Until a short while ago, the mainstream media were regaling us daily with cheery statistics about the international war against poverty. Poverty, it was reported, was beating a retreat, though the poor, ill-informed, didn’t hear the good news. Now, however, the best-paid bureaucrats of the planet are confessing that they were the ones who had it wrong.
The World Bank has made known that its International Comparison Programme (which seeks to measure the relative social and economic well-being of the world's countries) has been brought up to date. The Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development are all part of the initiative.
