Bail out the poor

Jeffrey Sachs, development economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, blogs at FT.com : The UN meetings were abuzz that the US could find $700bn for a bail-out of its corrupt and errant banks but couldn't find a small fraction of that for the world's poor and dying. It didn't make sense to the world community. The puzzlement was all the greater since the very banks being bailed out so generously had awarded themselves more than $30bn in bonuses early this year, roughly the world's entire aid budget for 800m people in sub-Saharan Africa.

If there was one message from the UN gathering, it was No More Excuses. The strategies are in place and have been proved; successes at local and country scale abound; the money exists to end poverty; remarkable partnerships are in place, and momentum is growing. Will the rich and powerful be part of the solution?