Word: natione
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Since last summer the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has gone up - indeed, it grew at a surprising 5.7% rate in the 4th quarter - seeming to confirm what we've been hearing: the recession is officially over. But wait - foreclosure and unemployment rates remain high, and food banks are seeing record demand. Could it be that the GDP, that gold standard of economic data, might not be the best way to gauge a nation's relative prosperity...
What exactly have we been fetishizing? Basically, market activity and growth. The GDP, generally expressed as a per-capita figure and often adjusted to reflect purchasing power, represents the market value of good and services produced within a nation's boundaries. Sounds reasonable. Until we consider what it doesn't measure: the general progress in health and education, the condition of public infrastructure, fuel efficiency, community and leisure...
...underdeveloped nation, Haiti was especially vulnerable to a disaster of this magnitude. Once the rubble clears, relief groups must focus on modernizing the country’s decrepit infrastructure. The Army Corps of Engineers has specified that any recovery in Haiti must renovate the ports, airfields, electrical grids, and water and road systems. It is not enough to merely restore Haiti to its former condition; true relief means leaving the country with the means to provide essential services to its own people...
...League team to possess such an impressive resume—let alone two in the same season—and the pundits are starting to take notice. The Big Red received 38 points in the most recent ESPN/USA Today poll, placing it at 27th in the nation. The Crimson has received a top-25 vote in the AP Poll for three consecutive weeks...
Anyone who attended the Jan. 29 session of Britain's Iraq inquiry to watch Tony Blair crumble went home disappointed. When the nation's former Prime Minister returns to center stage, he seldom fails to remind even his sharpest critics of his prodigious political skills - the very same skills that had enabled him to cajole dubious colleagues and a skeptical Parliament into reluctantly supporting the 2003 invasion of Iraq. An inquiry panel of career diplomats and academics was never likely to dent his composure. ("They're sitting there like chickens," squawked an exasperated audience member during a break from proceedings...