[lit-ideas] Re: Should Chirac join Bush in oblivion?
- From: Judy Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2004 23:58:41 +0100
EY> In the interest of fairness, I'd be interested in his and others'
EY> reactions to Chirac's role in the "oil for food scandal" and the oil
EY> voucher payments received to encourage weakening UN sanctions.
EY> Shouldn't Chirac also be history? If so why not?
Is France like this?:
>The Independent
>Andrew Buncombe reports 30 October 2004
(similar material cut)
>Indeed, the surge in high-end sales has been such that Time magazine
>recently coined a new media-friendly term for the boom: luxury fever.
>"What's happened is that there is a necessity for a feel-good factor
>for luxury," Dana Telsey, a luxury goods analyst for Bear Stearn
>asset management, told the magazine. "With the improvement in the
>[economic] environment, especially after Sars and the war in Iraq,
>the demand for better products is expanding to all levels, from the
>super-premium such as private jets and resort residences, to the
>accessible, including [items by leather accessory designer] Coach."
>But the high-end boom, which has resulted, as Time thoughtfully
>pointed out, in waiting lists for $50m yachts because most boatyards
>are fully booked until the end of next year and even into 2006, tells
>just part of a much more disturbing story. As America prepares to go
>to the polls in what may be the most important election in a
>generation, the gap between its rich and poor is greater now than at
>any time in the past 75 years.
>Ironically perhaps, nowhere in America is the divide greater than in
>the nation's capital. In Washington, site of vast marble monuments
>designed to encapsulate the nation's founding ideologies and pay
>homage to its greatest heroes, the statistics are nothing less than
>extraordinary: figures collated by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute
>show the average annual income of the top 20 per cent of households
>in the city stands at $186,830, which is 31 times the average income
>for the lowest 20 per cent, which somehow struggle by on an
>astonishing $6,126.
>"The divide between rich and poor is probably greater now than it has
>been since 1929," said Edward Wolff, professor of economics at New
>York University
--
Judy Evans, Cardiff, UK
mailto:judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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