Today Peru is undoubtedly poorer than Colombia. Yet at the turn of the century the opposite was true. This study asks why Peru has made relatively so much less progress, and finds part of the answer in the greater coherence and competence of short term policy management in Colombia. Whether the international economy has provided positive or negative shocks, Colombia has tended to manage them more skilfully than Peru - not be relying on the market but by generally pragmatic and prudent interventionist policies.