The Grumpy Economist on Foreign aid: "send a person a fish every day, and he forgets how to fish."

John Cochrane recommends the Economist article Aid cannot make poor countries rich.

From 2004 to 2014, foreign aid increased by 75%, but it didn't help:

• 2004, William Easterly: aid was just as likely to shrink the world’s poorest economies as to help them grow. 
• 2005, World Bank: grants and loans did not move the needle on growth. 
• 2019, IMF reached a similar conclusion. 
• 2025, Centre for Global Development, “There is no country that has really grown from aid.”

In what seems like evidence-based decision-making by the donors:

• President Trump has stopped much of US foreign aid.
• Sir Keir Starmer chopped Britain’s aid budget from 0.5% to 0.3% of GDP.
• France, the most generous Western donor after America, will this year reduce aid by 35%.
• Germany is considering cuts, too.