I’m now around 23,300,183,191 parts into my continuing series “Migration is good for the poor”, so it’s nice to add one to its companion series, “Migration is good for poor countries”, too.

Many apologies for the unscheduled break in the Links last Friday. It’s long been a point of pride that, excepting planned holidays, I never miss a Friday. Last week’s sudden absence was—to the best of my recollection—the first since the 24th of June, 2016; as the votes were tallied that morning and...

There’s something just perfectly British about having local elections just 48 hours before an obscenely wealthy 70-something puts on a hat made from plundered jewels, sits on an ancient bit of granite and becomes King. The local elections are just about as pure a form of democracy as possible, in wh...

Earlier this week, my sister sent a message to the family chat which just read “Harry Belafonte”. At first, it hadn’t occurred to me that he might have passed away (surely, he was immortal?), and I just assumed she was randomly thinking about what a genius and a brilliant man he was, so I responded ...

John Mortimer’s third autobiography (he was very long-lived; after each one he found he went through a lot of unexpected life, hence the trilogy) opens with the reflection that the marker of elderliness is the moment you realise you cannot put on your own socks. I think the Rubicon of middle-age is ...

I’ve been away for the last couple of Fridays, so this week there is an absolute mass of material to get through this week. I’ve been brutal in editing it down: there are probably ten times as many interesting bits of esoteric statistics, development economics and political commentary from the last ...

World Bank reform will involve tackling a set of institutional challenges, from mobilizing more financing to taking on more risk. But it will also need to reckon with the more fundamental trade-offs between providing public goods and addressing poverty.