My rumblings on the BBC about the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's)

I was interviewed by the BBC, together with Olav Kjørven, Assistant Secretary General and Director of Development Policy at the UN Development Program. I listened to the mp3 file, it is the abridged version and I sound really in a bad mood. Maybe because it was 3am in Abu Dhabi? Maybe my real feelings about Aid and the MDGs? Ah well. Anyway, here is the 5 minute interview (it was aired at 0500 GMT on the 20th of September, 2010).

Some humor for my Intro to Econ Students in Abu Dhabi

Fear the boom and bust – Keynes versus Hayek

and

Stand Up Economist (from Greg Mankiw's Blog)

Mark Twain, Diamonds in Africa and a Fantastic Insider Trading Story

I have recently finished reading Mark Twain's "Following the Equator." The writing is of course wonderful - what a joy. Twain writes about his journey around the equator around 1896, and provides very insightful observations about the locals and western attitudes to the locals. There are a number of stories I particularly liked and which he told with great humor: the discovery of diamonds in South Africa and a fantastic insider trading story associated with Cecil Rhodes.

Portfolio's of the Poor - Book by my colleague Jonathan Morduch and others

I just made a pitch in a video for the great book "Portfolio's of the Poor" by my colleague Jonathan Morduch and others. It is great to have the poor of the world being treated as ordinary and everyday real people - making the best of bad infrastructure, lack of financial institutions and, of course, poverty. Too many portrayals make the poor seem like aliens from another planet. The book tracks individuals over time and records their decisions - primarily savings and financial decisions. It is great, it is about real people. I enjoyed reading it.

Kwame the Cabby, Brain Drain and Health

I took a cab this morning – it was a Ghanaian taxi driver. He remembered picking me up several years ago. What a memory he has. Anyway, he has 4 children, two older ones one of which is a doctor. He also has two younger kids in private school. All his kids seem to be doing exceptionally well, and he is paying for elite schooling from his taxi driver salary. Many have spoken about the positive effects of the brain drain. Kwame, this morning’s cabby, made those arguments real to me. Why do we never consider the benefits to the migrant when talking about the African brain drain? (See AidWatch blog.) I was so proud of all of Kwame's successes from what I know is an extremely difficult job.

Anyway, Kwame said he is glad to see me, but he nearly died this year. “Died?” I asked, not sure I heard him clearly through all the Manhattan traffic. Yes, he explained, he got malaria while in Ghana; it was cerebral malaria which was not properly treated.

I will be at dinner with the Minister of Health for Ghana this evening. I should tell the Minister that Kwame believes something should be done about the open sewers in the country and there should be more spraying (of insecticides) as was the case in the Nkrumah era.

I finally got off the taxi, and left a huge tip. I felt very proud of Kwame as I thought of his 4 children educated off his taxi earning. I also reminded myself to redo the calculations on the pluses and minuses of the Brain Drain to account for the Kwame’s.

Could the Brain Drain be Good for Africa?

Laura Freschi at The Aidwatchers blog just wrote a nice piece about my paper on the Brain Drain with Bill Easterly (http://aidwatchers.com/2010/02/four-ways-brain-drain/). The aidwatchers blog is the first I read each day, written by my Bill and Laura Freschi. Enjoy their blog – it is great.

It’s Education, Stupid

Bill Clinton coined the phrase “It’s the Economy, Stupid” as a campaign slogan when running against George Bush, Snr. The Mayor of Accra (see my blog from yesterday), Hon. Alfred Vanderpuye has made Education the center of his plans for the city of Accra. He talks very passionately about the fact that elementary school students in Accra are being shortchanged on their education because of the shift system. I presume this is the fact that there are two shifts for students which causes two kinds of problems. First, students are not getting enough hours of schooling – he wants to get the hours to 8 per day from the current 4. Second, since there are different shifts students are able to conceal the fact that they have not been in school at all for the day, in either shift.

Could it be that many of the problems of Accra, perhaps of Ghana, are due to the low levels of education of substantial numbers of people? Will there be a big impact on the economy when the Mayors future cohorts of 8-hour a day students hit the job market? Well, all that remains to be seen. This Mayor has placed his bets on this. As a seasoned politician, I suspect he knows that this will go over very well with the Accra residents (and therefore, ultimate, his electorate). So, perhaps indeed it’s Education, stupid.