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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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 Posts:March 19, 2010A Development Perspective on China’s Currency – And a Fresh WTO SolutionBy Lawrence MacDonald
Comment »March 8, 2010Look, Ma, New ClothesBy Lawrence MacDonaldDevoted readers may have noticed last week that the we launched a revamped website with improved navigation and a greatly enhanced search function. Other new features:
Hats off to CGD Web technology manager Steve (“No Drama”) Perlow and a small army of CGD junior staff and interns who assisted by updating content, finding new and better pictures, and generally doing the million-and-one things involved in smoothly revamping a website that boasts countless thousands of pages. (Well, actually they can be counted. Google reports 23,000 but we figure there’s some double counting going on.) Thanks, too, to our pals at Forum One Communications who led us through the design and construction process with lots of smart ideas and unfailing good humor. I think the new site is a big improvement and hope you agree. Of course, inevitably there are a few bugs and plenty that could be better. Tell us what you like (or don’t) below or drop a line to Steve (webmaster@cgdev.org). He’ll be glad to hear from you. 1 Comment »January 26, 2010Migration and Haiti Updates: Senegal Opens Doors as Washington Commuters VoteBy Lawrence MacDonaldSenegal, the ancestral home of many Haitians, has offered to accept for resettlement as many Haitians as want to come.
According to the World Bank, Senegal has an annual per capita income of $1,772, about $600 more than Haiti. Per capita income in the U.S., according to the same 2008 World Bank table, is $46,716. Meanwhile, in Washington, the Express, a commuter tabloid owned by the Washington Post and distributed for free at Metro stations, is asking readers to vote today on this question:
Keeping in mind that such polls have no statistical validity, because of the sample selection bias, it’s nonetheless diverting to see how the answers stack up (“No” is currently at about 70%, with “Yes” at 30%). Washington Metro riders may enjoy seeing how people at their stop voted. Unsure of your answer? Read Michael Clemens’ “Reactions to my proposal for a new visa to the United States” and his Op-Ed in Sunday’s Washington Post and then vote! 1 Comment »October 29, 2009Zedillo Commission Offers G-20 a Blueprint for Fixing the World Bank (But will Zoellick be Gorbachev or Brezhnev?)By Lawrence MacDonald
Zoellick, a U.S. appointee, welcomed the report and said it would be “especially relevant as we undertake important institutional changes.” But he expressed doubts about recommendations for changes in the size and structure of the board, while side-stepping a recommendation that the next bank president be chosen without regard to nationality. Read More… 11 Comments »September 10, 2009Birdsall Urges Pittsburgh G-20 Summit to Prepare for Next Global CrisisBy Lawrence MacDonald
1 Comment »July 29, 2009UK Poverty Action Plan Discussed at CGD Roundtable (Now, if only the United States…)By Lawrence MacDonald
UK Minister for International Development Douglas Alexander presented at a CGD roundtable yesterday a new poverty action plan to help the world’s poorest people cope with the global economic crisis. Alexander said that the measures described in the new UK government White Paper, Eliminating World Poverty: Building Our Common Future would help 50 million people hit by the crisis, keeping children in school, parents in jobs, and the most vulnerable people out of destitution. 1 Comment »May 26, 2009Nuhu Ribadu, Nigerian Corruption Fighter, in the HouseBy Lawrence MacDonaldNuhu Ribadu, the former anti-corruption czar of Nigeria, is no longer on the job, but is still fighting the good fight. Nuhu was profiled in the Washington Post Outlook section, and explained why corruption “is the reason why Africa is Africa today.” Nuhu also testified to the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services late last week.
Read the full testimony here. Nuhu is now also in our house: We are honored to have Nuhu as a visiting fellow here at CGD. He will be spending the reminder of this year drawing lessons from his experience for other countries and for agencies like the World Bank. His work will build on our past research on corruption, including Ted Moran’s Combating Corrupt Payments. (Also, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala gave the 2007 Sabot Lecture on corruption, presciently calling our attention to the scourge of “political corruption.”) Comment »April 2, 2009G-20 Pledge $1 Trillion for Developing Country Crisis ResponseBy Lawrence MacDonald
Comment »March 26, 2009UN Calls for $1 Trillion Global Stimulus for Developing CountriesBy Lawrence MacDonaldThere’s a lot to like in UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s call yesterday for the heads of heads of state attending the April 2 London Summit to commit to new measures to help developing countries cope with the global economic crisis. According to an interview reported in today’s Financial Times:
Comment »March 13, 2009EPA Moving on U.S. Greenhouse Gas Registry: Next Step, Global CARMABy Lawrence MacDonaldThis is a joint posting with Robin Kraft Nearly two years after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine whether greenhouse gases (GHGs) pose a threat to peoples’ health or welfare – the first step toward regulation — the EPA this week issued a draft rule on a national GHG registry: Read More… Comment »March 4, 2009U.S. Top Climate Negotiator Urges Congressional Action on Climate Change ahead of Copenhagen at CGD SymposiumBy Lawrence MacDonaldTodd Stern, the chief U.S. climate negotiator, said at a Capitol Hill symposium yesterday that passing U.S. climate legislation before the international conference on climate change in Copenhagen in December would be the best way to ensure global action to slow global warming. 3 Comments »February 24, 2009Check Out David Roodman’s Microfinance Open Book BlogBy Lawrence MacDonaldMy colleague David Roodman has decided to write his next book in public, not only by posting draft chapters as he completes them and inviting comments but also by sharing his discoveries and tribulations as he conducts the research that underpins the book. David writes: Comment »February 5, 2009Addressing GDN Conference, Howard White Welcomes Developing Country Research Participation in 3ieBy Lawrence MacDonaldHoward White, executive director of the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation or 3ie, told participants in the tenth annual conference of the Global Development Network here in Kuwait that he looks forward to researchers in developing countries playing a major role in 3ie impact evaluations of development interventions. “I hope that the 3ie will provide opportunities for researchers affiliated with the GDN and others in developing countries to engage much more closely in carrying out high-quality impact evaluations,” he said. 1 Comment »February 4, 2009World Bank Chief Economist Endorses Carbon Charges at GDN Speech in KuwaitBy Lawrence MacDonaldWorld Bank chief economist Justin Lin endorsed charges for CO2 emissions in a keynote address at the 10th anniversary conference of the Global Development Network being held in Kuwait. Speaking in an ornate marble hall at the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development following an address by Mohammed Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lin said that he recognized that such a call might not be politically correct in the oil-rich state. Nonetheless, Lin, a Chinese national, made it clear that he believes that action is needed to avert very rapid climate change. According to the GDN conference blog. Comment »January 26, 2009Got a Favorite CGD Research Output in 2008? Tell Eldis!By Lawrence MacDonaldEldis, the online aggregator of development policy, practice and research at the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex, is conducting a survey to identify “the most significant new piece of development research of 2008.” This strikes me as having roughly the same statistical validity as American Idol does for when it comes to finding new singing talent. Still, as with Idol and other talent shows, the entertainment value of a popularity contest is hard to dispute! 1 Comment »October 21, 2008Did U.K. Give Zoellick a Nudge on World Bank Selection Process?By Lawrence MacDonaldAccording to an article by Heather Stewart and Larry Elliott in the Guardian early last week, the U.K. development secretary, Douglas Alexander, brokered a deal to throw open selection of the president of the World Bank to candidates from any country: Comment »October 15, 2008A Timely Report on Sovereign Wealth Fund Principles from Ted Truman and Peterson Institute’s New Real Time Economic News WatchBy Lawrence MacDonaldCongratulations to our friends and neighbors at the Peterson Institute on their new group blog, Real Time Economic News Watch, an excellent source of up-to-date commentary and analysis on the rapidly unfolding global financial crisis. I was particularly interested in Ted Truman’s fine piece, Making the World Safe for Sovereign Wealth Funds which, contrary to its name, is really about moves this past weekend to make sovereign wealth funds less risky for the world. According to Ted: Comment »July 9, 2008Scrap the G8By Lawrence MacDonaldOnce again the G8 has come up tragically short on climate change and a host of urgent problems affecting poor people in developing countries. The good news is that they are at least discussing the right topics. The first Hokkaido G8 document, on the World Economy spills lots of ink on relations between rich and developing economies, including for example, reaffirmation of support for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. The next three policy papers — Environment and Climate Change, Development and Africa, and Global Food Security — all address topics that are at the heart of rich world-developing world ties (and, not coincidently, major areas of focus for CGD research and policy work). The bad news is that the G8, representing as it does the interests of the richest societies on the planet, is the wrong forum addressing global problems that touch on well-being of billions of people in the developing world. The lack of legitimacy is evident in the resulting mealy mouthed policy documents. 2 Comments »July 8, 2008Albright and Podesta Call for Rich Country Action on Food Crisis, Including Release of Japanese Rice StockpileBy Lawrence MacDonaldFormer US secretary of state Madeleine Albright and John Podesta, former chief of staff to President Clinton and CEO of the Center for American Progress, have urged rich world leaders assembled for the G8 summit in Japan to take action on the global food crisis, including rapid release of Japanese rice stockpiles imported mostly from the US. In an Op-Ed in today’s Boston Globe they write:
Comment »May 6, 2008Ethanol Opposition Makes for Strange BedfellowsBy Lawrence MacDonaldSam Loewenberg at Politico has an interesting story that describes the odd coalition that has emerged in opposition to ethanol subsidies — development and humanitarian NGOs, the livestock and food processing industries, and big oil. As Sam reports:
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My colleage Arvind Subramanian published an intriguing Op-Ed in the Financial Times this week. In 
Last week, the World Bank released the long-awaited 
CGD president Nancy Birdsall urged the United States to exercise leadership at the upcoming G20 Summit in Pittsburgh in a 
Leaders from more than 20 major nations announced Thursday (
