Page 5 - Nations Fail News Today

ISTANBUL — The United States invaded Afghanistan 20 years ago with the hope of rebuilding a country that had become a scourge to the world and its own people. As General Stanley McChrystal explained in the run-up to the 2009 surge of US troops, the objective was that the “government of Afghanistan sufficiently control its territory to support regional stability and prevent its

CAMBRIDGE — ExxonMobil recently announced a five-year plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and is pumping out ads proclaiming its commitment to a green future. Tobacco giant Philip Morris is touting its plans to help smokers quit. Facebook is calling for new Internet regulations. And these moves come less than two years after the Business Roundtable, representing the CEOs

Bitcoin is typically thought of as an investment and a strictly financial innovation. But what if some of its greatest impact over time ends up being in the humanitarian and environmental spaces? This essay will explore some of the major challenges in the realm of international development and will argue that donors should be looking at Bitcoin payments and mining as tools to reduce corruption, diminish dependency and help renewable energy overcome adoption obstacles worldwide. In his searing 2...

AT A GLANCE “Why Nations Fail” author discusses the connection between inclusive institutions and economic growth, and why COVID-19 could have long-term effects on state-society relations ·MIT Economics Professor Daron Acemoglu is awarded the 2020 CME Group-MSRI Prize Daron Acemoglu’s youth in Turkey produced early lessons on the inextricable link between economics and politics. In September 1980, Acemoglu was living in Istanbul and had just turned 13 when the Turkish military launched a...

May 1, 2021 BOSTON – U.S. President Joe Biden’s spending plans have been grabbing headlines, and rightly so. The administration’s relief package and infrastructure plan could remake the U.S. welfare state by bolstering the social safety net and increasing spending on transportation, broadband, and education. But with U.S. government spending likely to remain high after the COVID-19 pandemic, tax revenues must increase, because additional borrowing can finance only so much. Hence,...

1Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK; 2Bukavu Medical University College/Institut Supérieur des Techniques Médicales de Bukavu (ISTM-Bukavu), Bukavu, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo; 3Centre de Recherche sur la Démocratie et le Développement en Afrique (CREDDA), Université Libre des Pays des Grands Lacs, Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo; 4School of Environmental Sciences, Njala University, Freetown, Sierra Leone; ...

We cannot end poverty without ending corruption Illustration: Collected How do corruption and poverty impact each other? I remember reading "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty", a book gifted by a German friend of mine on my birthday. A comparative study of Germany and Bangladesh can offer important insights. The difference in the levels of poverty and prosperity between the two countries is staggering. In Germany, the current rate of per capita Gross Domestic Produ...

Corporations can – and must – fight for voting rights Ray Brescia, Opinion Contributor © The Hill Corporations can – and must – fight for voting rights One of the driving forces of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s was what the late Derrick Bell dubbed "interest convergence." African Americans and white elites saw value in ending Jim Crow. The Soviet Union utilized images of racist violence in its efforts to recruit non-aligned countries made up predomi...

Biden’s great tax rebalancing Apr 14,2021 - Last updated at Apr 14,2021 BOSTON — US President Joe Biden’s spending plans have been grabbing headlines, and rightly so. The administration’s relief package and infrastructure plan could remake the US welfare state by bolstering the social safety net and increasing spending on transportation, broadband, and education. But with US government spending likely to remain high after the COVID-19 pandemic, tax revenues must increase, because additi...

Edited by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson Brilliant and engagingly written, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson’s “Why Nations Fail” answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? The book conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it).  Korea, to take just one of their fascinating exam...