whythawk ratings: measuring effective development

1. Netscape, the Internet and Creative Destruction
(Analysis/Analysis)

Governments do not know anything about competition, innovation or the power of individual investment. The best they can offer is collective blame shedding and the waste of taxpayers' money on pop

2. Higher food prices mean downgrading that Turkey to a Chicken
(Analysis/Analysis)

...de maize as feedstock for biofuels will hurt farmers and undermine the land reform process. Subsidies are overt protectionism for incumbents. It is spurious – in the middle of a boom for farme...

3. Black Swans, Cost Overruns and Industrial Tariffs
(Analysis/Analysis)

South Africa currently has two large Cinderella projects: the Gautrain and the 2010 World Cup. Both projects are astonishingly expensive. When the Gautrain was announced in February 2006 it was to

4. The efficiency of markets and how protectionism leaves the poor behind
(Analysis/Analysis)

There is something magnificent about the way that modern, market-driven businesses get ever more efficient. How they are able to derive ever more from ever less. Agriculture used to be a matter of p

5. When equality becomes unfair: South Africa's two economies
(Analysis/Analysis)

South Africa is a microcosm for all the world's greatest unresolved itches.  Here we have fair-skinned folk living in shiny new cities with first-rate infrastructure and access to all the be

6. Sarkozy's French Election: when elephants fight only the grass gets trampled
(Analysis/Analysis)

There is an African saying that, "When elephants fight only the grass gets trampled." It eloquently expresses the despair that ordinary people feel when the people who claim to represent the

7. Melamine, China, and the peril for emerging markets
(Analysis/Analysis)

... its farming techniques, and that the ACP countries were even worse than Latin America was moot. It was flagrant protectionism and resulted in years of jokes about France banning bananas based on thei...

8. Lawrence Lessig, take note: Digital freedom still needs digital responsibility
(Analysis/Analysis)

... and shameful.  And Lessig sprang into action.  He lost. South Africa has experienced similar cultural protectionism when the EU refused to trade with us until we renamed our Shiraz, Champag...

9. We're from Mars and we want to help: four lessons in development
(Analysis/Analysis)

Imagine the happy day that an alien culture brings the light of their superior technology to Earth.  Imagine for a moment that the Martians, resplendent in their latest fashions, meet with our le