Anthropologist Mike McGovern on popular development economics, as exemplified mainly by Paul Collier’s books: What is striking to me as an anthropologist, however, is that much of the fundamental intellectual work in Collier’s analyses is, in fact, ethnographic. Because it is not done very self-consciously and takes place within a larger econometric rhetoric in which… Read More »
I was at a talk by Joel Bakan, writer and co-creator of the documentary The Corporation today here in Berlin. In the spirit of all that, let me share this story that has been sitting on my desktop for the past couple of days. By Venkatesh Rao: On 8 June, a Scottish banker named Alexander… Read More »
From a four part article in Der Spiegel: … now those who in the past showed very little interest for the European Commission, the Parliament and the bureaucracy in Brussels — because they assumed that they weren’t expected to be interested in these things — are reading daily about the strange things European statesmen have… Read More »
From a new Accenture report titled At the tipping point: Financial services in Africa comes of age: The Accenture research study… highlights new growth triggers for financial services, pointing to rapid market development in some countries. While the paths to growth vary, these triggers often include innovation through (very) low-cost offerings and distribution, dramatically opening up… Read More »
Tolu Ogunlesi at 3 Quarks Daily: In my mind I see Africa 2.0 as a giant construction site. So much is going on simultaneously: sketching, assembling, pulling down, and dredging; and arguments and debates, some threatening to turn violent. Architectural plans are emerging and disappearing and changing as construction is going on, and accidents happen… Read More »
I read Ha-Joon Chang’s 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism last week and I found it very interesting and instructive. Here is a video of him discussing the book. For the book I thank Baz; for the Video HT to the Naked Capitalism blog.
The Economist’s Babbage blog describes it in great details. If you are still interested in more, listen to this hour-long Econtalk podcast with Gavin Andresen, Principal of the BitCoin Virtual Currency Project.
In the NYRB blog: In the face of … inconveniences, in 1978, the leaders of the church experienced, in an “upper room” in Salt Lake City, a highly convenient Pentecost, and with it a revelation ending the ban against black priests. Mormons were still counseled by their church President, Spencer W. Kimball, not to “cross… Read More »
A movie set in Kinshasa, by Congolese director Djo Tunda Wa Munga, Viva Riva last week won the Best Africa Movie at the MTV movies award. I saw an interview with the director on Al Jazeera’s movie programme The Fabulous Picture Show (you should consider watching the programme. It mostly features non-blockbuster European, Middle-Eastern and (sometimes)… Read More »
The Economist reviews a book, World 3.0, by Pankaj Ghemawat of IESE Business School in Spain: Mr Ghemawat points out that many indicators of global integration are surprisingly low. Only 2% of students are at universities outside their home countries; and only 3% of people live outside their country of birth. Only 7% of rice… Read More »