Listener: 29 April, 2000 Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; The free trade versus fair trade dispute is an example of the way policy debates can be dominated by extremism. Economists often pontificate on the topic with an authority that their theories do not justify. Non-economists take up ideological positions, relying on the economists’ claims. What economic…
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Listener 15 April, 2000
Keywords Globalisation & Trade;
The Americans who first drilled for Arabian Gulf oil in the 1950s smoked tobacco. Despite an Islamic prohibition, the locals took up the habit, which steadily spread across the country. (Today lung cancer rates in the oil regions of Saudi Arabia are about double the national average, which is climbing.)
Listener 1 April, 2000
Keywords Globalisation & Trade;
Of Arrowtown, Denis Glover wrote there was “Gold in the ceilings/ gold in the floors”. He did not mean literally: rather gold mining has shaped the town. Saudi Arabia is shaped by oil. It holds more than a quarter of the world’s known oil reserves, and is finding more. Currently the kingdom supplies about an eighth of total production, and is flush with the revenue from its sales.