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Tag Archives: Nicholas Kristof

Poor People Behaving Badly?

NYT columnist Nick Kristof had an uber-provocative Sunday column:

…if the poorest families spent as much money educating their children as they do on wine, cigarettes and prostitutes, their children’s prospects would be transformed. Much suffering is caused not only by low incomes, but also by shortsighted private spending decisions by heads of households.

The Obamzas, a Congolese family from the village of Mont-Belo that Kristof met, say they can’t afford $2.50 per month…

Posted in Cognitive biases, In the news | Also tagged 45 Comments

Let’s show some compassion for gifted individuals like Secretary Clinton, whom politics forces to babble

clinton280This is my blog that just went up on the Foreign Policy web site on Hillary Clinton’s development speech today. There’s a positive ending! Plus my wife likes it!

MORNING UPDATE: News coverage of Hillary’s speech was overwhelmingly dominated by her plans to visit New Zealand. This supports one of two theories: (1) there was indeed too much babble, eliminating any newsworthiness, (2) the media doesn’t care about development.

UPDATE 2: Nick Kristof has a much more favorable…

Posted in Political economy | Also tagged 12 Comments