Daron Acemoglu is one of my favorite economists, has a wonderful
combination of smarts and imagination. This piece of his in Esquire
[??] is nice summary of what we (think we) know about what makes some
countries richer than others. Daron is from Turkey, studied at the
LSE, and now teaches at MIT. Link courtesy of Mankiw.
http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-brightest-2009/world-poverty-map-1209