A Farewell Address by the World Bank’s Most Outrageous Economist
By Donella Meadows
–February 3, 1994–
Six years ago, when the World Bank hired Herman Daly, those who knew his work were amazed. Daly is, depending on your point of view, either the most dangerous economist in the world, or the most visionary. For years he taught economics at Louisiana State and quietly wrote articles that stood much of economics on its [...]
How One Bit of Your Foreign Aid Money Was Spent
By Donella Meadows
–August 25, 1993–
Most Americans, according to opinion polls, believe that huge quantities of their tax dollars go to foreign aid, and that this money is largely wasted.
In fact our foreign aid budget, nearly $7 billion a year, accounts for roughly half a cent out of every dollar the government spends. It comes to, on average, $28 a year [...]
Who Will Tell the People
By Donella Meadows
–June 3, 1993–
Whatever you do, don’t read the book Who Will Tell the People by William Greider. Especially not now, while the powers-that-be are putting up such spectacular resistance to balancing the budget, helping the economy, or reducing their own privileges. You’ll get too mad.
Innocent citizens like me can watch the short-sightedness and greed of our leaders year [...]
We Need Change, In Spite of the Upset
By Donella Meadows
–May 13, 1993–
A friend of mine has a favorite saying: “Change is upset.” You can see what she means by watching Washington these days. The people voted for change. Bill Clinton is trying to produce it. He’s going in the directions favored by popular fussbudget Ross Perot — cut the deficit, create jobs, reduce the power of special [...]
Taxing What We Don’t Want, Instead of What We Want
By Donella Meadows
–January 14, 1993—-
In spite of the wisecracks we all like to make about government, we know that if we didn’t have one, we would slowly — or maybe not so slowly — devolve to the hapless condition of a Bosnia or Somalia. We need government. So we have to pay for it. So we have to tax something.
But [...]
