Links: Fixing The Third World

Sebastian Mallaby’s ‘The Politically Incorrect Guide to Ending Poverty’, a profile of economist Paul Romer, is the most thought-provoking piece I’ve read all week. “What if Western nations could create cities inside poor countries?” asks Romer (I’m paraphrasing). The crux of this idea is that these Western ‘charter cities’ would necessarily succeed or fail on their own merits.

Say the Canadian government created a ‘Mini Montreal’ inside Cuba – there’s nothing forcing you, the Cuban, to move to this new city. But say this city becomes an economic and cultural centre… why wouldn’t you want to move there? If the charter city succeeds, the developing host nation benefits: development spreads rapidly out. If the charter city fails, economists head back to the drawing board.

Make sure to read down to the ‘skunkworks’ analogy. Genius.