■"Trade and Aid to Poorest Seen as Crucial on Agenda for Richest Nations," by Celia W. Dugger, New York Times, 19 June 2005, p. A8.

■"A Timely Departure," editorial, New York Times, 19 June 2005, p. WK11.

■"Bush Aid Initiative for Poor Nations Faces Sharp Budget Cuts and Criticism of Slow Pace," by Celia W. Dugger, New York Times, 17 June 2005, p. A8.

Tony Blair and Jeff Sachs and the ONE campaign want the U.S. to plus up their development aid to Africa, but just pouring more money on the problem is not the answer. The Old Core spends more than a quarter trillion on ag subsidies to its own farmers each year, more than three times the money it collectively provides the Gap in Official Developmental Aid (ODA). The World Bank estimates that if all such subsidies were removed and trade barriers eliminated, the in-kind transfer to the Gap would be in the range of $100 billion in income-just like that.

Who would you rather bet on? The corrupt governments of Africa or the farm households there? Which do you think will get you a middle class faster?

Meanwhile, Bush's Millennium Challenge Account remains challenged by its own bureaucracy and Congress's penchant for slicing and dicing foreign aid to death, earmarking as much as possible for pet projects that favor their own voting districts (the bane of the U.S. Agency for International Development these many decades now). The Account just lost its director after just over a year or so in the job, and it's only set up two accounts to date in Madagascar and Honduras. People (and African governments) complain about the Account's strict guidelines on corruption and the like, but its heart is in the right place. Still, the NYT editorial is right: the MCA could learn plenty from the World Bank's Fast Track program in speeding money to deserving states.