It’s the 21st Century, Stupid!

The New York Times titles its article Ending Famine, Simply by Ignoring the Experts. And it’s right. Those donor countries who relied on the blind belief in free markets that is currently the fashion in many developed countries and the World Bank were wrong and the new president of Malawi was right. Subsidies for poverty stricken farmers to be able to have seed and fertilizer was necessary for them to produce their own food and should probably be expanded to other countries with similar situations. The free market has little to do with farmers whose current production isn’t even enough to allow them to feed themselves.

So can we arrange for the Economics School of the University of Chicago to lose its government funding since we shouldn’t be subsidizing religion even if it’s the First Church of Free Market?

“I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue.

“I was able to get a sense of his soul.

“He’s a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country and I appreciate very much the frank dialogue and that’s the beginning of a very constructive relationship,” Mr Bush said.

This was George W. Bush’s comment concerning Vladimir Putin in 2001. Does trustworthy include tossing your political opponents in jail and having them beaten to make certain that your hand picked successor wins? After all, Vladimir, that good old boy KGB apparatchik, can’t take any chances that he will lose power, can he? And make no mistake, though he might not be President of Russia after the coming elections he won’t be losing his grip on power in any way. Just because they aren’t the Evil (Communist) Empire any more doesn’t mean that they are our friends or allies in any way.