In The News

Industrial Policy Puts Global Cooperation at Risk

Patricia Wruuck November 14, 2008
Leaders gathering in Washington DC for a G20 summit to discuss the global financial crisis recognize that a global response is required. Any new financial architecture also requires international cooperation – even as the economic slowdown increasingly triggers calls for protectionist measures at the domestic level. For example, US carmakers clamor for government aid to resolve problems – such as...

Aid Is Good, Business Is Better

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Nicky Oppenheimer September 1, 2008
Africa lags behind other continents on most indicators of development, largely because the cost of doing business is too high, suggest the president of Liberia and the chairman of De Beers, writing an opinion essay together for the International Herald Tribune. Record amounts of aid flow to the continent, but countries should regard that aid as temporary and enact reforms to spur sustainable...

Guidelines Call for Chinese Pay to Rise With Inflation

Kang Yi July 11, 2008
Chinese workers could soon receive a pay raise. To combat rising prices for food, energy and other basic goods, the government mulls proposals to address income inequality. Guidelines for salary reform mostly target private companies, report a team of authors for the Economic Observer Online, "as most of the low pay and low growth rate in salaries occurred in the private sector, especially...

The Luckiest Girl

Nicholas D. Kristof July 7, 2008
Beatrice was destined to become another statistic in Africa, a woman without education or much chance of social mobility. But then a goat donated by schoolchildren in Connecticut changed her destiny. Heifer International is a program that encourages church groups and schools to raise funds and donate livestock to the poor in developing nations. A goat reached Beatrice’s village in Uganda, her...

40% of Afghan Aid Returns to Donor Countries, Says Report

Richard Norton-Taylor March 25, 2008
The US and the UK toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001, and NATO forces have battled extremists since. In the six years since, the Western nations have spent more on military endeavors than on health, education or economic initiatives. Wealthy nations have not come though with amounts originally pledged, and a substantial percentage of aid money that did come through went for...

Snowplows for Guinea

Bartholomäus Grill March 10, 2008
One philosopher observes that a “taking” form of colonialism has transformed into a “giving” one. Donating funds to impoverished nations should not contribute to poverty, but that’s what has happened throughout Africa. Wealthy donors support projects that either cost additional funds or fail. “But the worst consequence of this aid is that it paralyzes self-initiative and encourages a true...

Happy Families

February 13, 2008
Bolsa Família, or the Family Fund, pays a benefit to mothers with low earnings, provided they send their children to school, show up for vaccinations and meet some other conditions. The program began in Mexico and quickly spread as far as Brazil, Eastern Europe and New York City as a way to allow children escape poverty. The program boosts the economy, with education building a skilled work force...