By diplomatic standards, it has become a dirty battle. One week before George Bush attends a big United Nations conference in Monterrey on how best to finance development, his Treasury secretary is in the midst of a public quarrel about the effectiveness of foreign aid. Led by Gordon Brown, Britain's finance minister, and Jim Wolfensohn, the World Bank's boss, aid advocates want to double assistance to poor countries to $100 billion a year. Mr O'Neill disagrees, arguing that poor countries have received "trillions of dollars of aid" and have "precious little" to show for it. He wants "evidence of what works" before committing any more money.
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