Africa Can … End Poverty

This is the title of Shanta Devajaran’s blog (http://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan). Devajaran is the World Bank Chief Economist for Africa. He writes:

“For the first time in 30 years, Sub-Saharan Africa is growing at the same rate as the developing world (save India and China). For more, see the book “Africa at a turning point?”. If African countries can sustain this growth and make it more widely shared, the dream of a continent free of poverty can become a reality.”

In a recent post, “African Successes” (2009-09-17), he lists 42 striking success stories from which around 20 cases will be selected for in-depth study in order to evaluate the drivers of success, the sustainability of outcome, and the potential for scaling up successful experiences.

In a lighter perspective, the New York Times signals Africa’s renewed visual and artistic influence that is touching film, music and fashion here .

Is a new Afrocentric wind rising?

The Stock Market Crash and the Real Economy

James Hamilton has an interesting post on the “lost decade for stocks” (Econbrowser, December 26) here .

The boom and bust episode, exceptional by historical standards, is quite apparent in the Price/Earnings series, here:

And it is well explained by the evolution of real earnings, here:

My comment: the market exuberance was not that irrational after all, nor was the crash.

Old Media and New

Bloggers now get front row seats at fashion shows: or, how the communication revolution impacts the fashion elite.

Read the New York Times story here .

Tax Competition and Public Services : California vs. Texas

California taxpayers don’t get much bang for their bucks. While high taxes could be OK when public services are plentiful and high quality, California now exemplifies the new Big-Spending, High-Taxing, Lousy-Services Paradigm.

Read the William Voegli paper here .

My comment: one suspects that high taxes European countries follow or surpass the same Californian model. States’ real productivity has probably reached a phase of decreasing returns.

Hat tip to Tyler Cowen (Marginal Revolution).

Stopped Clocks and Cooling Hysteria

Want to read something really different about current scares? Have a look at Macromania, the blog of David Andolfatto, and especially the two recent posts on Doctor Gloom (December 18) and climate change (December 15) here .

Enjoy.

William Easterly on Summitry

With regard to the Copenhagen flop, Easterly writes on his blog Aid Watch (December 19):

« We have had tons of international summits, almost all of them have failed to produce anything of value. Why do we keep setting our expectations so high? Maybe we should try some other path of change besides the Big International Summit?”

My comment: For global problems too, decentralized coordination is more realistic – today , in the extended second twentieth century – than attempts at world level centralization.

Greece, and the ECB as a Regional IMF

I have been thinking for a long time that the real nature of the European Union is that of a “regional United Nations Organization” and not that of a "super-state" in the making.

Now Simon Johnson writes in The New Republic here that the Eurozone and ECB are a regional IMF, sort of. I agree.