Poverty Topical Summary

I wrote this paper for my Enivronmental Studies class. Much of it is thanks to Peter Stephens, friend of the blog, who agreed to let me call our chat an interview and who reviewed a draft of the paper as well. Sadly, the time frame and scope of the paper didn't leave me much room to look deeply into the particular solutions I discussed, so I hope to use it as a launching pad for further study and discussion.

INFORMATIONAL ABSTRACT
Extreme poverty is a global crises which is often both a cause and effect of other global issues. A review of available literature and a discussion with Peter Stephens, advisor for the World Bank in East Asia, illuminates several key issues and provides five clear solutions that will help impoverished people take the first step onto the ladder of economic development. These solutions include achieving the Millennium Development Goals, providing debt relief to highly impoverished countries, encouraging the use of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers by local communities, researching environmentally sound design, and creating a better quality of life for women.

KEY ISSUES AND FACTS
1. According to the World Bank, 1.1 billion people survived on less than $1 a day in 2001. The validity of this statistic is often questioned, for example by Sanjay Reddy and Thomas Pogge in their article “How Not to Count the Poor.” Reddy and Pogge argue that this failed statistic may have led the Bank “to understate the extent of global income poverty and to infer without adequate justification that global income poverty has steeply declined in the recent period.” Jeffrey Sachs, in The End of Poverty; The Economic Possibilities of Our Time compares this method of counting the poor with an approach which examines “the proportion of a region’s population in extreme poverty” (21). These approaches are often debated, but Sachs goes on to say that “the general picture remains true in either case: extreme poverty is concentrated in East Asia, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa” (24).
2. Poverty is “rising in Africa in absolute numbers and as a share of the population, while it is falling in both absolute numbers and as a proportion of the population in the Asian regions” (Sachs 24 and Stephens).
3. In “The Poverty-Environment Nexus in Africa,” the authors note that “as the process of development inevitably involves the use of natural resources in economic activities, it has become increasingly clear in recent years that for any poverty reducing growth strategy to be sustainable, it must address environmental concerns and ensure efficient and sustainable utilization of generally limited natural resources.”
4. Debt relief is another major issue associated with poverty. “Excessive debt was hindering poor countries’ development. Since these countries spent all their funds repaying their debts, it was impossible for them to allocate money for health and education. In other words, these countries couldn’t earn their way out of debt and needed help to start again” (YouThink!)
5. Policy makers debate the idea that impoverished countries are safe-havens for terrorism. On the one hand, the “President of the UN General Assembly, Han Seung-Soo, called the world's poorest countries ‘the breeding ground for violence and despair” (Poverty).
On the other hand, in The Terrorism to Come, the Hoover Institution points out that, “these roots [of terrorism] are believed to be poverty, unemployment, backwardness, and inequality. It is not too difficult to examine whether there is such a correlation between poverty and terrorism, and all the investigations have shown that this is not the case. The experts have maintained for a long time that poverty does not cause terrorism and prosperity does not cure it. In the world’s 50 poorest countries there is little or no terrorism.” In Global Crises, Global Solutions, a contributor proves that terrorism, AIDS and heroine manufacture all thrive in lawless or impoverished places (129).
6. Lack of education contributes to the poverty cycle. Zou Hanru notes in his article “Education can break vicious poverty cycle,” that “Official explanations are difficult to find but it is common knowledge that the illiterate are more likely to remain poor, and the poor are more likely to be illiterate (or uneducated and unskilled). It is a vicious cycle. The poor cannot afford education, and the illiterate cannot hope to earn enough to overcome poverty… For the poorest group of children, poverty is both a cause and a result of inaccessibility to education. Poor children are less likely to be enrolled in schools or to complete the basic level of education. For, even if schooling is free (a goal of the Chinese Government), uniforms, stationery and transport are not. And these may still be well beyond the means of a poor family.”
7. Access to drinking water is another key issue. “If the current situation can't be improved, at least 17 African countries will suffer from a severe water shortage by 2010. The water shortage could also lead to clashes between some countries in the region, the report warned. Africa has abundant water resources amounting to 5.4 trillion cubic meters, but only 4 percent of them have been developed and utilized because of the lack of funds and facilities” (One-Third).
8. Extreme poverty contributes to the spread of communicable diseases. The World Health Organization notes that, “Although environmental factors such as drought or floods or insect invasion play a role, food shortages generally occur due a complex combination of factors. Conflict and civil strife, economic and social change resulting in or aggravating poverty or leading to collapse of basic infrastructure and systems, poor governance, inequalities, as well as inappropriate land management and farming methods can contribute to both short and long term food shortages” (World Health Organization).
9. Effects of poverty are often causes, further perpetuating the cycle. “The argument for a "poverty trap" is that Africa's current poverty leads to very low national savings which, given population growth, generate low or even negative growth in real incomes per head. In this situation… no plausible action by African countries alone can start the sustained rapid growth on which Asia's success has been built” (How To Help).
10. In absolute terms, everyone’s lives have gotten better in the last 100 years. As the rich have gotten richer, the poor have become slightly better off as well. This proves that economic development is not a zero-sum game, but rather something we can all participate in (Reckmeyer).

KEY TERMS AND PHRASES
1. Debt Relief - a “comprehensive approach to reduce the external debt of the world’s poorest, most heavily indebted countries” (YouThink!).
2. Extreme Poverty - living on less than $1 a day. In 2001, an estimated 1.1 billion people live in extreme poverty. In other words, “poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom” (Understanding Poverty).
3. International Monetary Fund (IMF) – “is charged with promoting international monetary cooperation and exchange rate stability. It offers ecnomic policy advice, technical assistance, and, perhaps most importantly, emergency loans for countries in financial trouble… [and often] a lender of last resort.” (Adams 62).
4. Moderate Poverty - living on less than $2 a day. In 2001 an estimated 2.7 billion people lived in moderate poverty (Understanding Poverty).
5. Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) – completed at a national level, these ideas are created to improve people’s lives. The ideas are designed and implemented at the local level. (Stephens). “Critics argue that the criteria used to judge PRSPs by the World Bank and IMF are actually used to impose neo-liberal policies along the lines of the Washington Consensus, and that these policies tend to increase poverty rather than decreasing it” (Poverty Reduction). Countries who participate become eligible for debt relief.
6. Poverty trap or poverty cycle – often the effects of poverty are the causes, which further propel the next generation into poverty. For example, if a child cannot attend school, she will not have the education necessary to secure adequate employment as an adult, and will not be able to educate her children. Further, neither she nor her children will be able to save money and other resources for future generations.
7. Structural Adjustments - “conditions for getting new loans from the IMF or World Bank, or for obtaining lower interest rates on existing loans. Conditionalities are implemented to ensure that the money lent will be spent in accordance with the overall goals of the loan” (Structural Adjustment). Peter Stephens of the World Bank describes structural adjustments differently, focusing on how structural adjustments are simply adjustments that need to be made in a country to improve its economy and competitiveness. He highlights Singapore as an example; Singapore changed their economic strategy intentionally after the bust of the dotcom boom in order to embrace the new reality of a world increasingly influenced by trade within Asia, especially with China.
8. UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. They are to “eradicate extreme poverty and hunger,” “achieve universal primary education,” “promote gender equality and empower women,” “reduce child mortality,” “improve maternal health,” “combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases,” “ensure environmental sustainability,” and “develop a global partnership for development.” (Millenium).
9. World Bank – the World Bank was created after WWII, along with the IMF, “in order to bring some semblance of order and stability ot the global economy, while encouraging international trade” (Adams 62).
10. World Trade Organization – an organization which replaced the “loosely structured treaty known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade” and is made up of 149 member states. The WTO can “attack many kinds of protectionist measures that infringe upon free trade, whether it is in the form of government subsidies, health rules that serve only as import barriers, or trade preferences. It can also impose a variety of penalties and trade sanctions” (Adams 63).

SOLUTIONS
1. Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals would mean “eradicating extreme poverty and hunger,” “achieving universal primary education,” “promoting gender equality and empower women,” “reducing child mortality,” “improving maternal health,” “combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases,” “ensuring environmental sustainability,” and “developing a global partnership for development.” These goals alone address many of the solutions to extreme poverty .
2. Debt relief may be another effective solution. The IMF notes that, “maintaining a sustainable debt position while seeking the additional financing needed to make progress toward the MDGs remains a serious challenge, even after debt relief under the HIPC Initiative. The IMF and World Bank are looking for solutions, with poverty reduction as the central focus.” They also note that “the HIPC Initiative, even supplemented by the [Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative] MDRI, is not a panacea. Even if all of the external debts of these countries were forgiven, most would still depend on significant levels of concessional external assistance, since their receipts of such assistance have been much larger than their debt-service payments for many years” (IMF).
3. PRSPs are another often considered solution to global poverty. Stephens works with people in local communities to help them develop these projects and to arrange resources. People who live in such communities are responsible for fulfilling their own ideas for improvement and are able to hold one another accountable against corruption. Further, these programs create stakeholders in rural areas who know that their ideas and their desired way of life can be achieved.
4. Designers like William McDonough work to create objects that can be reused without being downgraded. Solutions like these will reduce the negative impacts of ‘waste’ on the environment; these technologies will support further improvements in developing countries, and may create jobs all over the planet.
5. The UN MDGs indicate that one of the best ways to improve conditions in a place is to improve the quality of life and education for women. Stephens discusses that previously, men in local communities dealing with the Bank made poor decisions. Once the Bank required half of all ideas come from separate meetings with women, more useful, effective projects came to the table.

CONCLUSIONS, ANALYSIS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Understanding this issue and possible solutions is extremely important: poverty is no longer an acceptable and describes the worst possible human experience. Issues surrounding this problem are complex and interconnected, and must be carefully considered to limit unintended consequences. Unfortunately, many people view the issue from their own perspective and are unable to consider alternatives. I will examine the merits and weaknesses of five possible solutions; achievement of the MDGs, debt relief, PRSPs, C2C, and improved quality of life for women. After, I will recommend a course of action.

The World Bank notes that, “poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom.” We can also see that poverty is hopelessness about your own future and future generations.

Further, poverty affects everyone because issues surrounding it are interconnected. The poor are often at the mercy of the environment, which in turn is threatened by the misuse of natural resources. They are unable to receive medical attention, which creates the perfect climate for epidemics such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Perhaps, as the Hoover Institute points out, poverty does not create terrorists, but impoverished governments cannot police their borders. Yet Lomborg indicates, terrorism, heroine manufacture and disease often thrive in such places. Further, extreme poverty affects people in Africa, East Asia and Southeast Asia. People from different countries and different cultural backgrounds will have different approaches and attitudes to such problems.

The complex nature of these issues means that one solution will not be enough. The global community must adapt its practices to meet the needs of individuals and situations, instead of attempting to apply a panacea. Sadly, many people in developed nations still presume to understand what is best for others, and do not consider the consequences of their actions on individuals in impoverished circumstances. Consider, for example, the boycott of sweatshops several years ago. For many poor people, sweatshops represented a step up from prostitution or fieldwork. Protests in the west destroyed their chance to join the Industrial Revolution (Scientific American).

Four of the five solutions: accomplishing the MDGs, providing debt relief for Highly Impoverished Poor Countries (HIPCs), the use of PRSPs to allow communities to own their projects, and improving the quality of life for women. I believe that combinations of each of these solutions need to be applied as appropriate for individual countries and communities. Other solutions that were beyond the scope of this paper, such as creation of infrastructure and support of intellectual property rights, may also help alleviate effects of extreme poverty in certain situations. In order to achieve these goals, the developed governments would need to increase aid, while individuals would need to think more carefully about their impact on these issues.

The fifth solution, designing products in the West, which do not need to be down-cycled at the end of their lives, will need to happen soon for environmental and economic reasons in the developed countries themselves. They, in turn, will be able to share these ideas and processes with developing countries, and the question of whether or not there will be enough natural resources for everyone will be answered with a resounding yes.

REFERENCES
Adams, J. Michael and Angelo Carfagna
2006 Coming of Age in a Globalized World: The Next Generation. Bloomsfield: Kumarian Press, Inc.

Africa Development Bank Group
2007 The Poverty-Environment Nexus in Africa. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.afdb.org/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/ADB_ADMIN_PG/DOCUMENTS/STATISTICS/GE07_ARTICLE_0.PDF
BBC News
2007 World Factbook. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1886617.stm

China Daily News
2007 Education can Break Vicious Poverty Cycle. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005 09/23/content_480262.htm .

Columbia University
2007 How Not to Count the Poor. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.columbia.edu/~sr793/count.pdf

Global Issues
2007 Causes of Poverty. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty.asp

Global Issues
2007 Poverty and the Environment. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Development/PovertyEnv.asp

Globalization 101
2007 Development. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007.
http://www.globalization101.org/issue/development/

Hoover Institution
2007 The Terrorism To Come. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3437231.html

International Monetary Fund
2007 Debt Relief Under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.imf.org/external/

Lomborg, Bjord, ed.
2004 Global Crises, Global Solutions. New York: Cambridge University Press

McDonough, William and Michael Braungart
2002 Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Noticias.info
2007 One-Third of Africans Lack Drinking Water. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=147075&src=0

Reckmeyer, William Emerging Global World. Lecture given on September 24, 2007.

Sachs, Jeffrey D.
2005 The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities of Our Time. New York: Penguin Press.

Scientific American
2007 Does Globalization Help or Hurt the World’s Poor? Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=0004B7FD-C4E6-1421- 84E683414B7F0101

Stephens, Peter
2007 Interview by author, September 25.

United Nations
2007 Millenium Development Goals. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

Washington Post
2007 The Persistently Poor. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/07/AR2006120700427.html> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/07/AR2006120700427.html

Wikipedia
2007 Poverty Reduction Strategy. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_Reduction_Strategy .

Wikipedia
2007 Structural Adjustment. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_adjustment

World Bank
2007 Understanding Poverty. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/EXTPA/0,,contentMDK:20153855~menuPK:435040~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:430367,00.html

World Bank
2007 YouThink!. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://youthink.worldbank.org

World Health Organization
2007 World Factbook. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://www.who.int/malaria/docs/CDs_severe_food_shortages.pdf

Yale Global Online
2007 How to Help Africa Escape the Poverty Trap. Electronic document, accessed on September 20 2007. http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=5128

(edited to include hyperlinks)

Some Interesting Notes from Class

We had an interesting discussion in class Monday night and I thought I'd share some important ideas. Most of these points came from the first chapter of "Coming of Age in A Globalized World." First we broke into groups. My group did not appreciate the emotion in the chapter, although other groups did. It was interesting that in a discussion of a chapter that highlighted looking at things from different view points, we all approached reading it from different view points.

About the discussion itself, the first stunning idea for me was when Dr. Fried said of the globalization that "its not their poverty, its our wealth. Its not environmental problems, its our misuse of the environment..." Dr. Fried also said "time eats space" and often the battle against globalization is the battle for protecting one's space. Both of these ideas resonated with me, although I don't have anything clever to say about them right now.

The final point that resonated with me had to do with change. We had been discussing "people who resist change." My notes don't reflect if it was Dr. Reckmeyer or Dr. Fried who said "often resisting change might mean resisting change in YOU" and that there is a "constant tension between what's worth preserving and what makes sense to change." This ties back to what Peter said the World Bank was working on: trying to put control of resources and skills into the hands of the people most affected by the results.

Does Globalization Help or Hurt the World's Poor? -- [ ECONOMICS ]: Scientific American

This article in Scientific American is fantastic. It discusses problems with a black and white point of view about globalization and hits on some of the things Peter and I have been discussing. They also echoed the sentiment Dr. Powell discussed in his sweatshop presentation. Overall, its an important call for balance and good judgement about policy creation and protestation.

The article highlights indirectly how colored the discussion of globalization is by money; poverty, financial institutions, etc. It was definately out of the scope of the article, but I'd like to find more about other aspects of globalization. I also wonder if the nature of the collective discussion contributes to the polarization of views.

My Official Project Proposal

Issue: My project was shaped by two ideas. The first was a quote from an Amnesty International report quoted in Coming of Age in a Globalized World: "the top 200 multi-national corporations have more economic power than the poorest four fifths of humanity... Through this sheer size, economic dominance and mobility, the multi-nationals can set the agenda for development, sway political decisions, and have a major impact on the reality of human rights for very many people" (58).

This reminded me of a lecture I heard first at the Independent Institute in Oakland and later at SJSU from Dr. Ben Powell about sweatshops. Dr. Powell was making the point that sweatshops are the best possible option for many people in developing countries. Although conditions in sweatshops seem unacceptable to most Americans, for people who work there its often a choice between sweatshops and jobs like prositituion. (Dr. Powell actively excluded situations where sweatshop workers were not paid or forced to work there, but rather where a choice was clearly made).

Dr. Powell went on to discuss how many Americans had boycotted Nike and other companies who sold products made in sweatshops. Many Americans are concerned about the lack of safe working conditions, by American standards. Dr. Powell pointed out that after Nike and other companies stopped using sweatshops, these workers were economically depressed. The boycott hurt the people the Americans had intended to help!

So, grass roots-global citizens need to act more carefully when they work to impact multi-national organizations. Often, its difficult to disagree with a tactic such as a boycott, as it is hard to question the process without seeming to be on the wrong side. What do these grass-roots global citizens need to know about how the system and the process work so that they can better evaluate proposed solutions?

I am concerned about the prevalence of extreme poverty in the world today. This semester, I am interested in understanding the literature and controversy surrounding poverty, in particular the role of the World Bank, IMF and WTO. I hope to teach other global citizens how to evaluate and question sources of information. I hope that this information would help myself and other conscientious global citizens to create an action plan for addressing this problem.

Intended Audience: Global Citizens, such as Salzburg Scholars and Global Citizenship class.

Mode: Power point presentation.

Project Brainstorming

In my Global Citizen course this semester, we're going to be working on a project that should hopefully make some kind of difference. I really want to use this opportunity to dig into something intensely, especially since my professor is a consultant as well. It should be a great opportunity to try to design a project and then get some feed back about where it will work and where it won't.

I went in to class last week knowing I wanted to work on poverty. I left with four questions: which resources do I need to read to really understand this issue? who are the key stakeholders in poverty and development? what's the best way to reach each set of stakeholders? and what is manageable in a semester and what should I work on later?

Resources are coming to me. I've found several online, and read about a few books. I purchased a copy of The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs.

My stakeholders list so far includes everybody, but I think its important to be more explicit. Here's my list so far:

1) Global Citizens
2) The Poor
3) NGOs that work to help the poor
4) Core Governments
5) Periphery Governments
6) People concerned about the environment - people in desperate
situations are forced to use resources immediately, instead of
thoughtfully.
7) People concerned about security/terrorism - people in desperate
situations are desperate...

I'm sure there are more, but I think it would be prudent to focus this semester on global citizens. There will be an audience at the end of the semester for my work; perhaps I can develop something to educate people about so that they can do right action.

I also think that given my difficulty understanding and researching the World Bank and the IMF, there may be other concerned, conscientious people out there who are having the same difficulty. So, I think there might be some value in creating a presentation designed for students and others about the issues surrounding the study of poverty and development. The goal would also be not just to educate about an issue I'm sure most global citizens are aware of, but also to create information literacy and to encourage right action.

I have three ideas for the media of my presentation. A blog (this one) would communicate a lot of my ideas, but I'm not sure that anybody would read it. A short film would be fun to make and watch, but that medium doesn't require audience participation and a lot of the information would have to be eliminated. The last idea I had was a power point presentation. That seems like the best choice as it both encourages participation and allows me to include as much information as necessary.

On a Dollar A Day

Over the summer, I was preparing for my Global Citizenship course by reading Global Crises, Global Solutions, ed. Bjorn Lomborg. In a book written for economists in which every number was detailed and argued with, I found a statistic so common it wasn't even footnoted: 1.1 billion people live on less than a dollar a day.

The number got me thinking. I wanted to know what that meant, so I began to calculate what I live on. I might have spent $7 on lunch today, but that didn't begin to cover what I spent. Neither adding up all of my bills or my income and dividing by 30 or 31 made sense because I have equipment that helps me live. How should I count my fridge and oven, purchases I made long ago? I was stuck, so I turned on my computer (how about that? I suppose we have to say that immediate access to information counts as an improvement, even if I occasionally bemoan responsibilities created by my email at 2am.)

As it was 2am, I began this quest with a google search. I had thought I'd find several articles with links to an economics journal somewhere. After all, George W. Bush and Kofi Annan have used this statistic in speeches. My very first search revealed a controversy. As I hadn't questioned it, I felt ridiculous, but smart people throw this figure around like they were saying "Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President" or "the Earth is the third planet from the sun."

This statistic was made up by the World Bank. Its not backed by anything useful; it just makes poverty catchy. That's not the worst thing ever, right? Right? RIGHT?!

Well, not according to Sanjay G Reddy and Thomas W. Pogge, who argue in their article How Not to Count The Poor (http://www.columbia.edu/~sr793/count.pdf) that:

"The World Bank’s approach to estimating the extent, distribution and trend of global income poverty is neither meaningful nor reliable. The Bank uses an arbitrary international poverty line that is not adequately anchored in any specification of the real requirements of human beings. Moreover, it employs a concept of purchasing power "equivalence" that is neither well defined nor appropriate for poverty assessment. These difficulties are inherent in the Bank’s “money-metric” approach and cannot be credibly overcome without dispensing with this approach altogether. In addition, the Bank extrapolates incorrectly from limited data and thereby creates an appearance of precision that masks the high probable error of its estimates. It is difficult to judge the nature and extent of the errors in global poverty estimates that these three flaws produce. However, there is reason to believe that the Bank’s approach may have led it to understate the extent of global income poverty and to infer without adequate justification that global income poverty has steeply declined in the recent period. "

So, instead of spending the week trying to understand what poverty is like and thinking about what I can do or encourage others to do, I spent the week mucking through biased websites trying to figure out what's really going on with the World Bank and the IMF. Are they evil conspirators, or well-meaning failures? All this and more, coming up.