ss Wealth 541 North fÃ?§lriÃ?Ë?uCt., Chicago, 111.
60611.
~ith
thehigneatannualpercapitaincometabout$16,000)in them&
trialized Wd, Switzerland enjoys an enviably law employment rate (03 percent ofthe labor force) and a carmmer price index that creeps up at less than I percent a year. Suchfactors have made the Swiss franctheworld'ss-;but nowthat very strength,wrim Fmw -t ?=-,?a mte a -tic economiccrisis.
WhenPresidentCartermewed to rescuethe toNovember 1978, t...
Koji Taira, in Current History (Nov. 1978), 4225 Main St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19127.
When the OPEC countries quadrupled their oil prices in 1973, many economists believed that energy-poor Japan would be ruined. Now, five years later, Japan has weathered an economic slump and finds itself in an enviable international position. Its annual GNP is growing again at a healthy 5 or 6 percent after regressing in 1974 and, most surprising, Japan registered an $1 1 billion trade surplus in 1977 after showing...
Peter Stein-
fels, in Esquire (Feb. 13, 1979), P.O. Box 2961.Boulder,Colo.80321.
A "neoconservative" movement, born in reaction to the turmoil of the
1960s, is taking center stage in American politics, writes Steinfels, ex-ecutive editor of Commonweal. The neoconservatives "are setting the agenda for our national political life, laying down the ground rules for public discussion."
Neoconservatism has no place for social turbulence, political con-flict, or cultural experimentation....
John Edward Wiltz, in
Milirur?~ Affui~~z (Dec. 1978), Eisenhowel-
Hall, Kansas State University, Manhat-
tan, Kans. 66506.
The Wake Island meeting between President Harry S Truman and Gen-
eral of the Army Douglas MacArthur on October 15, 1950, has occupied an important niche in the literature of the Korean War and in sub-sequent controversy involving the two men.
The purpose of the meeting, says Wiltz, a historian at Indiana Uni-
versity, was not to settle U.S. policy toward Taiwan or win...
Neal R. Peilce
ofkibevalisn2
and Jerl·~ HagstrDm,in Natio,lui Joun?ul(Dec. 30, 1978), 1730 M St. N.W., Wash-
ington,
D.C.
20036.
New citizen action organizations are springing up to represent the interests of low- and middle-income people at the state and local level. Collectively, "they are the liberal counterpart of the 'New Right'," say Peirce and Hagstrom, contributing editors of Natiolzal Jolln·2al.
The...
Jose A. Cabranes, in Fo,·eigM Policy
~i~g2ect jl~V~tl;r:P:~~~,.984.
PO Bar Farming
From 1952 until the mid-1970s, Puerto Rico (population 3.2 million) prospered under its Commonwealth relationship with the United States. In 1975, however, the island's economy, which had become closely tied to that of the United States, almost collapsed. The "Opera- tion Bootstrap" boom, built on cheap labor and U.S. capital, was ended worldwide recession and foreign competition.
Today, wri...
a Senator is currently screened the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Committee on the Federal Judi-ciary of the American Bar Association and must pass muster with the Attorney General and the President. Finally, the President's nominee must be confirmed by the Senate, where the Judiciary Committee ac-tively seeks public comment.
The reformers' charge that judicial recommendations by elected offi-cials are subject to the abuses of partisan politics is unfounded, says Stevenson, because "there...
Thomas Jefferson as "the wisest in-vention ever devised the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self- government."
Only in Vermont has the town meeting retained much vitality; at-tendance stays high despite the fact that the towns have been steadily losing power to the state government. On the average, about one-quarter of a town's registered voters attend an annual town meeting lasting some 3 hours and 25 minutes. About 37 percent of those present speak. Attendance and participation...
the decision-makers, not the professionals who gather information and analyse it, writes Betts, research associate at the Brookings Institution.
Washington's failure to anticipate the Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941, for example, occurred both because evidence of the impending attack did not flow efficiently up the chain of command and because the evidence contradicted existing strategic assumptions. Pearl Harbor led eventually to the establishment of a Watch Committee and National...
projecting U.S. views onto the Soviets, they have underesti-mated the difficulties of achieving gentline strategic stability and over-estimated what has been and can be achieved through Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT).
Worst of all, Ermarth concludes, Americans' excessive confidence in strategic stability has encouraged Moscow to pursue a more assertive foreign policy. The United States should now deemphasize "stability" and develop a more dynamic strategic doctrine of its own.
IS...