Even as the tragedy in Asia elicits an outpouring of charity from Americans, it has sparked controversy over whether America is in fact generous. President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Andrew Natsios have all asserted that America is generous. What are the facts?
Richard B. Freeman from Harvard University and NBER Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics gave a presentation on the expanding global workforce on November 8.
To: Jim Lehrer
From: Nancy Birdsall
Subject: Missed opportunity to include development in the foreign policy debate
Dear Jim - How regrettable that the presidential debate on foreign policy and security focused on such a predictably narrow set of topics.
This note links the relevance of debt relief to one of the great challenges of our time: achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
European donors like to think they are the ones pushing the envelope in development policy. Many have recently promised huge increases in aid and enthusiastically embraced ideas such as donor pooling.
By C. Peter Timmer and Ashley S. Timmer
Whatever happened to debt relief for the world's poorest countries? It's back.
Vice President Cheney’s speech at Davos was widely covered in the world press. He focused on the risk of “new and far greater terror” than that of September 11 itself, which itself he called “only the merest glimpse of the terrorism that threatens us all.” In artful language, he argued that freedom and democracy everywhere would overcome those risks; in the interim, however, and as a last resort there might need to use force.
The mood in Davos is consolidating at moderately upbeat. The feeling is encouraged by good showings from President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan and Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada yesterday and today. President Musharraf impressed participants with his readiness to respond to tough questions, including on democracy in Pakistan, with some humor and candor.
In contrast to Davos-in-NY in 2002, when the post-Sept. 11 talk was of the risk of terror and Davos 2003 when the corridor discussion was mostly about Iraq and the impending war, there is no grand obsession this year. There is sensible and mildly worried talk about whether the global economic recovery will be sustained. Most attention is given to the imbalances in the world economy – particularly U.S. budget and current account deficits; the Europeans’ tepid growth and stolid Central Bank reluctance to stimulate; and the Chinese resistance to letting their currency appreciate.