Robert Lucas interview in Brazil, 2nd November 2012
24 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, business cycles, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic growth, global financial crisis (GFC), great recession, growth disasters, growth miracles, inflation targeting, macroeconomics, monetarism, Robert E. Lucas Tags: Robert E. Lucas
On the role of R&D and boffins in lab coats in the Industrial Revolution
24 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
Eamonn Butler on how economical with the truth Oxfam was on global inequality
22 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, liberalism Tags: evidence-based policy, Leftover Left, Oxfam, top 1%
Global Warming Was Worth It
22 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, climate change, development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, liberalism Tags: modernity, The Great Enrichment, The Great Fact
- Higher incomes that allow people to make livings that afford them more than merely survival or avoiding starvation.
- A low poverty rate.
- High quality and diversity of employment opportunities. Rather than the choice of being a farmer or being a blacksmith, the average citizen should have an array of careers to choose from, and the ability to be industrious and take risks for profit.
- The availability of housing. On an average night in the United States, a country with a population of somewhere around 350 million, fewer than one million people are homeless.
- Consistent GDP growth.
- Access to quality health care.
- The availability of quality education. (I suppose we could quibble over the word “quality,” but certainly there is widespread free education availability.)
- High life expectancy. Worldwide life expectancy has more than doubled from 1750 to 2007.
- Low frequency of deadly disease.
- Affordable goods and services.
- Infrastructure that bolsters economic growth.
- Political stability.
- Air conditioning.
- Freedom from slavery, torture and discrimination.
- Freedom of movement, religion and thought.
- The presumption of innocence under the law.
- Equality under the law regardless of gender or race.
- The right to have a family – as large as one can support. Maybe even larger.
- The right to enjoy the fruits of labor without government – or anyone else – stealing it.
Where are the world’s tallest building?
21 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth miracles Tags: Tallest buildings
The world has experienced unprecedented levels of GDP growth since 1950
21 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth miracles
Contributions to global GDP growth
Population
GDP per capita
Compound annual growth rate, %
Source: Jutta Bolt and Jan Luiten van Zanden, The first update of the Maddison Project: Re-estimating growth before 1820, Maddison Project working paper number 4, University of Groningen, January 2013; United Nations Population Division; McKinsey Global Institute analysis
The Great Fact in one chart
21 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, liberalism Tags: The Great Enrichment, The Great Fact
GDP at PPP by population shares
20 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
Why World Inequality Is Falling And Not Rising
20 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: life expectancy
The regional composition of global wealth
19 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: The Great Fact
What Oxfam doesn’t want you to know: global capitalism means there’s less poverty than ever » Spectator Blogs
19 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: Leftover Left, Oxfam, The Great Escape, The Great Fact
We are, right now, living through the golden age of poverty reduction.
Anyone serious about tackling global poverty (and I’m afraid we have to exclude Oxfam from this category) has to accept that whatever we’re doing now, it’s working – so we should keep doing it.
We are literally on the road to an incredible goal: the abolition of poverty, as we know it, within our lifetime.
Those who care more about helping the poor than hurting the rich will celebrate the fact – and make sure free trade and global capitalism keep spreading so as to finish the job.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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