“Good news from the World Bank’s Global Economics Prospects 2007, released today. Growth in developing countries will reach a near-record 7 percent in 2006. That’s much higher than the economic growth in high-income countries, a still respectable 2.6 percent, which is held down by slow growth in many of the sluggish welfare states of Europe…Why is the Third World growing so rapidly? Market economics, the rule of law, growing world trade. China in the 1980s and India after the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989–91 moved to free-market policies, and tens of millions have moved out of poverty. It’s a simple formula, and it’s too bad that people didn’t figure it out 40 or 50 years sooner”. –Michael Barone, writing about the World Banks recent report on global poverty