Monday, January 26, 2009

Shooting for the moon

William Easterly takes Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, to task for asking for too much.

Over the past few days Zoellick has had op-eds in the NY Times and the Financial Times. The articles argue for $6 billion more for foreign aid from the U.S. Easterly contends that Zoellick, in having an extensive laundry list of projects, is really not being realistic and upfront. Easterly's primary concern with foreign aid money is that it is well-spent.

His conclusion about Zoellick's proposals:
If you are not accountable for promises, if you try to do everything and focus on nothing, and if you obsess about aid money raised rather than results achieved, haven’t you already told us that the money will not be “well spent”?

No comments: