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Press Review

How are Major Magazines Covering National Wealth?

A few short years ago, the confident econo-lingo of growth, gross domestic product (GDP) and marginal utility had a curiously palliative effect on public consciousness - not unlike the Bobby McFerrin hit Don't Worry, Be Happy. How things have changed.

Neoclassical economics, popular since WW II, is under attack. Reasons for unbounded economic optimism no longer come so easily and the mainstream media have smelled a rat in the department of economics. With this development has also come a new target for the press - the hype and hidden assumptions neo-classical economists hold about national wealth.

The Atlantic Monthly If the GDP is Up, Why Is America Down? By Clifford Cobb
October, 1995An insightful and thoughtful rethink of the most pervasive measure of national economic progress on the planet, by the research director of the San Francisco non-profit, Rethinking Progress. The GDP is such a crazy mismeasure of the economy that it portrays disaster as gain, the Atlantic says.
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Adbusters Book Review: Money and Magic By Herman Daly
Winter, 1996
An original and spirited attack on the Modern Economy, based on HC Binswanger's recent Faust-inspired work. The "culture-jamming" Vancouver magazine's general conclusion: Economics works better than alchemy - but only for a while.
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Time Real Wealth of Nations By Adam Zagorin
October 2, 1995
A concise review of the major findings of the recent World Bank report that redefined the economic Wealth of Nations (see DI #1). Includes a handy recap of the top and bottom 20 countries according to the new ratings.
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The Economist No accounting for tastes
September 23, 1995
Despite serving as the intellectual bible of many "movers and shakers", this clever British weekly revealed its biases in recent reporting on the World Bank's reworking of wealth. It calls the Bank's attempt to measure the overall value of natural resources to society a "dangerous leap", arguing instead that natural resources should be valued solely on their ability to generate revenue.
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Eureka! Pretty Polished

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A few Holes
Bulb

Virtual Ideas		 The Irrationality of Homo Economicus - an interview with maverick thinker Herman Daly.