Owen abroad

I suppose I was pleased to see Tim Worstall’s article at the Globalisation Institute making the same points as me about the famine in Niger:

I said (on August 2nd):

Food aid may depress local food prices, and thereby cause some harm to food producers and perhaps reduce future production. In these circumstances, it would be better to drop dollar bills out of helicopters than sacks of food.

And on August 12th:

on Sen’s analysis, the conclusion is that rich countries should provide increased resources for Niger, provided in the form of unhypothecated cash grants to the poor (basically, dropping dollar bills out of a helicopter).

Tim said on August 16th: 

The solution is to give those people the money to purchase the food. It is known in the trade as "dropping dollars out of helicopters" and while there may be more sophisticated methods of doing it, that is, in essence, what it is.

Bravo, Tim.  Good thinking.

Futhermore, writing on the same website today,  Alex Singleton has spotted that the textile agreement with China is bad for the world’s poor. Which is what I pointed out here on June 11th, when the deal was first signed.

(Incidentally, I am still looking forward to Tim publishing a prominent correction to his last article on TechCentralStation. I’ve even written a draft to save him the bother.)

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