Wednesday Headlines

Tensions Rise Over Settlements In West Bank
After the Israeli Supreme Court ordered two apartment buildings in the West Bank settlement of Beit El be destroyed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the “immediate construction” of 300 new housing units, which has inflamed tensions.

In addition, the Israeli government’s statement said, planning approval was granted for the building of 413 homes in the East Jerusalem area.

Government Effectiveness Is Key To Economic Growth
Ricardo Hausman, a former minister of planning of Venezuela and former Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank, makes the case that fighting corruption is not the path out of poverty because the root cause of economic backwardness is insufficient state capacity.

To bolster his argument, Hausman points to the World Bank’s Control of Corruption Indicator. Although rich countries tend to be less corrupt, nations which have relatively low corruption levels, such as Ghana or Denmark, do not necessarily grow at a rate faster than other countries.

In addition, a nation’s growth does not necessarily quicken when the bad – corruption – is rooted out. What does matter, however, is that the government pursue the good – bureaucratic effectiveness.

“The good is a capable state: a bureaucracy that can protect the country and its people, keep the peace, enforce rules and contracts, provide infrastructure and social services, regulate economic activity, credibly enter into inter-temporal obligations, and tax society to pay for it all. It is the absence of a capable state that causes corruption (the inability to prevent public officials, often in collusion with other members of society, from subverting decision-making for private gain), as well as poverty and backwardness,” he writes.

The Legacy Of US Involvement In Haiti
New Yorker author Edwidge Danticat contends the invasion and occupation of Haiti has continued to shadow Hispaniola in the decades since the U.S. officially pulled out.

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