The UN says that the problem is 1 billion hungry people.
Columbia University scholar Jeffrey Sachs explains that the
solution is foreign aid that attacks the “poverty trap.” Then,
markets can develop and people can become more productive. By
contrast, NYU scholar William Easterly says that aid is actually
the problem. With free markets and the right incentives, success
comes when people figure out their own solutions. This Foreign
Policy article on world hunger presents the debate and then the
work of its authors, 2 scholars from MIT. Introducing people
from Indonesia and India, they illustrate the complexities of
world hunger. The discuss calories and productivity, the impact
of pregnant women taking iodide pills and working men consuming
iron supplements. They ask why people might choose tastier food
rather than a healthier diet of eggs and bananas. The Economic
Lesson How are world hunger and the British coastline similar?
Mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot could tell us. Dr. Mandelbrot
was the father of frac