Short cuts (IV)

More short readings:

1. Two different readings from Nancy Birdsall at the Center for Global Development (CGD). The first one, Do No Harm: Aid, Weak Institutions, and the Missing Middle in Africa, emphasises the impact the "missing middle" has on the prospects for development in Africa and what international donors can do to help bolster the middle-income population. The other one, Inequality Matters: Why Globalization Doesn't Lift All Boats, analyses the different impact inequality has had in the way towards development of East Asia and LATAM.

Eventhough it is too much focused in the USA reality, everybody should join the interesting newsletter offered by the CGD... interesting people and interesting ideas on how to change the dramatic situation in LDCs.

2. Professor Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, from MIT, talks in this piece Inside the Machine: toward a new development economics about the changes in development economics theory.

3. Moving towards a different sector? from a coffee company towards a music company, an interesting decision, at least this is what Starbucks seems to be doing. (Once you have a captive market you can try other things with all these cutomers...)

4. A friend is working for UNAIDS in Bangkok. She is one of the few who do not face too many problems to get into Myanmar (previously known as Birmania). She told me that it is an amazing and very beautiful country. Unfortunately, this beauty seems to be positively correlated to the lack of civil and political rights. Did you know that they have built a new capital? Naypyidaw (forget about Rangoon!)