In Time Magazine’s cover story on “The Year of Charitainment”, James Poniewozik asks:

More interesting than why celebrities take up causes--and tougher to answer--is why the rest of us pay attention to them. Granted, there is the rare celeb, like Bono, who becomes a bona fide expert, but why should I turn to him for advice on solving poverty any more than I'd buy a ticket to watch global-poverty guru Jeffrey Sachs sing I Will Follow?

The unstated premise being that you should turn to Jeffrey Sachs for advice on solving poverty? You might want instead to turn to economists whose view of what to do relies less on wishful thinking about the consequences of US taxpayers funding third-world governments and multinational bureaucracies.

For example, William Easterly, who has previously juxtaposed Bono with Sachs and explained here just where Sachs goes off the rails. In a nutshell: "Sachs pays surprisingly little attention to the history of aid approaches and results."