John Cochrane recommends the Economist article Aid cannot make poor countries rich. From 2004 to 2014, foreign aid increased by 75%, but it didn’t help: 2004, William Easterly: aid was just as likely to shrink the world’s poorest economies as to help them grow. 2005, World Bank: grants and loans did not move the needle…
The Grumpy Economist on Foreign aid: “send a person a fish every day, and he forgets how to fish.”
The Grumpy Economist on Foreign aid: “send a person a fish every day, and he forgets how to fish.”
20 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: overseas aid
The capitalist revolution Africa needs
31 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought Tags: Africa
Economist: In the coming years Africa will become more important than at any time in the modern era. Over the next decade its share of the world’s population is expected to reach 21%, up from 13% in 2000, 9% in 1950 and 11% in 1800. As the rest of the world ages, Africa will become…
The capitalist revolution Africa needs
How to Visit India for Normies
25 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, international economics Tags: India
In the comments to my post, India has Too Few Tourists, many people worried about the food, the touts and the poverty. Many of these comments are mistaken or apply only if you are traveling to India on the cheap as an adolescent backpacker (nothing wrong with that but I suspect the MR audience is […]
How to Visit India for Normies
Some Links
12 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, development economics, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, global financial crisis (GFC), great recession, growth disasters, growth miracles, human capital, income redistribution, industrial organisation, international economics, job search and matching, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, monetary economics, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle, unemployment
TweetGMU Econ alum Holly Jean Soto busts the myth of “greedflation.” Scott Lincicome identifies an interesting contrast between the facts and opinion about China. George Will decries the spinelessness of the modern U.S. Congress. A slice: The incoming president will be able, on a whim, to unilaterally discombobulate international commerce — and the domestic economy…
Some Links
Left-Wing Economists Were Wildly Wrong about Javier Milei and his Libertarian Agenda for Argentina
10 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, budget deficits, business cycles, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economics of regulation, financial economics, fiscal policy, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, income redistribution, international economics, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, monetarism, monetary economics, political change, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, unemployment Tags: Argentina
It’s easy to mock economists. Consider the supposedly prestigious left-leaning academics who asserted in 2021 that Biden’s agenda was not inflationary. At the risk of understatement, they wound up with egg on their faces.* Today, we’re going to look at another example of leftist economists making fools of themselves. It involves Argentina, where President Javier […]
Left-Wing Economists Were Wildly Wrong about Javier Milei and his Libertarian Agenda for Argentina
The Great Enrichment
01 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: The Great Enrichment
Manmohan Singh, RIP
28 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought Tags: India
I am sad to hear about the passing of Manmohan Singh at age 92. Singh was perhaps the most influential Indian policymaker in the last five decades. An Oxbridge educated trade economist, he became India’s most important technocrat in the 1980s and 1990s – occupying every top position in economic policy – finance secretary; deputy […]
Manmohan Singh, RIP
The Great Enrichment
27 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth miracles
Coal Use Hits Record High in 2024 Thanks to India and China
23 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, growth miracles Tags: China
The only takeaways from the coal use data are that countries with sensible leaders are looking to the energy needs of their citizens and that climate is too complex an issue to attribute to a gas that is 0.04% of Earth’s atmosphere.
Coal Use Hits Record High in 2024 Thanks to India and China
New Study: Achieving A ‘Net Zero’ Emissions Policy Would Have A ‘Negligible’ 0.28°C Climate Effect
14 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, development economics, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, growth miracles, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA
Cost-benefit analyses affirm it would be better to abandon Net Zero policy initiatives and instead “do nothing” about greenhouse gas emissions. New research finds CO2’s largest possible climate impact is “negligible.” The cumulative expected temperature change in doubling CO2 from 400 to 800 ppm is only 0.81°C at most, and this is “certainly not cause…
New Study: Achieving A ‘Net Zero’ Emissions Policy Would Have A ‘Negligible’ 0.28°C Climate Effect
The Nobel Prize lectures in economics
12 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economics of crime, economics of regulation, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, law and economics, property rights, Public Choice
Africa
09 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: Africa
The South Korean autogolpe attempt
04 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, economics of crime, growth miracles, law and economics Tags: South Korea
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, elected in 2022, declared martial law. Given the conditions for which martial law is justified in the constitution (see below) were clearly not in place, this was a power usurpation–an autogolpe. Or an attempted one. It collapsed within about a matter of hours, with the National Assembly voting to annul […]
The South Korean autogolpe attempt
So Much for the one child policy
01 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, economics of love and marriage, growth miracles, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, population economics Tags: China
COP29 Leaves Poor Countries Fuming
24 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism
By Paul Homewood So the whole charade trundles on for another year: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c8jykpdgr08t
COP29 Leaves Poor Countries Fuming
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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