Trade & Economic Law

In today’s Washington Post, a front page article titled, “Multitude of Forces Drains the Spirit of Giving,” by staff writer Philip Rucker. Compared with the tsunami of 2004 and Katrina, the natural disasters of Burma and China have not produced anywhere near the outpouring of American charitable aid donations: In the weeks since a cyclone laid waste to Burma's delta...

Everyone loves microfinance. The Wall Street Journal editorial page is super enthusiastic, but so is the World Bank, so are all those private equity kids who now want to do politically progressive 'venture philanthropy' with their gazillions, and so is Natalie Portman, peering winsomly from the cover of the NYT Magazine a couple of months ago. Muhammad Yunus...