Bill Easterly reviewed Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson for the Wall Street Journal:
Far too much intellectual firepower regarding the global poor these days focuses on the (small) things Westerners can do to help-obsessing about, say, how much money to spend on mosquito-blocking bed nets to fight malaria...
On February 6, USAID changed its rules to allow itself to buy goods and services locally, rather than shipping products from the US and contracting with American firms. Despite the expected benefits for aid recipients, US companies (the so-called "Beltway Bandits") have hired a major Washington lobbying firm to kill the reforms in Congress.
At a recent speech at DRI, Andrew Rugasira described what happened as Good African Coffee, the business he founded in Uganda's Rwenzori mountains, began to take off. As farmers began to produce higher quality coffee and see higher profits "something really extraordinary began to happen..."
On May 14, Professor Yaw Nyarko spoke at a conference in Accra, Ghana on Evidence-Based Education: Policy-Making and Reform in Africa. His remarks for a panel on "Teacher Characteristics, School Governance, Accountability And Incentives" are based on his personal experiences growing up in Ghana and his philosophy of teaching.
We are inspired by the courage of Eskinder Nega, an Ethiopian journalist, newspaper publisher, and dissident arrested after writing a blog post demanding freedom of expression and an end to torture in Ethiopian prisons. While we don't want to meddle in other countries' politics, we do want to speak out against aid that supports rights-violating regimes.
I am gratified by the widespread support that my non-nomination for World Bank president has received. My quest to help end poverty has led me to the ends of the Earth. My accomplishments speak for themselves, having successfully offended every official or interest group in any way connected to the World Bank, even the head of maintenance...
