The world of the twenty-first century is a world of feasible priorities. The world of the twenty-first century is the world of cornucopia and utopia, the world where the History of Tomorrow has to be explored, the world of creative construction.
For years I read the work of the best development economists of our time. I read "The End of Poverty". I read "The bottom billion". I read "The White Man's Burden". I came to the conclusion that my favorite economist is Mr. Sachsterly, a fictitious academic that embraces the best ideas of Mr. Sachs and Mr. Easterly. Obama said that the debate is not smaller or bigger government, but smarter government. Perhaps the debate should not be whether or not we need more or less aid. We need smarter aid. Perhaps we need to leave the words philanthropy and charity behind and embrace the word investment.
The end of poverty is closer than we think. The rescue of the bottom billion is only a reality if Mr. Sachs and Mr. Easterly put their outstanding intellectual skills to work instead of trying to win a debate that academics will perpetuate so long as they exist. The universe of ideas is much wider than we think. For years we have lived constrained to right and left, to conservative and progressive thinking. The best prototypes are hybrids and Mr Sachsterly is my favorite.
Reading Dambisa Moyo's Dead Aid I realize that academics and policy makers are dead. Aid will never die, so long as academics do not cease to exist. Aid ought to be redefined. Perhaps aid and capitalism should be redefined altogether, and Mr. Sachsterly has the answer.
The future of the world is in the South. Without the South the West will be unable to sustain economic growth and take care of aging populations. We left the Washington Consensus behind. What remains? "It remains for us now, if we do not wish to perish, to set aside the ancient prejudices and build the Earth" (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin).
Ms. Moyo stresses the importance of microfinance and Hernando de Soto's insightful theories on formalizing the informal economy. Ms. Moyo looks back and reviews the success behind the implementation and delivery of the Marshall Plan. Why isn't a Marshall Plan for Africa feasible today? Why cannot the successes put forth by the American and French visionaries of the 1940s and 1950s be replicated in today's environment?
We undermine our own ability to change the path of our own history and fate. Bruce Bueno de Mesquita of New York University is the Next Nostradamus. He should be asked why a Marshall Plan for Africa will not take off.
It is perhaps time to replicate the structural features that made the Marshall Plan a successful outcome. Perhaps Mr. Sachsterly could play the role of John Maynard Keynes. Perhaps Mr. Obama could play the role of President Harry S Truman.
Where are thou men and women of political stature? Where are thou visionaries of our time? We need individuals of such high caliber as General Marshall, George Kennan, Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman. Europeans owe big time to the Americans that rescued the old continent from Nazism, the devastation of World War II and the threat of the expansion of Soviet communism.
It is time Mr. Sachsterly. It is time to become men and women of political stature, to reach the caliber of the visionaries of the 1940s and 1950s. It is time to say why not, to dream awake, to scream the urgency of our time. It is time to say we dare therefore we exist, to never give up.
Let's start dreaming of a better world. It is only possible today. Let's not be afraid of moving forward, leaving the fears of the baby boomers behind. The next stop is Africa and I do not wish to miss it.
Find more about Jaime Pozuelo-Monfort at http://Monfort.ORG