Are "charter cities" the answer?

Freakonomics Q&A with renowned economist Paul Romer, famed for his work in endogenous growth theory, who recently resigned a tenured position at Stanford to pursue the idea of "Charter cities" full-time.

Economist William Easterly (author of one of my favorite books, "White Man's Burden") calls this "walking the thin line between revolutionary and crazy". What do you think?