Dani Rodrik gets seriously long term on the future of capitalism

Paul Krugman contrasts the Obama rescue plan with ‘the large public works program, otherwise known as World War II, that ended the Great Depression’ and says we’re in for a long slow slump.

Please pay politicians more: Chris Blattman reports a paper on Brazil that finds that ‘higher pay attracts more and better-educated politicians, and more businessmen and lawyers over farmers and soldiers. They are more likely to get reelected, and so are more experienced over time. They submit more bills and get more legislation approved.’ Shame the same logic doesn’t apply to bankers…… 

Casualization within sight of Oxfam’s head office

And the last Monty Python contribution to the develoment debate for the moment (promise) – this time a practical exploration of the difficulty of building progressive cross party alliances (aka the People’s Front of Judea)