Oxford University economist Professor Paul Collier’s book about poverty has won the prestigious Lionel Gelber Prize for 2008. The book’s title explains its subject rather well: The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It
According to the description, the book investigates and attempts to explain why traditional approaches […]
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) determines when the United States is in a recession. However, the group usually does not make the determination until 6 to 18 months after we enter a recession. Generally, economists define a recession as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. Using that definition, a recession would not become […]
In his song Changes, Tupac Shakur said, “Instead of a war on poverty, they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.” That powerful line has always stuck with me.
I believe we, the people of in society, can end poverty whenever we decide to end it. However, we generally rely on a […]
I often stress the importance of using grassroots organizations to alleviate poverty on a local level. Local organizations understand the local community and can meet the local community’s specific needs.
Unfortunately, most communities have become too passive about poverty. Almost all people realize they would rather live in a world without poverty, but they do not […]
On this blog, I often stress the importance of using education in efforts to alleviate poverty. Education puts people on a healthy path, giving them self-esteem and self-respect. Quality education gives people the skills and credentials to support themselves and their families.
Today, I want to point out that we need to make sure children get […]
UN officials named the biggest challenges to meeting poverty reduction goals as the rising prices of food and energy as well as global warming.
The demand for oil will continue to increase as countries all over the world continue to industrialize and develop. Of course, we continue to use up more and more of our limited […]
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has announced that he plans to co-host a UN meeting on poverty with the president of the (UN) General Assembly.
The meeting will take place on September 25th, during the general debate of the UN General Assembly which runs from September 23 to October 3.
September seems like far off, but hopefully it […]
In a recent post at the Philosophy Forums, I speculated that a society could avoid problems such as the recent credit crisis by not coercively enforcing contracts. In other words, lending would not exist in a formal way in that borrowers would not be forced to pay back what they borrow. I believe it […]
Forbes named Warren Buffett as the richest person in the world as of March 5, 2008. Personally, I admire Warren Buffet for a variety of reasons. Namely, he behaves in a down-to-earth way, and he has earned the title of philanthropist. Last year, he pointed out that he pays a smaller percentage in taxes than […]
I have noticed some people have a tendency to try to underestimate poverty in the United States. These people try to make United States poverty out as mostly an illusion. They seem to most often think that “liberals” try to play with the numbers to make it seem like many people live in poverty when […]