Moral hazard

Surprise! The US House of Representatives discovers that contracting out for security creates a moral hazard:

outsourcing the supply chain in Afghanistan to contractors…fuels warlordism, extortion, and corruption.

That hiring for-profit firms to provide security creates an incentive for these contractors to create insecurity is apparently a point ISAF has failed to grasp.

Good news from Afghanistan

…if you support the Taliban; not so good news for everybody else. Thomas Rutting tells us that the Taliban have nearly completed their complete takeover of the country:

The Taleban successfully have infiltrated Northern and Northeastern Afghanistan and destabilised certain areas, mainly in Kunduz province. Now, there are signs that they might attempt to push forward into mainly Hazara-settled areas the central region…one of the last areas of the country that hitherto have only been marginally affected by insurgent activities.

Cue Micheal Cohen for the rants.

Kim Jung Il, Capitalist

Seriously. One point I have made on this blog over and over again is that poor countries are poor because they have bad governments. North Korea is an extreme example of this point, but that makes the concept all the more tangible. The regime’s zealous efforts to repress markets (i.e., make consensual economic exchange illegal) has led to mass starvation and famine. I am far from a proponent of Laissez Faire economics – very far. At the same time, North Korea could not be as poor as it is without the active role of the government in preventing economic growth.

Thank you, Aid Watchers

I was going to write about the problems I saw with Paul Romer’s idea for charter cities. However, I knew it would be a long-ish post, so have been procrastinating. Laziness, fortunately, paid off for me this time as Laura Freschi at Aid Watchers has written a better version of what I was going to say:

It has always been true that no matter where you go, you take yourself with you—culture, history, habits, attachments and animosities come along like a skin you can’t shed…

Early development economists working at the hopeful dawn of colonial independence believed that they really were starting from scratch. The last fifty years have shown us that they weren’t, and this has been—and remains—one of development’s biggest blind spots.

As the gang on King of the Hill would say, “Yep. Yep. Mmhmm. Yep.”

Tanzania’s 2010 election

Here’s my analysis at Election Guide.