Most of us have seen the heart-wrenching images of indescribable suffering, some of which has sadly affected people I knew and that are now gone.  One can only pray that God receive them in His glory and give strength to their families and friends.  At the same time you marvel at the courage, resilience and solidarity shown by the Haitian people, and also by many foreigners affected by the disaster that were working in the country.  The support from a lot of people outside and inside Haiti to the victims of the tragedy has been very generous, and we all should be thankful for this display of human kindness.

Despite all the wrangling in Washington, Davos, and elsewhere about regulatory overhaul, one holy grail remains: U.S. housing policy. Some maintain that while mortgages were present, they were benign without securitization and leverage, so that those latter elements are more the culprit than mortgage policy, per se. Others argue that mortgages could only have been benign in isolation from Federal housing policy, which consciously sought to push home ownership rates to historic highs.

A great - and still growing - divergence appeared in 2009 between public statements by leaders and their public performance. The politicized, romanticized theater of increasingly populist “democratic” leaders and media seemed to be of a different planet from activities taking place in the real world.

Joe Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate and former World Bank Chief Economist, is out again making headlines. This time because of his new book Freefall - America, Free Markets and the Sinking of the World Economy (W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2010).   I had the pleasure of hosting his presentation at the World Bank’s Infoshop a few days ago – see video conference here -, and there were several things that struck me from what he said. Freefall might be mainly about the US economy but we can draw some very important lessons relevant for our development work.

Today I wrote an article on Angry Bear, Consumers around the world are generally more upbeat, but not uniformly so, highlighting the still melancholy consumers around much of the world, especially in the U.S. Here is an excerpt from the article:

Although words fail us, the burden of relief, reconstruction, and development in Haiti is one that must be borne by all.  Effective plans need to be in place quickly, before the rains come bringing with them the threat of deeper catastrophe. 

As Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet prepares to hand over power to her newly elected successor, she remains extraordinarily popular.  It is worth reflecting on the fiscal aspects of her term in office, as Chile has important lessons for other countries struggling with fundamental long-term budget questions, which includes a lot of countries right now.

Crude oil futures slipped below $73 a barrel for West Texas Intermediate late Friday as a temporary boost from strong GDP figures failed to last and let prices sink to a one-month low.

Earlier in the week, China, weak refinery demand and slumping tech stocks all conspired to keep energy prices low, with prices oscillating around $73 a barrel.

Today Gerald F. Seib wrote an interesting article at the WSJ, Obama Invites GOP to Share Burden of Fixing U.S. In it, he says the following:

Thus, Mr. Obama, after reeling off a veritable litany of proposals focused on how to create jobs (a word that appeared 29 times in the speech), came to the heart of the political matter: Democrats' stunning loss of a Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat means he tackles this daunting agenda one vote short of the 60 needed to stop Republicans from mounting filibusters to stop his initiatives.

Bad Fiscals…

From late 2008 onwards, Government intervention, on an unprecedented scale, has been a dominant factor in economic matters.

Governments have spent aggressively, going into or increasing deficits, to increase demand within the economy to offset weak private sector consumption and investment.