This morning on U.S. National Public Radio, they were interviewing some mainstream political scientist on the events in Indonesia. He gave a very hopeful (from a mainstream perspective) prognosis about the rise of Suharto's current successor, a man who seems to be nothing but a corrupt crony (who earned the enmity of the army by foisting inadequate "high tech" stuff on them at high prices). But that's not the main point: this political scientist (whose name I've forgotten) expressed regret that the new president of Indonesia isn't an economist and hope that economists would be appointed to the Indonesian cabinet. If I remember correctly, when the Holy Alliance imposed order on Europe after the Napoleonic Wars, they insisted on the participation of Christian clergy in the governments involved in the peace agreement (hammered out at the Congress of Vienna, 1814-15). The current "Holy Alliance" (led by the U.S./World Bank/IMF) insists on the participation of economists, preferably Harvard- or Chicago-trained. If it's not an economist, it's got to be a "technocrat." in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html "It takes a busload of faith to get by." -- Lou Reed.
