Summary Of Esther Duflo's Poor Economics

Over 75 years later, we still do not have the freedoms President Roosevelt wished upon us. A specific freedom that still does not exist is “economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants.” There are still dozens of poverty stricken countries, known as Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). These are countries that have a national debt that is unmanageable with traditional manners alone. The good news is that the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative began in 1996 to address this issue. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMC), and other creditors teamed up to reduce the debt of 36 countries that met strict criteria.

Chapter 8: A question that has stuck with Wheelan for years, asked by one of his peers was, “If people know so much about public policy, then why is everything so messed up” (175)? The reason for that is because it leads to something far more significant: Even when economists reach consensus on policies that would be to our advantage, they frequently run into political opposition. And when it comes to interest groups in politics, it pays to be small because the tail can wag the dog. This can have a huge impact on the economy. They are usually the most successful because the consequence of requests they receive are spread over a large, disunified group of people. Wheelan states that small problems begin to distort the simplest jobs of a market

As was laid out in the previous section, the United-States always had a ‘hegemonic presumption’, the conception that Latin America was inferior, a supposition that gave the right to Washington to intervene in the region’s political and economic affairs (LeoGrande, 2007:384). This second chapter will explore how the U.S. intervened in Latin America, more specifically after the World War II. Indeed, the U.S. benefitted greatly from the aftermath of the war. A subsection will be dedicated to the Pink Tide in Latin America, with a focus on the U.S. foreign policy under President GW Bush and President Obama. The overthrown Presidents of Honduras and Paraguay were part of this movement and their outset signals a reversal in the region.

The argument can be made that economic freedom is a necessary precondition to political freedom, yet the unilateral focus of these reforms begs the question whether during the writing of the Washington Consensus, economic liberalization was solely a means to international development, or an end in itself. The historical support is for the latter, as John Williamson later reflects that there was, “a widespread attempt to tighten fiscal policy, extensive financial and trade liberalization, virtually universal elimination of restrictions on inward foreign direct investment, a lot of privatization, and quite a bit of deregulation. [But] the things that got most widely neglected were reforming public expenditure priorities, maintaining a competitive exchange rate, and extending property rights to the informal sector”

policy in Latin America after the year 1959 can be written down to three potent words: "no more Cuba’s." However, in order to achieve this goal, Washington pursued a two-track approach which was: foreign assistance to encourage modernization and economic development, and the training and arming of Latin American militaries supportive of U.S. objectives. After a decade of minimal economic aid to Latin America, the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, in collaboration with U.S. multinational companies, pumped in twenty billion dollars of economic assistance. Moreover, the Alliance for Progress did contribute to per capita economic growth for most nations during the 1960s, but meaningful social and agricultural reforms proved

From the perspective of Colombia, the Colombian government was desperate for foreign aid and international support. Accordingly, the leadership of Colombia was more than eager to permit the United States to become closely involved in the development of a Colombian public policy initiative, even if they risked losing other potential supporters and garnering international criticism (Carpenter, 2003). Also, the peoples of Colombia themselves were favoring a movement for change after more than

1. The barter system has been around for a very long time. We even use the barter system in the United states today. The barter system is essentially an exchange of goods and services, something for something, Of course it has evolved over the years. Back then it would be like giving flower in exchange for sugar, but now it is paper currency in exchange for anything.

My passion for social justice and accountably led me to pursue a career that involves law and public policy. I seek to learn how to analyze social problems and contribute meaningful solutions. As a Ronald E. McNair Scholar, I have begun working on this skill and would like to build on it and one day apply it in the real world. One of my current research projects as an undergraduate student at the University of Washington concerns the United States economic policies towards Argentina during the Dirty War and their impact on Latin America today. I want to know why certain policies were put in place and what those in power hoped to get out of the new laws.

While the Cold War does not mark a significant distinction from US involvement in Latin America pre-Cold War, the inclusion of ideology in US foreign policy decisions did mark a change in attitudes and focus. While US policy can be described as rational to a certain point, the Cuban dilemma caused an irrational fear in US foreign policy makers to avoid a second-Cuba. The fear of a “second Cuba” can be seen in the various interventions by the US in Latin America during this period.

1.According to Smith what should the role of Government be in the economy? Smith believed the government should adopt a “Laissez-Faire” altitude, leaving the economic decisions in the hands of those it directly affects, the businessmen and the consumers.

Our nation’s fiscal issues are on a common source of frustration among citizens, so well-known that it was almost anticlimactic when Standard & Poor downgraded our credit rating. This downgrading, which occurred in 2011, was a very symbolic blow to what is considered by most as the most powerful economic nation in the world. The credit rating company said that the nation’s debt has made the United States ability to manage its finances “less stable, less effective, and less predictable” (Washington Post). While many consider this downgrading a political critique of the political leaders of America, it is also a simple political conclusion. The AAA rating the

At the start of the 19th century, just a few years prior to the end of the Spanish-American War, Latin America was left with a poor economy and in debt. The United States believed that they could help Latin America, while helping themselves out at the same time. The “Dollar Diplomacy” was introduced in 1904 by the United Sates and went into place in 1909. It was used mostly during presidency William Howard Taft’s from 1910 to 1913

"Fueled by the Cold War and transnational corporate interests, the U.S. has covertly tinkered with the governments of Latin American countries since World War 2, producing an extremely violent and unstable political climate."

Durkheim brings out many characteristics that relate to poverty in society. Durkheim expanded upon the idea that big factors affect the little parts of society, which led to Durkheim coming up with the idea of social facts. Social facts are institutions that affect the way people behave. This concept ties into the perception of poverty because Durkheim gives several examples in our textbook such as, religion, crime, beliefs and etc., which all three of these factors help to explain poverty in some way. When looking at crime and how we shifted from local community based programs to larger government based programs, you can see poverty still is a factor. Durkheim includes this in his thoughts that crime has always been a factor in history and is still today. This ties into poverty programs because the people that tend to be in poverty are known to be the ones committing crimes. The government is more focused on who shouldn’t be getting the assistance than those that truly could benefit from the assistance.

This research topic is significant to the current property market in Singapore and its sudden increased demand for houses despite the economic downturn, exploring deeper as to whether the government policies were the real influential causes to this boom in property demand. It has relevance to the economic concepts of demand and supply, elasticity, inflation and monopolistic competition. This topic is worthy of investigation because it is a hot media topic in Singapore, and is widely debated in the country because it’s the most expensive household asset.[2]