I don’t know what you think of it. But I invite members in New York to come up and speak with Professor Deaton after the meeting. But his understanding of government failure, in the West as well as in the emerging world, makes him a superior analyst and one who is worth reading closely, even when one disagrees with him. And does that imply anything in terms of what we should be doing here?DEATON: That’s—I mean, that’s a research program that’s ongoing. But it’s one of the big puzzles in development economics right now as to why that’s happening. So this is just like an incredibly major achievement in the world.So when you think the world is going to hell in a handbasket, which it sort of is right now, you have to look back on those amazing achievements.

And, you know, we say, OK, but it’s not as simple as you think it is. Instead, loudly spending taxpayers’ money on overseas assistance is now seen as a form of virtue-signalling by the Tories, a mean to (supposedly) decontaminate the brand as it is perceived by prosperous, middle class voters with liberal tendencies.

So, you know, employing people who build, you know—a computer is not fast enough anymore, so you have to build a dedicated chip that sits on the fence around the stock exchange that’s being set up and is even faster than your neighbor’s guy, and you can make a lot of money that way, it’s hard for most of us—most economists, at least—to think there’s a large amount of social value in that. And I do think it’s probably true that our statistical services were designed for worlds of steel and widgets, and they’re not well designed for worlds of Internet and services, things like that. The two male questions for the first—Q: Professor, I’m curious, in terms of effective philanthropy in particular, what role you see—Q: Oh, I’m sorry. Now, effective altruism talks about how billionaires, if they can give money, how does that work, and will it actually help. These were all discovered and developed in the First World—there are a few exceptions—and gifted, as it were, to the Third World, and did enormous amounts of useful things there in saving people’s lives.What Dr. Falk was referring to is I worry a lot about African countries where almost all government expenditure is coming from external sources.

They’re working with individual data, because they really believe that what happens to individuals matters to the macroeconomy.And so, you know, inequality and poverty are just not visible in the aggregate statistics. Angus Deaton has made powerful arguments against foreign aid that expose our Government’s shallowness in the matter British aid is delivered to …

And so this what works slogan is terribly misleading because it’s giving people the idea that there’s a single thing that works, you know, and it works everywhere.

But they’re only one potential means. This is about mortality rates, not life expectancy.DEATON: Well, Bernie talks about life expectancy, but he doesn’t do this thing about parents and children. Is there a sweet spot where some aid should go in? (Laughter, laughs. Yet that is what Angus Deaton, the newestwinner of the Nobel Prize in economics, has argued. You know, if Bill Gates gets another hundred million dollars, it’s no skin off my nose.

So that shows that—(laughs)—you know, it can’t just be aid.So it’s not—the corruption is only part of it, though the corruption is the most visible part. But the gross fact is that you don’t see it anywhere else. I mean, in the U.S. it’s hard because you have to get 26 million death certificates and go through them one by one, essentially. A. I would love to live in a world wealthy enough that the vast majority of the population could afford to purchase their own education and healthcare; and the rich actually have as little incentive as the middle classes to see the banking system badly run. It sounds kind of crazy to say that foreign aid often hurts, rather than helps, poor people in poor countries. Major bilateral donors do not seem to have any interest in industrial policy and it is only in UN agencies like UNIDO that the topic is taken seriously. And I think we’re going to build inequality distribution into the macroeconomy.And, of course, one of the big forces for that is just the availability of data. And I may know you, but please state your name and affiliation.

Some of my best friends are sociologists.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that I mean, it had a little recovery, and then it stamped it out again. And he uses it to persecute his enemies and establish a dictatorship.And, you know, this has happened over and over again in Africa.

Inequality in political systems, we understand.

(Laughs.) Some even take issue as to whether the Green Revolution had a net positive impact (which I find baffling).

I have—I have a million notes on everything you’ve written. But there’s a lot of private value.Now, if you get that situation, then a lot of the world’s smartest kids are going to finish up building those boxes that sit around the stock exchange. And, you know, I’m sure there’s a role for that.

There are two questions back here. No one knows how to do that. It sounds terrific. You’ve been very patient over here. Post was not sent - check your email addresses!

And so you guys say, OK, we’re shutting down our aid. You know, the philosophers are reminding us that we have a duty, a moral duty, to deal with this stuff. )FALK: And gone into the research. But let me go—let me not take any questions away. But whether or not to use aid and these other policy instruments in these circumstances is a debate about how and when the U.S. should support its political allies.