Two Hoover scholars analyze the failure of post-war foreign aid. Though they don't mention him in the article, they seem to reach almost exactly the same conclusion as Willilam Easterly. "After listening to a long list of measures designed to improve his country’s economy, President Rafael Caldera of Venezuela told Nobel laureate Douglass North, 'If I were to do the things you are recommending, I would not survive in office long enough to enjoy the benefits.' . . .This creates the central paradox of foreign aid: under many of the least politically inclusive systems, good policy is bad politics, and bad policy can be good politics."

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