The Economist (US) back issues from April 1998:
One less problem. (political news from the Americas)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... A United States district judge dismissed all the charges against Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones sexual-harassment case. The decision does not affect the investigations of Kenneth Starr, the special prosecutor.The Supreme Court ruled that evidence from lie-detector tests ...
A bigger club. (possible membership additions to the European Union; political news about other European countries)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... The European Union started negotiations with five former communist countries in Eastern and Central Europe, plus Cyprus, which want to join the club.EU farm ministers damned the commission's proposals for reforming the common agricultural policy. Failure to do so might delay the ...
Dead-end. (Middle Eastern and African politics)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... Dennis Ross, America's envoy, spent four days shuttling between Binyamin Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat trying to end the year-long stalemate in the peace process. He got nowhere.The resistance group Hamas threatened to attack Israeli targets when an Islamist bomb-maker, Muhyiaddin ...
A royal return. (political events in Asia)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... In a deal arranged by Japan, Prince Norodom Ranariddh returned to Cambodia from exile to prepare his royalist party for a general election in July. The prince was ousted as prime minister in a coup last year. In another step towards peace, Khmer Rouge guerrillas in Anlong Veng, in north-west ...
Overshadowed. (performance of Japan's stock market; OPEC meeting)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... Japan's Big Bang programme of financial deregulation began with a whimper from the stockmarket. The Nikkei finished the fiscal year at 16,527, down from 18,003 a year earlier, and then fell further. Worries about weak banks and shrinking output were exacerbated by the bankruptcy of Daiichi ...
Blending. (acquisitions and mergers around the world)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... Bermuda-based Bacardi, best known for white rum, beat off competitors to buy Dewar's Scotch whisky and Bombay gin from Diageo. The price is K1.15 billion ($1.93 billion), well above expectations for the two brands. Guinness and Grand Met, whose recent merger yielded that unpronounceable ...
Teutonic struggle. (BMW purchases Rolls-Royce)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... The battle for Britain's Rolls-Royce seems to have been won by BMW with an offer of K340m ($569m). This will leave only Volkswagen of ...
Surviving the telecoms jungle.(Editorial)
Apr 04, 1998 ... SPARE a thought for incumbent telephone companies everywhere. About now, they expected to be coming into their own as standard bearers of the information age. Especially in Europe, with its newly privatised telecoms firms, this should have been a time of great promise. Instead, all over the ...
A few more bangs, please.(Asian economic conditions)(Editorial)
Apr 04, 1998 ... Asia's financial woes are finally yielding long-overdue reforms. But there is still doubt about governments' determination to follow throughCRISIS, though painful, has much to commend it. High among its virtues is that it makes inertia all but impossible to sustain. People become ...
Blinded by the dark: Europe's governments have only themselves to blame for the 'black economy.' (the continent's underground economy is now estimated to account for 15% of its GDP, up from 5% in the 70's)(Editorial)
Apr 04, 1998 ... HAVE you broken the law this year, or abetted others in breaking it? Almost certainly. When you paid your cleaner or builder in cash, or for some reason neglected to tell the taxman that you were paid for a service rendered, you participated in the black or underground economy. However, ...
Wake up, Israel: American patience may not be inexhaustible. (the US is growing increasingly frustrated with Israel's lack of cooperation in progressing the Middle East peace plan)(Editorial)
Apr 04, 1998 ... American patience may not be inexhaustibleHOW frightened is Israel of American impatience? This week, as their latest bid to raise the Israeli-Palestinian peace process from the dead fizzled out, the Americans were sounding unusually fed up, expressing a frustration that Madeleine ...
America and guns. (the amazing refusal of the US to enact greater gun controls despite the enormous levels of violent crime guns result in compared to other countries)(Editorial)
Apr 04, 1998 ... The love affair goes on, whatever the priceTHE funerals are over. The flurry of media coverage has already faded. There was a weary familiarity about America's reaction to the shootings in Jonesboro, Arkansas, on March 24th. Americans have seen it all before, many times. Mike ...
Nelson's trading error. (South Africa president Nelson Mandela is making a mistake by not reducing trade barriers and promoting freer trade for the continent)(Editorial)
Apr 04, 1998 ... Freer trade would help Africa, not harm itNOT for the first time, Nelson Mandela has made many Africans feel prouder. Standing alongside Bill Clinton, amid a presidential visit with the barely hidden theme of discovering Africa (see page 73), President Mandela did not stint with ...
A map of the future. (British Telecommunications PLC)
Apr 04, 1998 ... When British Telecom lost its nerve over MCI, it lost its way. Can it set a new course-and show other incumbent firms that there is life after monopoly?IN THE world telecoms establishment, British Telecom is, by common consent, a class act. While America's Baby Bells and Europe's ...
Goodbye, Paula Jones? (Judge Susan Webber Wright dismisses her sexual harassment suit against Bill Clinton as groundless in a serious blow to Clinton's political enemies)
Apr 04, 1998 ... WASHINGTON, DCUNTIL now, the fight surrounding each Clinton scandal has seemed like a war of attrition. Sometimes the president's critics advanced, guns blazing with new evidence about Whitewater, lost FBI files, or money-raising coffee mornings. Sometimes the president's troops ...
When liberty is not so sweet: elections and rights. (campaign finance reform)
Apr 04, 1998 ... WASHINGTON, DCCampaign-finance reform has been stifled at birth by defenders of free speechTHIS week the Republican leaders in the House buried campaign-finance reform. No surprise there; Republicans out-fundraise Democrats, and so have a vested interest in the system ....
The accidental governor: Arkansas politics. (governor Mike Huckabee, who took over after the resignation of Jim Guy Tucker, is being discussed as a possible Republican vice presidential candidate)
Apr 04, 1998 ... LITTLE ROCKTHE Republican governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, enjoys nothing more than the limelight. On March 19th, backed by a high-school band and a choir singing Christian songs, he announced that he would run again for governor, a position he fell into almost by accident when ...
Enterprise immortalised. (the trend of the rich donating millions to various institutions, which then name themselves after the giver)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINADARLA MOORE left rural South Carolina and made a fortune on Wall Street as a specialist in bankruptcy financing. Last week the 43-year-old deal-maker went home to her alma mater, the University of South Carolina, when it named its business school after her ...
Ask nicely for those union dues: political campaigning. (California ballot initiative that would prohibit the use of union dues for political activity without the consent of dues payers)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... SAN FRANCISCOSHOULD union dues be usable, no questions asked, for political campaigns? For years, on the supposition that union members shared the same (left-leaning) convictions, unions have used members' money to elect pro-labour politicians and defeat anti-union legislation. ...
Still waters run deep: rural enterprise. (moonshining is still a vibrant industry in Franklin County, Virginia)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... FRANKLIN COUNTY, VIRGINIAEVEN before America's war of independence in the late 1700s, the gnarled men of English stock who settled the hardscrabble hills and hollows of south-western Virginia were concocting home-made whiskey from sugar, malt, water and corn. More than two ...
Waiting for God. Oh.(members of Taiwanese church move to Garland, Texas to witness the appearance of God)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... GARLAND, TEXASCHEN HON-MING had boldly set the date. God was supposed to appear on TV Channel 18 round the world on March 25th. Having forewarned the faithful, God would then descend to the back yard of 3513 Ridgeland Way, Garland, Texas, on March 31st. When God did not show up, Mr ...
Mike Moore's frustration.(Mississippi attorney general's campaign against tobacco industry)
Apr 04, 1998 ... TWENTY-FIVE years ago, Mike Moore wore his hair long and played in a rock band at Ole Miss, the state university of Mississippi. Then he figured there was "not much room for mediocre keyboard players"; so he got a haircut, went to law school, and became the youngest attorney-general in ...
Business in Oman.(Promotional Supplement)
Apr 04, 1998 ... IN THE YEARS that followed since oil was found on their lands, the countries of the Arabian peninsula have basked in an aura of complacency as the money has rolled in, seemingly into infinity. Some have been luckier than others, and their resources in the black gold have conferred on them ...
Venezuela's colonel sticks to his guns.(Hugo Chavez once attempted coup, now seeks presidency)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... CARACASLatin America's military regimes have gone. But there are still brasshats who dream of power-won through the ballot-box. In Venezuela, for exampleSIX years ago, as an army colonel, he attempted a coup against Venezuela's then president, Carlos Andres Perez. He ...
Brightening up.(Latin Americans optimistic about economic prospects)
Apr 04, 1998 ... SAO PAULOAND how do Latin Americans in general feel about their democracies and their economic prospects? Answer: rather more cheerful than they did a couple of years ago. But there are revealing differences between countries: support for authoritarianism has jumped in Paraguay, ...
A bull in a china shop.(Panamanian president Ernesto Perez Balladares seeks constitutional and legislative changes that would restrict civil rights and the press)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... PANAMA CITYFRIENDS and foes alike nickname him el toro, the bull. And this year President Ernesto Perez Balladares has been throwing his weight around. First he announced that he would seek a change in the constitution to let him run for a second five-year term in 1999. Now another ...
The Camisea shock.(development of Peruvian gas fields postponed)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... LIMATO THE world, it was hardly a story at all. Oilmen no doubt noted it, but in their gloom of fallen prices, it was just one of an investment decision postponed-if postponed indeed it turned out to be; these things happen in the best-managed companies and to the happiest and most ...
Cambodia's princely homecoming.(deposed joint prime minister returns after nine month exile)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... PHNOM PENHNow Prince Ranariddh's battle really beginsTHOSE Cambodians who rely on local television or radio would have known less than audiences abroad about the return home on March 30th of Prince Norodom Ranariddh, their deposed joint prime minister, from his ...
Hard talking.(Asia-Europe meeting of presidents and prime ministers)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... WHAT a difference a crisis makes. Presidents and prime ministers from Europe and Asia gathered in London this week for the second Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in business-like mood. At their first meeting, two years ago in Bangkok, the Europeans paid tribute to East Asia's economic miracle ....
The bridge to nowhere in particular.(bridge between Kobe and Awaji Island in Japan opens April 5, 1998)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... KOBEIT MUST be one of the most graceful suspension bridges in the world-and certainly the longest. With a central span of 1,991 metres (6,532 feet), the Akashi Kaikyo bridge, which opens on April 5th, between Kobe and Awaji Island in Osaka Bay, is bigger than Britain's Humber ...
Miss Running Shell's ordeal.(the Karen National Union, ethnic insurgents along Thai and Myanmar borders)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... MAE SOT, THAILANDSPARSE, charred and skeletal trees no longer offer any shade. The earth on which, until March 11th, stood homes of bamboo poles and wooden planks, with thatch or teak-leaf roofs, is now scorched black. The Huay Kalok camp on the Thai side of the border with Myanmar ...
A fright at the opera.(proposed construction threatens view from Sydney Opera House, Australia)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... SYDNEYEVER since the Sydney Opera House was opened in 1973, Australians have looked upon it as a national symbol. With its roof of soaring white sails, the opera house, designed by Joern Utzon, a Dane, is considered one of the century's great buildings. To Sydneysiders, its site is ...
Who's afraid of the BJP?(India's Bharatiya Janata Party)
Apr 04, 1998 ... Is the Hindu-nationalist party that leads India's new government essentially bigoted and chauvinist, or will the search for votes make it turn away from militancy and become a provider of efficient administration and reform?RELIGIOUS fundamentalists. Hindu brown-shirts on the road ...
The diversity of Hinduism.(the far-reaching influence of Hinduism in India)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... HINDUISM is not a religion in the western sense. It started as the faith of Aryan tribes that migrated to India, and their four holy books, the Vedas, are formally venerated by all Hindus today. Yet no Hindu need read the Vedas, and few do.The Aryans absorbed local gods and customs ...
Send off the referee, says Israel: America's envoy goes home without breaking the peace-process deadlock.(Dennis Ross of the State Department spent a fruitless four days attempting to save the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, but was unable to persuade a recalcitrant Benjamin Netanyahu)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... JERUSALEMAmerica's envoy goes home without breaking the peace-process deadlockBINYAMIN NETANYAHU has thumbed his nose at the Clinton administration's latest bid to salvage the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. So what will the Americans do about it? Not much, hopes ...
The best of buddies: Iran and Saudi Arabia.(improving relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... TEHRANKING FAHD of Saudi Arabia used to be demonised by Iran for his ties with America, for bankrolling Saddam Hussein's war against Iran and for the treatment of Iranians making the haj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1987, after several hundred Iranian pilgrims were killed in ...
Palestinian women throw off their veils.(a media and public debate has begun as to the legal status of Palestinian women)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... RAMALLAHUNDER Israeli occupation, Palestinian women were told, usually by male leaders, that their liberation would come once "the national question" was resolved. At the height of the intifada (uprising), women in Gaza were forced by the Islamist Hamas movement to cover their ...
Happiness in the bush: Africa after Clinton.(President Clinton completes his successful six-country tour of Africa)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... But the glow fades as the president goes homeBILL CLINTON'S six-country tour of Africa looked good, both for him and for Africa. He got a warm welcome everywhere. The sites were selected to fit the theme: America cares about Africa. They included a school in Uganda (education), ...
Diamond country: Botswana.(diamond resources have helped finance the unique economic recovery and flourishing democracy of Botswana)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... GABORONEIF AN American president had visited Botswana 30 years ago, he would have found a dusty cattle ranch, the size of France. The land was so unpromising that its neighbour, South Africa, allowed it to become independent from Britain in 1966 without challenge. This week, the ...
Against the return of Ugandan tyrants.(a growing human-rights movement in Uganda)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... KAMPALAINTERNATIONAL human-rights organisations tend to be accused by African governments of imposing alien values. Now, in Uganda, an indigenous human-rights movement is emerging, formed from governmental and non-governmental bodies, academic institutions and churches-and driven ...
Millions want to come: Western Europe says it cannot take many more immigrants. It may have to.
Apr 04, 1998 ... Western Europe says it cannot take many more immigrants. It may have toRARE is the European politician brave enough to call his country a land of immigration. Though the pace of migration to the European Union has fallen by half since 1992, when some 3m people, many of them ...
The tycoons behind the politicians: Russia.(includes related information on the political power of financial-industrial groups)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... MOSCOWWho will really run Russia's new government?PERHAPS Russia does not need a federal government after all. It has been malfunctioning much as usual on the mere wreckage of one since March 23rd, when President Boris Yeltsin sacked his prime minister, Viktor ...
Can Armenia's new man deal?(Robert Kocharian became president in March 1998 as Armenia needs peaceful relations with its neighbors)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... YEREVANTHE Armenians once prided themselves on being the Soviet nation most immune to communism. No more. Although an ardent nationalist, Robert Kocharian, was elected president on March 30th, the strong showing of Armenia's former Communist Party boss, Karen Demirchian, gave him ...
Ukraine: poor people. (reform-minded government derailed as Communists and allies win the most parliamentary seats in recent elections)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... KIEVIN A general election on March 29th, Ukrainians told their government of self-proclaimed reformers to get lost. The Communists-who want "voluntary reunification" with Russia-emerged as by far the largest single party, winning more seats than the three runners-up put together ....
Fewer hours, more jobs? The working week. (doubts over the merits of the 35-hour work week proposed by France's Socialists)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... PARISThe governments of both France and Italy are arguing with employers about plans for a 35-hour week. In two articles, we examine the brewing rowSO WHO really wants Lionel Jospin's 35-hour working week? Certainly not France's employers, who claim it will increase ...
New Romanian man, old mess. (likely successor to resigning Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea unlikely to improve fractious coalition government)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... BUCHARESTTHE resignation of its prime minister this week is not the end of Romania's crisis; it is the beginning. Few will miss Victor Ciorbea, a worthy former trade-union man who took power amid high hopes in November 1996, when he and a reforming president, Emil Constantinescu, ...
Now for a party? Italy. (how trade unions may hinder Italy's ability to make the European single currency a success)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... MILANHELICOPTER pilots stopped flying on March 30th. Next day, Italy's underground trains failed to run. The day after, it was the turn of ordinary trains to sit still. Air traffic, meanwhile, was spasmodic. Ferries threatened not to sail but most relented. A bad week, then, for ...
Farmer Franz Fischler digs in. (agricultural reforms proposed by European Union farm commissioner Franz Fischler)(Charlemagne)(Column)
Apr 04, 1998 ... THE symbolism was almost painful. On March 31st Robin Cook, British foreign secretary and current president of the European Union's Council of Ministers, hailed the opening of talks with five applicants from Central and Eastern Europe plus Cyprus-an event that must mean, among other things, ...
Benign neglect. (British Chancellor of the Exchequer claims no alarm over the surging value of the pound, despite worries from exporters)
Apr 04, 1998 ... The pound's recent surge in the currency markets has made exporters wince. Not my problem, says Gordon Brown. Nor is it-yetTHERE was a curious sight in Committee Room 8 of the House of Commons on March 31st: a chancellor of the exchequer refusing to sweat over the pound sterling ....
Boycotting Jeffrey: London's mayor. (controversial past of London mayoral hopeful Jeffrey Archer concerns Conservatives)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... Lord Archer wants to be mayor of London. The Tory hierarchy is less keenTHERE was a time when the Tory party regarded Jeffrey Archer as a great asset. A millionaire novelist with the popular touch, he seemed just the man to connect with the masses. But Lord Archer is now in danger ...
Accused: Northern Ireland. (United Nations probe into Britain's human rights record in Northern Ireland)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... WHEN Robin Cook became foreign secretary last May, he immediately made the promotion of human rights abroad one of his priorities. Now Britain's own human-rights record in Northern Ireland is once again under attack, just as multi-party talks on the province's future reach a climax. ...
Too close for comfort. (near collision of two jumbo jets near Heathrow Airport caused by poor communication between arrivals and departures air traffic controllers)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... LAST August, air-traffic controllers near Heathrow watched in horror as their radar screens showed a departing British Airways Boeing about to collide with an incoming Virgin flight. Seconds later, the two aircraft passed in thick cloud within 200 yards of one another.The incident, ...
Cognitive dissonance. (British government's campaign to recreate national identity through 'rebranding' is resulting in conflicting messages)(Bagehot)(Column)
Apr 04, 1998 ... SORRY to go on about the so-called rebranding of Britain, but since the government is so intent on pressing on with it, it seems only polite to notice. Initiatives come thick and fast. This week the government opened "powerhouse::uk", an exhibition intended to parade the best of British ...
The science of alliance.(business alliances among McDonald's Corp., Coca-Cola Co. and Walt Disney Co.)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... ORLANDOMcDonald's, Coca-Cola and Disney, the world's top three brands, are linked by a hidden web of alliances. For them, as for many others, such alliances offer the best hope of future growth IN MID-MARCH, 18,000 McDonald's employees from l09 countries descended on ...
McJITers.(McDonald's Corp. introduces just-in-time manufacturing techniques)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... ORLANDO ALONGSIDE the enormous stands for Coke and Disney, one of the main features of McDonald's recent convention was a huge demonstration kitchen. Thousands of franchisees queued for a chance to peer from a catwalk at the burger flippers below. McDonald's new "Made for You" ...
Don't mention the U-boat.(Bayerische Motoren Werke AG to buy Rolls-Royce Ltd.)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... BERLIN AND LONDON ON MARCH 31st waves of champagne lapped a beach of canapes at Berlin's glitziest hotel, the Adlon. The crowd assembled for the launch of the Roils-Royce Silver Seraph ogled a ballerina as she tweaked brown velvet drapes from the world's most expensive saloon ...
Spoilt.(inefficiency of Japan's three major airlines)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... TOKYO ONE by one, Japan's three main airlines are revealing how ill-equipped they are to cope with their increasingly competitive environment. Years of protectionism have spoilt them rotten. Their high labour costs, landing fees and fuel prices have weighed down the ...
Not good enough?(problems at Intel Corp.)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... SANTA CLARAThe booming market for cheap PCs took Intel by surprise. So did the convergence of computers and consumer electronics IT MAY be too soon to talk bout a crisis at Intel, the Santa Clara-based colossus whose chips power 90% of the world's personal computers ....
All clucked up.(competition from Asia affects Brazil's chicken industry)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... SAO PAULO LAST year's devaluations in Thailand and Malaysia have provoked a flapping of wings on Brazil's chicken farms. As South-East Asian poultry producers inundate some of Brazil's best markets with cut-price birds, a decade of rapid export growth for one of Latin America's ...
Affairs of the heart.(Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella)(Brief Article)(Column)
Apr 04, 1998 ... Daniel Vasella has made a good start as chief executive of Novartis. His future success depends on transplanted hearts and cultured foreskins ONCE a former physician, Daniel Vasella vaulted into the corporate hierarchy at Sandoz, which merged with Ciba in December 1996 to form ...
Breaking up is hard to do.(pressure on large insurance companies to specialize in life or property coverage)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... Big insurers are coming under pressure to specialise in either life or property coverage, not both. Why do their managers hate the idea?THE 1990s are the decade of demergers. From ITT, which controlled everything from auto-brake factories to Sheraton hotels, to Hanson, which once ...
Crunch!(budget problems at World Trade Organization)(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... The WTOWHEN the World Trade Organisation was set up in 1995 to take over the policing of the world's trading system, it was given significant powers and responsibilities. Unfortunately, it may be unable to afford the expense that comes with them.Since it replaced the ...
The World Bank's hidden history.(low-key publication of 'The World Bank: Its First Half-Century')(Brief Article)
Apr 04, 1998 ... WASHINGTON, DCJAMES WOLFENSOHN, president of the World Bank, often claims his organisation should become a "knowledge bank". He is also a wizard at public relations, tirelessly promoting the institution to anyone who will listen. How odd then that the publication of an authorised ...
Frozen out. (troubles of Russian investment banker Boris Jordan)
Apr 04, 1998 ... MOSCOWHE HAS been stripped of his visa twice and denounced as a threat to national security. His telephone has been tapped. Last week the central bank told him he lacked the experience to run a bank-although in less than three years he had built up, from scratch, one of the biggest ...
Nothing ventured: Europe's equity markets. (how regulations discourage startups in the European Union)
Apr 04, 1998 ... FOR all their familiarity, the numbers still startle. More than 18m people are out of work in the European Union; in America, the unemployed total just 6.4m. One reason is that young companies can raise cash more easily in America, which has helped turn one-time start-ups like Microsoft into ...