The Economist (US) back issues from October 2007:
Trade, timber and tribes; Peru.(Logging in the Peruvian Amazon)
Oct 06, 2007 ... The Democrats in the United States take on the loggers in Peru SEPAHUA, a ramshackle town on the edge of Peru's Amazon jungle, nestles in a pocket on the map where a river of the same name flows into the Urubamba. That pocket denotes a tiny patch of legally loggable land ...
Playground politics; Canada.(Ontario's election debate)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Ontario debates religion and schools HOW far should the majority go to accommodate the religion and culture of recent immigrants? Quite a long way, has usually been the answer in Canada, which prides itself on its multiculturalism. But John Tory, the happily named leader of the ...
Correa's victory; Ecuador.(Ecuador moves towards socialism)(Rafael Correa)
Oct 06, 2007 ... A mandate for "21st century socialism" HE CALLED it the "mother of all battles" and Rafael Correa, Ecuador's new young president, appears to have won it. According to an unofficial count of the results of an election on September 30th for a Constituent Assembly, Mr Correa's ...
Reflections from the ranch; Mexico.(Memoirs from Mexico's Vicente Fox)(Revolution of Hope: The Life, Faith, and Dreams of a Mexican President)(Book review)
Oct 06, 2007 ... He was a better cowboy than George Bush Vicente Fox remembers ANYONE looking to understand Vicente Fox's shortcomings as Mexico's president from 2000 to 2006 could do no better than read his memoirs. In "Revolution of Hope", a ghost-written volume published in ...
Commerce between friends and foes; Latin America and the United States.
Oct 06, 2007 ... The United States may finally ratify a trade deal with Peru. But pan-American trade diplomacy remains a mess IN HIS first term as Peru's president, in the 1980s, Alan Garcia was a firm believer in protectionism, banning the import of foreign cars and even of Chilean wine. But ...
Shouting across the barbed wire; Myanmar.(The world and Myanmar)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Myanmar's neighbours are talking tough but doing little to show their disapproval of the killings in Myanmar IBRAHIM GAMBARI, the United Nations' special envoy to Myanmar, kept everyone guessing after his four-day visit to seek an end to its military regime's harsh crackdown on ...
Misery piled upon misery; Myanmar.(Myanmar's quotidian misery)
Oct 06, 2007 ... The telephone never rings The regime's incompetence has left the Burmese starving and sick THE drastic increase in fuel prices last month, which made life even more difficult for ordinary Burmese and set off the latest round of protests, was only the latest proof of ...
Dried up, washed out, fed up; Australia's farmers.(Australia's wheat crisis)
Oct 06, 2007 ... You need a dry sense of humour An inaccurate weather forecast brings disaster for many WHEN rains fell in May after 11 dry years in a row, Bruce Crafter borrowed from his bank to sow a wheat crop on the family farm where he grew up in western Victoria. Like thousands ...
It'll cost you; The Koreas.(North Korean breakthrough (again))(peace between North Korea and South Korea)
Oct 06, 2007 ... The end of the line for Kim? Everybody claims a breakthrough with North Korea. This sounds familiar BRINGING his own food, and accompanied by 300 business, political and cultural figures--but excluding the international press--President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea ...
Down to the wire; Pakistan's presidential election.
Oct 06, 2007 ... Down but not out Even a rigged vote in a depleted electoral college can be a cliff-hanger HE ALREADY had the numbers, but that was not enough. General Pervez Musharraf enjoyed the parliamentary majority he needed to be re-elected president of Pakistan on October 6th ...
The northern front; Sri Lanka's war.(Sri Lanka's worsening war)(Viewpoint essay)
Oct 06, 2007 ... The army thinks it can win. It is wrong FROM the line of dusty travellers leaving the Tamil Tigers' heartland in northern Sri Lanka, young men are strikingly absent. The people trudging out of rebel territory, across a strip of scrubby ground dotted with bundles of barbed wire ...
With reservations - Business and caste in India.(Viewpoint essay)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Chipping away in the hierarchy India's government is threatening to make companies hire more low-caste workers A 23-YEAR-OLD dressed in white pyjama trousers and a black over-shirt represents two worlds in India that know almost nothing of each other. One is fast ...
Gambling lady; Royal intrigue.(Henrietta Howard)(Biography)
Oct 06, 2007 ... . TRACY BORMAN can tell a good story. Admittedly, her subject is a gift. But Henrietta Howard, mistress to George II, lived in the midst of a large cast of characters, many of them entangled in the complicated politics of 18th-century court life, and Ms Borman handles them and ...
Blundering into battle with China; The Korean war.(Critical essay)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Weighed down: the Korean war veterans memorial in Washington . SOME old men keep in a half-forgotten file their medal, inscribed with bureaucratic precision: "For service in defence of the principles of the charter of the United Nations". That was always humbug. The ...
The lasting glory of its art; The Byzantine empire.(Brief article)
Oct 06, 2007 ... And don't forget its vibrant cosmopolitan civilisation . . ON AN unusually mild Arctic morning in September a simply clad but dignified cleric stepped ashore at a remote bay on the southern tip of Greenland and conducted a short service at the remains of the oldest ...
The secretive do-gooder; Philanthropy.(Chuck Feeney)(Biography)
Oct 06, 2007 ... FOR most of his life Chuck Feeney has guarded his privacy obsessively. When he became a philanthropist, his gifts came on condition that his name never appeared on any press release or plaque; all donations would cease if confidentiality was breached. But when he decided to ...
Spinning tops and frozen cars; Olafur Eliasson.
Oct 06, 2007 ... An experience in San Francisco I'm a people lover, not a nature lover, says this Scandinavian artist WHEN asked to describe his work, Olafur Eliasson, replies "My art is about you." This might sound strange, coming from an artist who is famous for creating a giant ...
A man divided; Arthur Conan Doyle.
Oct 06, 2007 ... . THE inventor of Sherlock Holmes was the most commercially successful author of his time; by his death in 1930 he was one of the best-known Englishmen in the world. Arthur Conan Doyle was a phenomenon: practising doctor, war correspondent, businessman, politician and a ...
Holding operation; Interest rates.(Prospects for growth and interest rates)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Why the Bank of England may cut rates next month FORGET BC and AD. For the financial markets, the date dividing two eras is August 9th, when the financial markets seized up. Before then the City was sure that the base rate would rise this autumn to 6%. Instead, the Bank of ...
One tax to bind them; Taxing rich foreigners.(Plugging an unpopular loophole)
Oct 06, 2007 ... George reaches out to rich foreigners A loophole comes under political attack LITTLE riles the British more than unfair play. Most vexing of late is the realisation that ever more wealthy foreigners (and quite a few natives to boot) are using a crafty loophole to ...
Triple or quits; Bagehot.(What Gordon Brown has to fear from an autumn election)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Why David Cameron has less to fear from an autumn election than Gordon Brown PINK in the sunset, the fairground rides at the end of Blackpool's piers look magically inviting. At night the famous illuminations throb in gaudy colour, lighting up the mini-Eiffel tower, Ferris ...
The shock of the new; Conservative Party conference.(The Tories talk tough)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Close, but no cigar, Mr Cameron The Tories have yet to decide whether it is enough to talk the talk THE last time the Conservatives held their annual conference in Blackpool, in 2005, the faded glory of the town was a useful metaphor for a party whose best days seemed ...
At long last; Crossrail.(A long-promised project looks like happening at last)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Another prime minister, another promise--but this one may be honoured LONDON'S Crossrail project--a [pounds sterling]16 billion ($32 billion) plan to build an east-west rail link across the crowded city--is something of a standing joke in politics. First officially proposed by ...
A tale of two inquests; De Menezes and Diana.(The deaths of a princess and an electrician)(Princess Diana; Jean Charles de Menezes)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Cut down: Jean Charles de Menezes and Princess Diana An unresolved tragedy and a drawn-out farce LONDON'S two most famous courts were in session this week with two very different cases. Deep in the Gothic bowels of the High Court, a jury heard the story of a glamorous ...
One man, one decision; Polls and elections.(Polls are unreliable guides to electoral success)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Public-opinion surveys cannot tell the prime minister when to go to the country IT MAY not have been seriously intended at first: a chance to hog the headlines during his rivals' party conferences; a hard-to-resist game of keeping the opposition off-balance and derailing its ...
Dust off those ballot boxes; Preparing for an election.(Is Britain ready for a snap poll?)
Oct 06, 2007 ... A last-minute election could leave many disenfranchised EVEN the most carefully calibrated polls can be knocked off course by circumstances on election day. Wet and windy weather has been known to drag down voter turnout (ominously for Mr Brown, Labour supporters are said to be ...
Musharraf's manoeuvres; Spotlight on Pakistan.(Pakistan's presidential election)(General Pervez Musharraf)(Brief article)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Analysis of Pakistan and other news atwww.economist.com Keep track of the weekend's events in Pakistan as General Pervez Musharraf, the incumbent, tries to engineer his election as president THESE are turbulent times in Pakistan. On Saturday October 6th the federal ...
Saakashvili's test; Georgian politics.(New protesters hit the streets)(President Mikhail Saakashvili)
Oct 06, 2007 ... A worm in the bud of the rose revolution? AS BEFITS a land of film-makers and actors, Georgia likes to play its politics as spectacle. That is why, on September 28th, Rustaveli Avenue, in Tbilisi, was again awash with demonstrators. Echoes of the rose revolution of four years ...
The China trade syndrome; Charlemagne.(Brewing EU-China rows)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Europe's next big globalisation row will be over trade with China EUROPE'S political leaders are bracing themselves for a big new row about global competition: over China. The China threat has become well-embedded as a motif of American politics, with a stash of China-bashing ...
Too much; Italy's budget.(The government's plans for 2008)
Oct 06, 2007 ... The 2008 budget gives companies a break but leaves spending too high IN ITALY, Romano Prodi once mused, it can be hard "to distinguish the real issue--about which nobody ever talks--from the fictitious one which is fought over ferociously." Rarely has that been truer than of ...
Suburban style; French mayors.(A controversial mayoral candidate)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Former mayor greets former constituent Nicolas Sarkozy picks one of his own to take his old job as mayor of Neuilly TO BE mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine is to be in charge of a suburb that is a cross between Notting Hill in London and New York's upper east side. This ...
Oranges and lemons; Ukraine's election.(After the September 30th vote)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Yulia Tymoshenko wins, but there are still doubts surrounding her coalition TWO hours after the polls closed in Ukraine's election on September 30th the opposition leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, strode into a private suite in Kiev's smartest hotel, where European observers were ...
The never-ending presidency; Vladimir Putin.(How Vladimir Putin will stay on)
Oct 06, 2007 ... The president unveils his plan for staying in power after next March IT HAS always been a question of how, not if, Vladimir Putin would retain power in Russia when his second, and (according to the constitution) final presidential term runs out in March 2008. This week Mr Putin ...
Genocidal follies; Turkey and Armenia.(An awkward relationship)
Oct 06, 2007 ... The bad old days of 1915 The trouble that might flow from an American congressional resolution A RECENT evening in Istanbul, Turkey's (and Europe's) biggest city. Armenia's leading musician, Djivan Gasparyan, is playing his duduk, an Anatolian-style clarinet, as ...
Ready to run the movie again? - Hillary Clinton.(Hillary Clinton's prospects)(Viewpoint essay)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Her biggest asset and her biggest liability The betting is that the Clintons will follow the Bushes back into the White House THE September 29th issue of the National Journal, an inside-the-Beltway magazine, contains a striking news item. Hillary Clinton has quietly ...
Counting the cash; Remittances to Latin America.(Easier ways to follow the money)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Less money is being sent home by migrants. That is not as bad as it sounds IT IS testament to the love of fathers for sons, of children for parents, of husbands for wives. In the past five years, Mexican immigrants to America, most of them in back-breaking jobs on farms and ...
To infinity and beyond; Buttonwood.(Do shares really always rise?)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Contrary to popular belief, stocks do not always go up IF AMERICAN investors have learned any lesson in the last 25 years, it is to buy shares on the dips. The slide in 2000-02 may have been longer and deeper than they were used to but normal service was eventually resumed, ...
Flu fighters; Pandemic planning.(The next crisis?)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Beware the birds The finance industry is keeping an eye out for the next crisis DOES this sound familiar? A crisis lasts for weeks, is driven by uncertainty over who is suffering and has people queuing to withdraw cash. The credit crunch may have preoccupied the ...
When to bail out; Economics focus.
Oct 06, 2007 ... The case for more regulation of banks' liquidity EVEN the fiercest free-market advocates would concede that governments can justly intervene to curtail businesses that become too powerful. Most would allow that dominant firms with the clout to gouge their customers should be ...
Rush hour; China's stockmarkets.(China's unnerving share-price rally)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Share prices in China have taken on a life of their own TRAFFIC jams were not only to be found on the streets of Hong Kong this week. Share-trading systems were also clogged up as investors piled in after a holiday to mark the founding of the People's Republic of China. Mainland ...
As bad as it gets? Banking.(Bad results, great response)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Banks on both sides of the Atlantic announce poor results AFTER the summer's horrors, investors in banks needed something on which to hang their hopes. That something was the kitchen sink. On October 1st UBS, Credit Suisse and Citigroup all gave warning that earnings would be ...
Bad-news bulls; Stockmarkets.(The madness of markets)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Stockmarkets are breaking records again as if the credit crisis were ancient history. If only it were THE news seems to go from bad to worse. In late September figures showed that the American housing market was in free fall, with both sales and prices plunging. On October 1st ...
Some hard talk about towns; Cities and natural disasters.(Planning for disasters)
Oct 06, 2007 ... The death toll from the catastrophes that strike cities doesn't have to keep climbing IT ISN'T just an urban myth: life in a city really is getting more dangerous, and the sources of peril are not just human ones like muggers and reckless motorists. A report by UN-Habitat, an ...
The stuff of nightmares; Civil liberties: detention without trial.(Indefinite detention without trial in the "war on terror")
Oct 06, 2007 ... Guantanamo: where rights are shackled Judges and parliamentarians are restraining the zeal of governments who want a free hand to fight terror. The third in our series HAULED before a military tribunal at the American naval base in Guantanamo Bay, the detainee, picked ...
The comeback kids - The comeback kids; To come.
Oct 06, 2007 ... The American presidency is Hillary Clinton's to lose. But that doesn't make her a shoo-in just yet IF GREAT writers have a special insight into the souls of their countrymen, Hillary Clinton ought to be pleased. Philip Roth, one of the grandest old men of American letters, said ...
Don't free Fannie and Freddie; America's housing giants.(Federal National Mortgage Association)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Letting them grow is no solution and could even be dangerous THE news from America's housing market is getting no better. This week's helping of woe was a further sharp drop in pending home sales, an indicator of where the market is heading next. As sales plummet and defaults ...
Untouchable and unthinkable; Indian business.
Oct 06, 2007 ... Hiring quotas would not help lower-caste Indians and would harm business BUSINESSES in India are used to bad government. Indeed, this hardship has proved perversely useful: through coping with rotten infrastructure, throttling labour laws and mutable investment policies, many ...
Life beyond the pale; Myanmar.(Myanmar's thwarted revolution)
Oct 06, 2007 ... The outside world seems powerless to help the benighted country "NORMALCY" has now returned to Myanmar, boasted its foreign minister, Nyan Win, to the United Nations General Assembly this week. Sadly, he was right. It is normal for the country to be in the grip of vicious ...
Democracy, Soviet-style; Russia.(After Vladimir Putin's power grab)
Oct 06, 2007 ... The Russian people are readier for democracy than Vladimir Putin will allow THE timing was surely no accident. On October 1st newspapers in Moscow were idly speculating over who might be Ukraine's prime minister after yet another indecisive election. This was the moment when ...
Parallel purposes; Iran.(The fight over sanctions against Iran)
Oct 06, 2007 ... UN or no, the squeeze on Iran tightens IRAN carries on enriching uranium regardless at its nuclear plant at Natanz. Diplomats from the five veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council (America, Britain, France, Russia and China) plus Germany, unable to agree on tougher ...
A Scorpion is stung; South Africa.(Power politics in South Africa's ruling party gets nasty)(Vusi Pikoli gets suspended)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Why has the country's national prosecutor been suspended? AS THE business of nominating candidates for the leadership of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) gets under way this week, the atmosphere, already clouded by arguments over who should succeed President Thabo ...
I want to kill you, but not today; Iraq.(Americans co-operating with former Sunni insurgents in Iraq)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Will American co-operation with former insurgents last? "QAEM has no room for terrorists," read the billboards on the desert road to this remote town in Iraq's far north-west, near the Syrian border. In a dusty grid of houses beside a strip of farmland along the Euphrates ...
Fatah has begun to fight back; The Gaza Strip.(The power struggle in the Gaza Strip)
Oct 06, 2007 ... A new struggle for power is under way FIRST there was one, then several, and now the yellow flags of Fatah dominate the Gaza Strip's skyline. From north to south, the bright tall banners of the secular Palestinian party easily outnumber the faded green flags of Hamas, the ...
Breaking into even smaller bits? Somalia.(The fragmentation of Somalia)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Even the parts of Somalia that were steady are looking shaky again A PECULIARITY of Somalia is that while the south of the country, including its broken capital, Mogadishu, has burned, the north has been stable. Now, to the horror of those trying to put Mogadishu back together ...
Boost here, squeeze there; The Palestinian territories.(Israel's strategy towards the Palestinian territories)
Oct 06, 2007 ... The Fatah faithful in Jenin In two articles, we query a plan to rehabilitate Fatah and isolate Hamas THEY came for Omar Maswadeh at half-past midnight. They broke furniture at his home in the West Bank town of Hebron, blindfolded him, shoved him in a car. They kept ...
Haidar Abdel Shafi.(Haidar Abdel Shafi, a model for the Palestinians)(Obituary)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Haidar Abdel Shafi, a model for the Palestinians, died on September 25th, aged 88 IN THE spring of 1948, around March as he remembered it, Haidar Abdel Shafi found himself at nightfall, waiting, in a small mud hut by the side of the main road in Deir al-Balah. Around him ...
Subprime cuts; Organ transplants.(Finding more kidneys for transplantation)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Wrapped and ready American transplant surgeons need to become less fussy about their kidneys "RIGHT now, we have two kidneys coming in from Montana; they are 24 hours old and nobody wants them. But they are perfectly good kidneys even though they are going to be 40 ...
Vulture culture; Conservation.(Save the vulture!)
Oct 06, 2007 ... What we gonna do, then? At last, India's vultures are having their condor moment IMAGE is everything. Say "condor", and people get dewy-eyed at the thought of magnificent birds soaring over mountain tops. That such a species could be allowed to become extinct is ...
A god of small things; Speciation.(Evolving new virus species in the lab)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Natural selection in the laboratory creates a new species of virus FOR most people, the idea of isolation is an uncomfortable one. It interests Paul Turner, however, because it goes hand in hand with the formation of new species. Dr Turner is a biologist at Yale University, and ...
Patience, fairness and the human condition; Evolution.(The evolution of patience and fairness)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Apes are patient, but only people are fair. That may help explain why people came out on top PEOPLE love to catalogue the traits they think characteristic of their species. Some, such as language, are obvious. Others, such as patience and a sense of fairness, are more subtle ....
Happy-go-lucky young; Health insurance.(Health insurance for young Americans)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Before the fall The latest targets for insurers YOUNG people are hard to pin down. They graduate from school. They jump between employers, or in and out of employment. They leave their parental home for a shared flat, a friend's couch, or a house they can scarcely ...
The school of very hard knocks; Lexington.(Clarence Thomas's new book)(Biography)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Inside the mind of a Supreme Court justice HE'S powerful. He's conservative. His daddy was an oil man. He found God and stopped drinking in middle age. The certainty and simplicity of his world view infuriate his many opponents. George Bush? No. The autobiography that is making ...
A hard road to hoe; Teaching poor children.
Oct 06, 2007 ... None the worse for no diploma Does the Teach for America programme really improve schools? AS THE 58,000 pupils of the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) begin a new school year, their teachers are adjusting to a controversial new boss. Michelle Rhee, a rookie ...
Capital of culture; Washington.(Washington and culture)
Oct 06, 2007 ... Lend us your ears An intellectual and artistic renaissance WASHINGTON, DC has traditionally been an unbalanced city when it comes to the life of the mind. It has great national monuments, from the Smithsonian museums to the Library of Congress. But day-to-day cultural ...
The hammer drops; America's property crisis.(Fallout from the subprime mess)
Oct 06, 2007 ... America's houses are being repossessed at a record rate. What comes next? AT FIRST sight, Maple Heights, just outside Cleveland, looks much like any other ageing suburb in the industrial mid-west: a patchwork of small colonial-style houses built after the second world war, with ...