15 February 2010 - 23:32Bottom Billion book summary

Another book summary:

Economists’ discussion of how to help the bottom billion often focus not on financial aid, but on raising certain pillars of society first.  Human rights are those pillars.  There are several parts to this book that really grabbed me, even though it is written with the dry language of an economics professor, and not a novelist.  He goes into great detail on a phenomena nicknamed the “Dutch Disease”, which is the destructive effect that bringing aid money into a developing country has on their export industry.  I spent 10 hours just looking at how a developing economy depends upon its export industry, and how best to help their country while still protecting the export industry’s growth and development.

The other part of the book that was remarkable was the observation that the most important indications of future growth were the pillars of a society in the form of human rights, legal ethics, business ethics, banking ethics, etc.  These are the things we take for granted but depend upon for our normal lives, that once gone leave you crippled and unable to do business, unable to trust your government or military, unable to communicate freely and live. 

Easy to forget, I think, because such things are hard to quantify.  A failure of statistiticans, is what that is.