William Easterly of NYU talks about why some nations escape poverty while others do not, why aid almost always fails to create growth, and what can realistically be done to help the poorest people in the world...

New home construction fell 25 percent, the largest drop in 27 years...

They tend to be an optimistic lot, the bankers and business leaders, politicians and pundits, who every year make their way to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland...

Those who study a country's economic conditions, mostly macro-economists, track general trends: inflation, unemployment, productivity, comparative strength of the currency, etc...