In Paul Collier’s world, there are developed nation (~1B pp) and developing nations (~4B pp). And then there is the bottom billion. His book lays out four traps that these poorest nations fall into that keep them stuck in poverty. The author also lays out four tools, three of them untested, that might be able to break the traps and bring those worst off into the global middle class.
In Dead Aid, Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo makes a passionate case that the West’s efforts to aid Africa over the past 50 years have done more harm than good, and that it is time to look at alternate solutions if we are to have any hope of lifting Africa out of its persistent poverty.
Human beings have an innate sense of fairness. That the world is unequal and becoming more so is a persistent challenge to our collective sense of living in a just world.
Nobody likes being forced to do something, even if it’s the right thing. That we often choose the wrong thing is the problem that Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein seek to address in “Nudge”.
“Nudge” is another in a growing genre of books that blends insights from psychology and economics. From Blink to Bounce, the Upside of Irrationality to Spousonomics and many others in between, these books are an alluring temptation for readers interested in the hidden workings of the human psyche.
Written in 2004, “The European Dream” chronicles the rise of the United States of Europe and its increasing importance as a vision of what a truly global society might look like.
In the immediate wake of the stunning come-from-behind election of Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, there was a palpable sentiment of “We have achieved something remarkable! What else can we do? What next?”
How do you keep a politician accountable? After the recent election of Naheed Nenshi as mayor of Calgary, I have been thinking about how to hold this dynamic, thoughtful professor-turned-politician accountable for the things that he promised during the campaign.
