LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The turn of the century is an important opportunity to engage in questioning and re-evaluating some of the global community's basic tenets, assumptions, policies and directions. On these matters we are being well-served by some excellent books.

One of the indictments of the second half of the 20th century is that in spite of all the money and ideas invested in developing countries, with very few exceptions development -- sustained growth leading to significantly higher GDPs per capita -- by and large did not occur. Many Third World countries are poorer today than they were several decades ago, others have stood still, and the number of true success stories is limited to the proverbial "gang of four": South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. China seems to be embarked on this journey, but remains very far from its destination.

William Easterly, senior adviser to the Development Research Group at the World Bank, has produced an insightful, thought-provoking book on the reasons for the failures (and prescriptions for remedying them) titled, "The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics." As Easterly insists, although economists do not understand growth, we do know what the major impediments to growth are. Some -- war, corruption, hyperinflation -- are obvious, others less so.