What Happens When the Bank Fails
By Donella Meadows
–March 12, 1987–
About half the people I met in Oklahoma had personally experienced a bank failure over the past year or so. On Thursday, January 8, of the week I was there another bank went under, Security National Bank of Norman, Oklahoma.
Friday morning Security National reopened under new management. The TV news showed its customers calmly doing their [...]
Three Million Pounds of Food a Month
By Donella Meadows
–March 5, 1987–
Four years ago Lee Stuart was in San Diego working on her Ph.D. in systems ecology. Now Dr. Lee Stuart lives in the Bronx, where she helps distribute 360,000 pounds of food a month to 8,000 families. That’s not where she thought her doctorate would take her.
While Lee was writing her thesis, she was also a [...]
Peru’s Young President Balances on the High Wire
By Donella Meadows
–February 26,1987–
In the circus of politics, some national leaders are strong-men, some are clowns. Very few are high-wire artists, taking on the most challenging jobs and struggling for balance, while the world holds its breath. One of those is Alan Garcia, the 37-year-old President of Peru.
I ran into my Peruvian friend Francisco Sagasti in August 1985, a month [...]
When the Stock Market Goes Up and the Economy Doesn’t
By Donella Meadows
–February 19, 1987–
Why is the stock market shooting up while the economy is in the doldrums? As usual with questions about economics, you can find someone to give you any answer you want.
If you want to hear that the market is revealing the hidden economic strength of this great nation, listen to someone in the Reagan administration.
If you [...]
Dear Folks: February 12, 1987
Dear Folks,
Tomorrow I leave for a month in Vienna. I’ll be working there at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), which many of you know about because Dennis and I work there often. It’s an East-West institute, co-founded by the Americans and the Russians, and despite the Reagan administration’s best efforts to kill it off, it still is [...]
