William Easterly is the author of "The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics" (MIT Press, 2001) and "The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good." He is Professor of Economics at New York University (Joint with Africa House), Codirector of NYU's Development Research Institute, visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Nonresident Fellow of the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC.