Live 8 and G8 summit.

                                Summer 2005.  4-5-06

                                LS113. Dr. Rayapati's

                               Soundscapes

(1) Poverty:

Definition: Amartya Sen's definition of poverty. 

Fact: The majority of people historically have been poor.  The countries that now dominate the world economy by and large reached this point not through pluck but luck.   For more on this see Pomeranz's The Great Divergence.  

Measuring poverty: Various ways of measuring poverty, must start with income measured correctly.  This means using what are called purchasing power parity ratios.  Use this rather than "official exchange rate".

(2) Live 8 and the G8 summit.

Three things that Live 8 called for:

• More and better aid (especially aid directed to economically poorest countries in world)
• Debt relief. 
• A call for "fair" trade rather than free trade.

Focus of  Live 8 and last Summer's G8 summit was on sub-Saharan Africa where poverty the most widespread. . Click here for a paper by Jeffrey Sachs (author of the book, The End of Poverty) on the obstacles economies in sub-Saharan Africa face.

(3) The "big boys".  The "Washington Consensus" (the IMF, World Bank and other major international organizations' view of policy) focuses on the ideas of free trade and good governance.   Korean economist Ha-Joon Chang has an excellent and highly readable book on these issues with a strong historical focus.   For more about this book, Kicking Away the Ladder click here.  

For links on the G8 click here or here

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