Aid euthanasia?

Good show by "Dead Aid" Dambisa Moyo in Oslo the other day.
Her cure may not be adequate but the aggression she is met with by the donor community proves she has got a point.
And counter arguments are less than adequate. If we agree that showering African leaders with aid money spawns corruption and relieve them of the onus of being accountable to their own people it does not help to argue for more aid to build well functioning states with accountable leaders. If there ever was a Catch 22....
And by the way, who are we? Why are African leaders not more active themselves in solving their problems? Why do the mzungu think they need to coerce the people on the Equator to do the right thing? What is the right thing anyway?
Aid is not Dead, but what about euthanasia?

Dollar traps and thaw

Snow has almost gone now and stockmarkets rally - in some places. But does this mean that the global economic outlook is also improving? Traders have always had a great capacity for turning gloomy depressison into exalted optimism (and back) in the course of minutes. Journalists are quick to follow suit. But mania does not mean that danger is over. Admittedly the pre-easter G20 did emit positive sounds but as Krugman suggests in "China's dollar trap", "... the crisis probably still has years to run".

 

Could it be that the Winter God's finger in all this is less significant than assumed and that the corellation between frost and recession is overstated?

This really needs to be discussed with this Italian scientist who established the link between camping trips and earthquakes.

 

 

Inferiority complex – or just superfluous?

Oil nation. Arctic nation. A friends of the poor nation. Lighthouse of peace and human rights.

Peace in the Middle East. Remember? On the White House lawn with Arafat and Rabin – first row.

Peace in Sri Lanka. Remember?

Peace in East Timor. Remember? – Or was that Australia?

Amundsen beat Scott. – Remember? And whaling. Worth 25% of the South Pole?

1% of GNI as aid – 500% tariff rate on their meat. Good deal.

Awkward handshakes with G20 leaders. Meeting Hilary.

Staying sovereign – yet implementing most EU directives.

The press reporting any small mention of us abroad.

An ambitious nation half the population of Los Angeles desperate to make a difference. To be seen.

The world is probably a better place with less than 5 million Norwegians.

Retreat of the winter god

It is thawing like mad. Seems to have had a good effect on G20. Brighter times in sight? Hopefully in people's minds. There is perhaps still a way to go till banks are viable again.
No quick fixes but this time even Krugman sees light at the end of the tunnel.
Sunny day too.