Reality Intrudes on the Drug War
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on February 16th, 2009 5:38 am by HL
Reality Intrudes on the Drug War
In the story of the emperor with no clothes, it took someone whose observations are rarely heeded — a child — to point out the obvious fact that no one else could acknowledge. In the case of drug policy, it takes people who are usually ignored by Washington policymakers — Latin Americans — to perform the same invaluable service. Last week, a commission made up of 17 members, from Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa to Sonia Picado, the Costa Rican who heads the Inter-American Institute on Human Rights, did nothing but admit the truth: The war on drugs is a failure.
Break Up the Banking Supermarkets
LONDON — Bannered across the front page of the Daily Telegraph Thursday was the grim headline: “Slump is worst since the war.” The story quoted Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, warning that Britain was in a “deep recession.” The Telegraph described his comments as “the most pessimistic assessment of Britain’s prospects in the modern era.” If it’s any consolation for Americans, the financial crisis here is as severe as in the United States. Economists and traders describe a global economic pandemic, with the countries most open to free flows of trade and capital the ones that are hardest hit.
