderful thing about Las Vegas right now: the way in which it has begun, almost inadvertently, to function like a real city.
An active and liberal civil society has begun to take root, a functioning government administration is being mapped out and the traumas of the past are beginning to be tentatively addressed.
And these talks, the first direct negotiations in nearly two years with 17 years of failed diplomatic efforts behind them, have one advantage that past rounds have lacked: a West Bank administration that to many Israelis and Palestinians alike has begun to resemble, tentatively, a functioning state.
