Monday, November 24, 2003

Posted here Monday, November 24, 2003 at 4:56:17 PM     Rasberry in the Washington Post. The problem for the coalition is that the terrorists are not necessarily some ragtag band of malcontents that can be hunted down and taken out one by one. They may be more like a particularly aggressive virus that is spread by the very medicine prescribed to cure it. Comment: there seems to be a kind of consensus developing abut this, with the alternative view being that much of Iraq is going quite well and the bad places can be isolated. And The Illth of Nations and the Fecklessness of Policy: An Ecological Economist's Perspective Herman E. Daly (School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, USA) Our traditional economic problems (poverty, overpopulation, unemployment, unjust distribution) have all been thought to have a common solution, namely an increase in wealth. All problems are easier if we are richer. The way to get richer has been thought to be by economic growth, usually as measured by GDP.  I do not here question the first proposition that richer is better than poorer, other things equal. But I do question whether what we persuasively label "economic growth" is any longer making us richer. I suggest that physical throughput growth is at the present margin and in the aggregate increasing illth faster than wealth, thus making us poorer rather than richer. Consequently our traditional economic problems become more difficult with further growth. The correlation between throughput growth and GDP growth is sufficiently strong historically so that in the absence of countervailing policies even GDP growth frequently increases illth faster than wealth. Comment: the implications, totally unclear as to implementation, since no political party, no book, no memo, has a comprehensive view on how to do this, the consequences and the secondary consequences. www.btinternet.com/~pae_news/review/issue22.htm ********

Posted here Monday, November 24, 2003 at 4:56:12 PM     An excellent article about reconstruction in an Iraq village.. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8830-2003Nov23?language=printer ********

Posted here Monday, November 24, 2003 at 4:56:07 PM     It would be much better to be in the lead on such issues, not resisting. The good will that could be there is blown by provoking anger at the bully attitude. Military gets break from environmental rules The bill allows the Navy to redefine "harassment" under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, making it easier to use low- frequency sonar suspected of harming whales and dolphins. The Pentagon's $401 billion authorization bill for the 2004 fiscal year also exempts military bases from stringent habitat-protection requirements under the federal Endangered Species Act. http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1124/p02s02-usmi.html ********