Assorted

Race and the Social Contract

A Reality Check on African Aid

Between 2000 and 2006, U.S. economic aid to sub-Saharan Africa increased from $2.1 billion to $5.4 billion (in constant terms). That is commendable. But it is also the case that Africa has become the focus of aid efforts by the global development community and aid from many other countries has also gone up, in some cases by even more. European Union countries, for example, gave $21.9 billion to Africa in 2006—four times as much as the United States. The United Kingdom on its own gave $5.2 billion to Africa, almost the same amount as the United States from a country whose economy is one-sixth the size.

‘With a Few More Brains ...’

From Singapore to Japan, politicians pretend to be smarter and better- educated than they actually are, because intellect is an asset at the polls. In the United States, almost alone among developed countries, politicians pretend to be less worldly and erudite than they are (Bill Clinton was masterful at hiding a brilliant mind behind folksy Arkansas sayings about pigs).

The Dismal (Climate) Science: On Marty Weitzman, Fat Tails, And How Economists Could Better Help Us to Overcome Global Warming

Students of Virginity

How and When Experience in a President Counts

Training Teachers

Policy Reduction Budget Support -- A DFID Policy Paper
Yes, the title of the post from IMF says policy reduction- which should be poverty reduction. Maybe the staff at the Fund are a bit stressed out from all the talk about downsizing.

Mark Thoma: Adverse Selection, Loan Defaults, and Credit Rationing

The Dilbert Strategy- Krugman

Anyone who has worked in a large organization — or, for that matter, reads the comic strip “Dilbert” — is familiar with the “org chart” strategy. To hide their lack of any actual ideas about what to do, managers sometimes make a big show of rearranging the boxes and lines that say who reports to whom.

Bagehot, central banking, and the financial crisis

Dealing with Adverse Selection in the Mortgage Market

How to Cast a Mortgage Lifeline?- Blinder

Infrastructure is America’s best investment

Summers: Steps To Safeguard America’s Economy

Is Poverty Caused by Irrational Behavior?

The WSJ discovers Moral Hazard, and it involves choosing to sleep under bridges

Lessons from Japan Versus Wishful US Prescriptions (Summers/De Long Edition)

Press Coverage and Political Accountability

The 2007 US current account data

Fouling up finance: Same old questions, wrong old answers

Why Become a Pirate?

Myth # 3: Governance cannot be defined?

Old and New Wisdom in Finance

I [Heart] America's Trade Deficit!