Defeating Global Poverty

Jagdish Bhagwati, a prominent international economist, wrote a book called "In Defense of Globalization" published in 2004. This book has become one of the definitive textbooks arguing that globalization is providing immense benefits to the poor ... both economically and socially.

Bhagwati is not shy about critiquing bad practices and abuses of globalization and advocating for reform in order for the benefits to be distributed more equally.

Read my full book review
Dave's Defeating Global Poverty Reading List

Labels: book reviews, globalization, poverty

If climate change is happening and if these changes result in impact on humans, then most people agree that the poor will be inproportionately burdened with the negative impact of climate change. So, this is my interest in this blog.

I say "if" because there is disagreement on climate change ... particularly on how much of it is caused by humans and how to predict both future changes and their consequences. Al Gore is clearly angling for people's fears with his An Inconvenient Truth movie. Others are "fighting back" with other facts (conveniently left out?) like this article published in Car & Driver magazine (conflict of interest?). Climatologist, Richard Lindzen argues in his testimony to congress that there are some agreements on a few facts, but there are huge differences in the interpretations of those facts.

Why is it that people are so eager to share selected facts, but not those which are in contradiction to their conclusions (and interests)?

Last week's issue of The Economist published a pretty indepth survey on the topic of climate change. Their conclusion is that there are enough indicators that climate change might be happening and that it is worth some investment as "insurance" against the possible implications. But they are clear to say that in reality very little is known about climate change and talking in terms of certainty of where things are going and what the results are is intellectually dishonest.

What frustrates me the most is that there appear to be very few people who are willing to tell you the "whole story" about what is known about climate change and to OWN their own biases (which everyone has). So, I encourage you to get smarter about this topic by reading the range of opinions ... not just the ones that you're inclined towards.

If you are going to refer to other links in comments, PLEASE don't refer to one-sided, simplistic, I-know-everything-and-here's-what-you-do arguments on this very complex, nuanced and potentially very important topic.

Labels: climate change, poverty

I wrote previously about an insightful book by Hernando de Soto called The Mystery of Capital which argues for the importance of legitimizing land rights for the poor as a key in breaking poverty. By not having legal right to property, the poor people's property is effect "dead capital" as it cannot be used as collateral, sold or inherited.

The Economist recently published an article called The mystery of capital deepens which follows the progress of an interesting land rights situation in Argentina. On the outskirts of Buenos Aires, a number of squatters outlasted various governments until a new government expropriated the land and gave it to the squatters. But some of the squatters didn't like the terms, so there are now two groups side-by-side -- land owners and squatters.

Summary of results: [Here is a more in-depth study.]

• secure land rights encourage the poor to improve their residences/living conditions
  
• [poor] titled landowners have no better access to financial services

This demonstrates the continued need for alternative financial services for the poor -- e.g. microfinance. The large, traditional bank sector continues to have little appetite for serving the poor.

Labels: de soto, economist, poverty, property rights

Greg Wyler, an American tech entrepreneur, is investing his own money in bringing Internet services as a business to Rwanda. His company, Terracom Communications is for the first time offering cellphone coverage, Internet access and television to unserved parts of the country. Terracom is hooking up schools to the Internet and opening Internet cafes throughout the country. They are even starting to offer high-speed laptop mobile network services like Verizon/Sprint EVDO service!

There are lots of questions about whether this business will ultimately succeed, but at least he is trying!

Read the WSJ story

Labels: africa, internet access, poverty, rwanda, terracom