Via Tyler Cowen, I see that James Surowiecki is attacking the myth that aid doesn't work in the New Yorker. Good for him. As it happens, though, I wrote a similar article during the G-8 conference that's a bit less fluffy, and adds two other twists to this story: Besides the fact that aid isn't harmful, and can do good even in badly governed countries (and in the past has been addled by Cold War politics), one should also note that increased trade isn't nearly the panacea that people think it will be. In fact, some of the strongest solutions to pulling developing nations up out of poverty may involve neither trade nor aid, but things no one pays attention to. In particular, increased labor mobility and technology transfers can achieve quite a bit. Anyway, I don't link to MoJo articles all that often, but this one was pretty good, I thought, if a bit dry.