“Barro: There is a common element in all these areas [of debt relief and foreign aid]--they all look like money for nothing. And I don't think money for nothing is the way to get economic development. That's why even though I like [Irish rock star] Bono--I think he's very smart, a well-meaning person, and he's amazingly influential--I think his whole project of debt relief is so woefully misguided. This well-meaning assistance will not be the way to get poor African countries to do better.
Region: So you and [Columbia University economist] Jeff Sachs don't see eye-to-eye?
Barro: We had a wonderful lunch back in 1999 -- Sachs, Bono and I. It was clear that they invited me not to get information or advice. Instead, Bono wanted to learn the conservative, free-market objections to his approach so that he could come up with better counterarguments.
Then he could be more persuasive, as he turned out to be, even with Republican officials in Washington. I'm sure I had no impact on the policies that Bono ended up proposing. It's amazing what kind of influence he's had. He really did manage to convince many people in Washington to carry out substantial debt relief. It's a shame that we could not harness his talents for persuasion in more productive directions.”
"Interview with Robert Barro", The Region (September 2005).
http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/pubs/region/05-09/barro.cfm
Robert Barro teaches at Harvard University.
This wide-ranging interview covers many topics, including deficit spending, medicare, the equity premium puzzle, inflation targeting, monetary union in Europe, religion and economic growth, inequality and growth, and the IMF.
On the IMF, Barro is characteristically blunt: "I'm often asked by government policymakers what the IMF should do better or how it should be reformed, and I think there's no answer to that--other than going out of business."
Thanks to Larry Willmore for this Tdj.
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