What kind of man is Robert Mugabe? How did the internationally feted liberation hero of the 1970s turn into the blood-soaked tyrant of today? Heidi Holland, who knew Mugabe when they were both anti-Ian Smith activists in the 1970s, attempts to answer these questions in Dinner with Mugabe, her new “psychobiography” of the Zimbabwean president. Tom de Castella reviews the book for Prospect here. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe-watchers will not want to miss Stephen Chan’s dispatches from Harare for Prospect online, to my—entirely unbiased—mind the most in-depth and informed coverage of the Zimbabwe election crisis to be found in western media.
Also this week: Derek Brower explains how oil subsidies in the developing world are keeping the price of oil sky-high—and how they are playing havoc with the assumptions of market economists.
I BET TOM DE CASTELLA IS A WHITE MAN. IF SO, THIS PROVES IT ALL.
A viscous circle
It is really quite simple for countries like China to get rid of subsidies on fuel or food. They should simply replace them with direct cash subsidies to the poor. The poor will spend as little of the cash on petrol as they can, so replacing low priced fuel with cash subsidies will cut demand for petrol. Having said that, while Western countries can do this, it isn’t easy for 3W countries (China is as bad or worst than most)because they lack the ability to target cash handouts at the poor effectively. Or they get stolen en route. And especially in China there’s a very long tradition of central (imperial) control. So if you can’t easily get rid of fuel subsidies, what’s the next best thing? Complement them with even bigger subsidies for things that reduce fuel consumption, ie subsidise fuel-efficient cars, energy saving devices, low energy light bulbs, etc; and tax high-polluting vehicles and activities, etc. Economists will whinge that adding more subsidies isn’t efficient and they are right but it is better than doing nothing, and can affect behaviour quite quickly- note how fast Germany has shifted to renewable energy production thanks to big consumer subsidies.