Comments on: Fallacies about aid and development

By: Dave C

Dave C — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 23:59:38 +0000

That’s very well done. Fair play for compiling this.

By: Our word is our weapon

Our word is our weapon — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 23:29:04 +0000

Fallacies about aid and development: your cut-out-and-keep guide

In this superb* post, Owen Barder lists and dismantles 13 common fallacies about aid and development. Two highlights for me: Fallacy 5. Extra aid in Africa could not be absorbed: it would just be wasted. Aid to Africa per person…

By: Squander Two

Squander Two — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 11:01:46 +0000

> Donors refuse to make aid predictable, so it cannot be invested over a number of years and has to be spent as soon as it is available.

Unlike, say, loans. Loans are stable and predictable and perfect for investment. Businesses and governments use them all the time, with great effectiveness. Would you like to see more loans given to the Third World, Owen?

Owen says:
a. Loans from the World Bank etc are not long term and predictable.

b. Many of the investments do not yield fiscal returns, or do so only in the very long run (think of public investment in education, for example) and so do not provoide a stream of revenues with which loans can be repaid.

c. If rich countries invest now in developing countried with grants, we will be handsomely repaid, for example through the benefits of more trade.

So I am not in favour of adding to the debt burden of developing countries. And I am in favour of increasing the productivity of the aid we give by making it more predictable and so enabling it to be better spent.

By: Mark T

Mark T — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 07:38:38 +0000

Anybody reading this post who is broad minded enough to consider the possibility that there may be a counter-argument (or indeed that Tim is being set up as a straw man) should read his detailed reply to this over on his blog

By: EU Rota

EU Rota — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 19:43:10 +0000

EU Blogs: Stirring the Pot

There is a nice little catfight possibly brewing between Tim Worstall and someone called “Owen.”

It seems as though Owen (a self-described “left of center Guardian reader”) has put words in Tim’s mouth in regards to government hand-outs to deve…

By: Tim Worstall

Tim Worstall — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 14:31:50 +0000

Fame, Fame At Last!

So I get accused of being stupid, prejudiced and a liar, even a reactionary, all in one post. I plead guilty to all of those sins, although not for the reasons enumerated. I am indeed behind the knowledge curve on