1.  Foreign Aid for Scoundrels, William Easterly, New York Review of Books:  Government-to-government aid props up anti-democratic dictators to the detriment of the people.  Bono doesn’t want you to know how the sausage is made.

2.  Indian Microcredit Faces Collapse from Defaults, New York Times:  Irrational exuberance combined with dirty politics could spell disaster for microfinance institutions in India.  Perhaps a bubble in India is the first major milestone in the mainstreaming of microfinance

3.  Patient Capital for an Africa that Can’t Wait, Thomas Friedman:  The trademark pragmatism of Thomas Friedman is on display in this column about innovations in market-driven development in Africa.

4.  Local Capacity Building and Business Development at the Base of the Pyramid, Next Billion:  An interview with Simon Winter, senior VP of development with Technoserve, talking about smart and sustainable development.

5.  Haiti, Ten Months Later, The Boston Globe:  A photojournalist’s perspective of the staggering devastation that is still the norm in Haiti

6.  In Haiti, Can Microlending Save the Economy?, New York Times: The importance of microfinance institutions in post-disaster recovery efforts.  I discussed this topic in a post on the Kiva Fellows blog several months ago.