links for 2008-11-18

• Trade protection and growth - Dani Rodrik
• Gallup’s New Job Market Measure - Economix
• Obama should spend on healthcare to boost US economy - Dean Baker
• Inefficiency in aquaculture? - John Whitehead
• Triple "Ut-Oh": End of the Consumer of Last Resort - Econbrowser
• The Crash Next Time - Economic Principals
• Harvard University's investment errors - Daniel Gross
• New Models - Creative Class
• Make it Official - The Bellows
• Self Interest and Selfishness - Adam Smith's Lost Legacy
• Fighting the Financial Crisis, One Challenge at a Time - Hank Paulson - NYT
• Globalisation and risks: Trends and crises - Vox EU
• Is the US too big to fail? - Vox EU
• Net Investment Under FDR: Krugman v. Will and a Chart - pgl
• Downward spirals - Free exchange
• Paradox remains: bank lending flows in spite of credit crisis - Rebecca Wilder
• Proposed Solutions to the Securitization Problem - The Baseline Scenario
• Great Pyramid Mystery Solved by Hidden Room? - National Geographic

Comments

[anne]

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=726492

November 13, 2008

In Chronic Condition: Experiences of Patients with Complex Health Care Needs, in Eight Countries, 2008
By Cathy Schoen, Robin Osborn, Sabrina K. H. How, Michelle M. Doty, and Jordon Peugh

Synopsis

A 2008 survey of chronically ill adults in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States found major differences in health care access, safety, and efficiency, with U.S. patients at particularly high risk of forgoing care because of costs and experiencing errors or inefficient, poorly organized care.

The Issue

Across industrialized nations, patients with multiple chronic conditions account for a disproportionate share of national health spending. Such patients often see multiple clinicians in a variety of care settings, putting them at heightened risk for experiencing medical errors and having poorly coordinated care. Because of their extensive contact with the health care system, these patients offer unique perspective on many aspects of system performance.

Key Findings

* More than half (54%) of U.S. patients did not get recommended care, fill prescriptions, or see a doctor when sick because of costs, versus 7 percent to 36 percent in the other countries.

* About one-third of U.S. patients—the highest proportion in the survey—experienced medical errors, including delays in learning about abnormal lab test results.

* Similarly, one-third of U.S. patients encountered poorly coordinated care, including medical records not available during an appointment or duplicated tests.

* The U.S. stands out for patient costs, with 41 percent reporting they spent more than $1,000 on out-of-pocket costs in the past year. U.K. and Dutch patients were most protected against such costs.

* Only one-quarter (26%) of U.S. and Canadian patients reported same-day access to doctors when sick, and one-fourth or more reported long waits. About half or more of Dutch (60%), New Zealand, (54%), and U.K. (48%) patients were able to get same-day appointments.

* A majority of respondents across the eight countries saw room for improvement. Chronically ill adults in the U.S. were the most negative; one-third said the health care system needs a complete overhaul.

* In the past two years, 59 percent of U.S. patients visited an emergency room (ER); only Canada had a higher rate (64%). In both countries, one of five patients said they went to the ER for a condition that could have been treated by a regular doctor if one had been available.

Study Implications

While the U.S. did comparatively well on some measures of hospital discharge instructions and patient-centered care, chronically ill Americans often cannot afford to follow recommended care. Gaps in coverage and cost-sharing are undermining access and adherence. The survey finding that in all eight countries, patients most often reported that errors happened outside the hospital highlights the need to focus on ambulatory care and medication safety. Initiatives under way across nations to improve performance through payment reform, information systems, and managing chronic conditions offer cross-national opportunities to learn.

About the Study

The 2008 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Sicker Adults interviewed 7,500 chronically ill patients in eight countries. Respondents had at least one of seven conditions: hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, lung problems, cancer, or depression.

The Bottom Line

Compared with their counterparts in seven other countries, chronically ill adults in the U.S. are far more likely to forgo care because of costs. They also experience the highest rates of medical errors, care coordination problems, and high out-of-pocket costs.

Citation

http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.28.1.w1/DC1

[anne]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/opinion/18tue3.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

November 18, 2008

The Wrong Place to Be Chronically Ill

Chronically ill Americans suffer far worse care than their counterparts in seven other industrial nations, according to a new study by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based foundation that has pioneered in international comparisons. It is the latest telling evidence that the dysfunctional American health care system badly needs reform.

The results of the study, published by the respected journal Health Affairs, belie the notion held by many American politicians that health care in this country is the best in the world. That may be true at a handful of pre-eminent medical centers, but it is hardly true for the care provided to a huge portion of the population.

The Commonwealth Fund’s survey of 7,500 patients in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Britain and the United States focused on patients who suffered from at least one of seven chronic conditions: hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, lung problems, cancer or depression.

The care they received in this country — or more often did not receive — ought to be a cause for shame. More than half of the American patients went without care because of high out-of-pocket costs. They did not visit a doctor when sick, skipped a recommended test or treatment or failed to fill a prescription. The uninsured suffered most, but even 43 percent of those who had insurance all year skipped care because of costs.

Americans also were most likely to report wasting time because their care was so poorly organized. About a third reported that medical records and test results were not available when needed or that tests were duplicated unnecessarily. A third experienced a medical error, such as being given the wrong medication or test results. Some 40 percent found it very difficult to get after-hours care without going to an emergency room.

The United States did comparatively well in some areas, such as providing relatively prompt access to specialists and clear instructions to patients leaving the hospital. But the nation’s overall performance was abysmal.

By contrast, Dutch patients reported far more favorable experiences with their health care system, largely because the Netherlands provides universal coverage (through individual mandates and private health insurance), a strong primary care system and widespread use of electronic medical records. It should be possible to achieve the same level of performance here.

[hari]

Anne - There is a EU list rating member countries on healthcare. Whereas under last EU rating Austria was on top. Under the current rating Nederlands jumped to the top - as you show above - because of e-healthcare. Denark and Sweden followed by Austria.

We pay our insurance privately. Huisartz (homedoctor) is center-piece of individual healthcare regulatory control and they (in-turn) are publically licensed/regulated by Min of Health.

[hari]

Mark is providing a better comparative study on financial/trade globalization and risk analysis.

*Dani - is (again) trying to protect his backside dealing with protectionism (I suppose he approves it!).

Roland Spahr (VoxEU) - *Is Globalization Risky?*

I find this study of real world developments in trade and financial globalization more convincing. Spahr is rightly demonstrating nature of *risk* involved with globalization.
He's is a Director/PriceWaterHouseCentre (China).

NB. It's the regulatory (arbitrage) which makes globalization for developing/emerging markets more risky principally because of (inadequate) legal infrastructure required to facilitate globalization and risk management. The figs for China and India can simply be illustrated by their respective legal state structure of governance and accountability.

Note: EU/Asia Summit (Oct'08) agreed under specific circumstances protection of infant industry is a realistic goal. They also deal with transition - to level playing field.

[reason]

Monbiot on what could have been. Mark Thoma - a good post for you to comment on?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/18/lord-keynes-international-monetary-fund

[anne]

Hari:

"We pay for our insurance privately. Huisartz (homedoctor) is the center-piece of individual healthcare regulatory control and they (in-turn) are publicly licensed/regulated by the Ministry of Health."

What does paying for healthcare insurance privately in the Netherlands mean?

[hari]

The insurance companies are licensed by Gov to offer their insurance cover to each citizen - ie. competitive coverage/offer. The law mandates each citizen must be covered by approved insurance - ie. basic cover. Subsidy provided for those below average income by Min of Fin.

Cost - basic cover - Euro 94.10/mth

[Because of age I add extra for dental and other costs - just in case!].

[anne]

Hari:

The insurance companies are licensed by Government to offer their insurance coverage to each citizen - i.e. competitive coverage/offer. The law mandates each citizen must be covered by approved insurance - i.e. basic coverage. Subsidy provided for those below average income by the Ministry of Finance.

Cost - basic cover - Euro 94.10/month

[1 Euro = 1.2643 U.S. dollars]

[hari]

Anne - paying privately means essentially the law mandates each citizen is covered based on the approved basic rate by Min Of Health. Handful of insurance companies are approved to handle the business under guidance of Min of Health.

So, while no insurance premium is paid to a gov authority, the citizen with below approved base income is subsidized by law either directly or to his/her insurance company of choice.

The system is universal and mandatory and costs are indexed to inflation.

[anne]

http://www.milliman.com/expertise/healthcare/products-tools/mmi/pdfs/milliman-medical-index-2008.pdf

May, 2008

Milliman Medical Index

The total medical cost in 2008 for a typical family of four is $15,609.

This comes to $3902.25 per person = $325.19/month

[America: the typical cost per person per year is $3902.25 = $325.19/month.

Netherlands: the typical cost per person is Euro 94.10/month = $118.97/month

1 Euro = 1.2643 U.S. dollars]

[hari]

Anne - e-healthcare has given Holland an edge because when I take a blood test - the result is immediately transferred to my Huisartz (homedoctor) pc screen. So she knows before I do what's the outcome. And, if she finds something not satisfactory, she will call me and ask me to come and see her.

Huisartz is a concept as old as Dutch culture, I suspect. It works because it's built on trust and (licensed) competence by Min of Health. My Huisartz can refer me to a specialist (required by law) she considers relevant to follow up on any development she can't handle as a general practice(ioner).

My insurance covers it all - under the domain of Huisartz.

NB. I'm +70 and got brand new eyes across the boarder in Ahus (Germany) by a specialist. Patients come to him from all over the world. He handled my surgery and stay in their own lux hotel (annex!) and follow-up control for few months -cost zero to my budget. My insurance directly covered it all and gave me a lot to confidence in their management of such across-the-boarder surgery. It's now becoming a bit more common today (because of cues in Holland).

[anne]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/science/18obwater.html?ref=science&pagewanted=print

November 18, 2008

Drip Irrigation May Not Be Efficient, Analysis Finds
By Henry Fountain

In an effort to make irrigation more efficient — to obtain more "crop per drop" — farmers have adopted alternatives to flooding and other conventional methods. Among these is drip irrigation, shown above, in which water flows only to the roots. Drip systems are costly, but they save much water.

Or do they? A hydrologic and economic analysis of the Upper Rio Grande basin in the Southwest, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that subsidies and other policies that encourage conservation methods like drip irrigation can actually increase water consumption.

"The take-home message is that you'd better take a pretty careful look at drip irrigation before you spend a bunch of money on subsidizing it," said Frank A. Ward, a resource economist at New Mexico State University and author of the study with Manuel Pulido-Velázquez of the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain.

With flood irrigation, much of the water is not used by the plants and seeps back to the source, an aquifer or a river. Drip irrigation draws less water, but almost all of it is taken up by the plants, so very little is returned. "Those aquifers are not going to get recharged," Dr. Ward said.

Drip irrigation also generally increases crop yields, which encourages farmers to expand acreage and request the right to take even more water, thus depleting even more of it. "The indirect effect is very possibly to undermine policy attempts to reduce water consumption," Dr. Ward said.

Policymakers, he added, must balance the need for more food and for farmers to make a living with water needs. "It's fair to say that subsidies are very good for food security and very good for farmer income," Dr. Ward said. "But they may be taking water away from other people."

[kthomas]

anne, drip irrigation does work.....I gather the reason you posted that article was because of the subject of subsidies, not whether drip irrigation is better (for the environment, which it is, less toxic run-off and more water for the beloved fish).

The Slate article was sobering: "....But it does show that even the best, most experienced, and highly regarded long-term investors can get suckered into new-era thinking and make investments that turn out to be highly risky bets. The 13-F shows that the managers running this Harvard porfolio were huge believers in the decoupling theory—i.e., that emerging markets would continue to thrive even as the United States stalled—and in the notion that commodities would keep booming." I could not stop laughing. Hey Harvard! You're not looking too smart these days, folks! Do you people just stop teaching Econ 101? Kiss my arse!

[anne]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/science/18obwater.html?ref=science&pagewanted=print

November 18, 2008

Drip Irrigation May Not Be Efficient, Analysis Finds
By Henry Fountain

A new analysis suggests that subsidies and other policies that encourage conservation methods like drip irrigation can actually increase water consumption.

[anne]

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/11/17/0805554105.abstract

November 17, 2008

Water conservation in irrigation can increase water use
By Frank A. Warda and Manuel Pulido-Velazquez

Abstract

Climate change, water supply limits, and continued population growth have intensified the search for measures to conserve water in irrigated agriculture, the world's largest water user. Policy measures that encourage adoption of water-conserving irrigation technologies are widely believed to make more water available for cities and the environment. However, little integrated analysis has been conducted to test this hypothesis. This article presents results of an integrated basin-scale analysis linking biophysical, hydrologic, agronomic, economic, policy, and institutional dimensions of the Upper Rio Grande Basin of North America. It analyzes a series of water conservation policies for their effect on water used in irrigation and on water conserved. In contrast to widely-held beliefs, our results show that water conservation subsidies are unlikely to reduce water use under conditions that occur in many river basins. Adoption of more efficient irrigation technologies reduces valuable return flows and limits aquifer recharge. Policies aimed at reducing water applications can actually increase water depletions. Achieving real water savings requires designing institutional, technical, and accounting measures that accurately track and economically reward reduced water depletions. Conservation programs that target reduced water diversions or applications provide no guarantee of saving water.

[lonesome moderate]

Marketwatch.com bomb thrower Paul B. Farrell gives 30 reasons why we will be in a great depression by 2011: complete column here

1. America's credit rating may soon be downgraded below AAA
2. Fed refusal to disclose $2 trillion loans, now the new "shadow banking system"
3. Congress has no oversight of $700 billion, and Paulson's Wall Street Trojan Horse
4. King Henry Paulson flip-flops on plan to buy toxic bank assets, confusing markets
5. Goldman, Morgan lost tens of billions, but planning over $13 billion in bonuses this year
6. AIG bails big banks out of $150 billion in credit swaps, protects shareholders before taxpayers
7. American Express joins Goldman, Morgan as bank holding firms, looking for Fed money
8. Treasury sneaks corporate tax credits into bailout giveaway, shifts costs to states
9. State revenues down, taxes and debt up; hiring, spending, borrowing add even more debt
10. State, municipal, corporate pensions lost hundreds of billions on derivative swaps
11. Hedge funds: 610 in 1990, almost 10,000 now. Returns down 15%, liquidations up
12. Consumer debt way up, now at $2.5 trillion; next area for credit meltdowns
13. Fed also plans to provide billions to $3.6 trillion money-market fund industry
14. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are bleeding cash, want to tap taxpayer dollars
15. Washington manipulating data: War not $600 billion but estimates actually $3 trillion
16. Hidden costs of $700 billion bailout are likely $5 trillion; plus $1 trillion Street write-offs
17. Commodities down, resource exporters and currencies dropping, triggering a global meltdown
18. Big three automakers near bankruptcy; unions, workers, retirees will suffer
19. Corporate bond market, both junk and top-rated, slumps more than 25%
20. Retailers bankrupt: Circuit City, Sharper Image, Mervyns; mall sales in free fall
21. Unemployment heading toward 8% plus; more 1930's photos of soup lines
22. Government policy is dictated by 42,000 myopic, highly paid, greedy lobbyists
23. China's sees GDP growth drop, crates $586 billion stimulus; deflation is now global, hitting even Dubai
24. Despite global recession, U.S. trade deficit continues, now at $650 billion
25. The 800-pound gorillas: Social Security, Medicare with $60 trillion in unfunded liabilities
26. Now 46 million uninsured as medical, drug costs explode
27. New-New Deal: U.S. planning billions for infrastructure, adding to unsustainable debt
28. Outgoing leaders handicapping new administration with huge liabilities
29. The "antitaxes" message is a new bubble, a new version of the American
dream offering a free lunch, no sacrifices, exposing us to more false promises
30. Former Goldman Sachs chairman John Whitehead was interviewed. He was also Ronald Reagan's Deputy Secretary of State and a former chairman of the N.Y. Fed. He says America's problems will take years and will burn trillions.

[anne]

What is interesting is to hear Somalia described as a failed state, when Somalia was a succeeding state till December 2006 when America encouraged and supported an invasion and occupation of Somalia by Ethiopia. Somalia has indeed been a failed state since, along with the progressive failing of neighboring Somaliland in the wake of refugees forced from Somalia, along with forced refugee failures from Ethiopia to Yemen.

Nonetheless, an oil tanker is stolen off the coast of Somalia and the blame is on the failed state with no analytical mention of why the state and violently installed government, have come to fail.

[anne]

"The 800-pound gorillas: Social Security, Medicare with $60 trillion in unfunded liabilities."

There is an important mistake here, the figure actually being $142.34 trillion, but why throw bombs back at such a fool?

[hari]

G-20 Communigue by Brad Setzer [see side board].

Brad has a different angle on the geopolitiks of G-7 and G-20 and what's gone astray in understanding the global credit facility required by emerging markets - who basically depend on (Fed) regulated banks operating in EU and abroad. This is why currency swaps provided by Fed has been so very helpful during the financial crisis to emerging markets banking sector.

[hari]

Our good host (MT) will most likely have to cope with scare mongering on a level of *witch hunting* in this thread - due to lost confidence in Treasury and/or Paulson.

Instead of dealing with policy alternatives, we're building a house of cards, me thinks. No one I know in policy making is ever absolutely sure or confident that any particular policy will work in a crisis situation like we're in right now. More reason for deliberate haste - not a *witch hunting* game by ever so clear knowledgeable creatures.

[anne]

http://blogs.cfr.org/setser/2008/11/17/g-20-post-mortem/

November 17, 2008

The G-20 communique
By Brad Setser

The G-20’s communiqué offered a surprisingly robust work program for regulatory reform. MIT’s Simon Johnson even worries that it may be too robust – and push banks to scale back their lending in a pro-cyclical way. I am a little less worried about this risk. I assume regulators recognize that a sensible macro-prudential regulatory framework requires raising capital charges in good times (to lean against the boom), not forcing banks to squeeze lending to conserve capital in bad times....

[I have no idea what this is about other than to claim that at the summit developing countries were shown not to matter, which seems just the opposite of what I understood the economic summit showed. This strikes me as a typically limited Council on Foreign Relations American-British perspective from which only America and Britain matter (though Germany, France and Japan can come to).]

[hari]

There is a consensus - in the making - that eventually emerging markets (BRICs) will more or less facilitate the overcoming of the brikmanship we're expriencing during this financial crisis - and gloomy forecast of 2011 Depression!

[anne]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122679484106131155.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

November 17, 2008

G-20 Leaders Tighten Grip on Banks

After Weekend Summit, Economists Say Emphasis on Lending Restrictions Threatens a Quick Recovery
By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS, ALISTAIR MACDONALD and KARA SCANNELL

"This is a big signal to everybody to clamp down on their banks to tighten lending standards," said Simon Johnson, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. "The last thing you want to do in a global credit crunch is go around and basically tell people to tighten, tighten, tighten."

[anne]

Hari:

There is a consensus - in the making - that eventually emerging markets (BRICs) * will more or less facilitate the overcoming of the brinkmanship we're experiencing during this financial crisis - and gloomy forecast of 2011 Depression!

* Brazil, Russia, India And China

[The Depression 2011 forecast is too chaotic to be meaningful.]

[anne]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/us/politics/19cong.html?hp&pagewanted=print

November 19, 2008

Democrats Let Lieberman Keep Senate Chairmanship
By CARL HULSE and DAVID STOUT

Senators decided not to strip Joseph I. Lieberman of his homeland security leadership post over his support for John McCain in the presidential campaign.

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, seen on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, described the decision as one of “reconciliation and not retribution.”

[Oh.]

[anne]

http://pnhp.org/organ_donors/Transplants.pdf

November 18, 2008

Insurance Status of U.S. Organ Donors and Transplant Recipients: The Uninsured Give, but Rarely Receive
By Andrew A. Herring, Steffie Woolhandler, and David U. Himmelstein

Abstract

Organ transplantation is an expensive, life-saving technology. Previous studies have found that few transplant recipients in the United States lack health insurance (in part because patients may become eligible for special coverage because of their disability and transplant teams vigorously advocate for their patients). Few data are available on the insurance status of U.S. organ donors. The authors analyzed the 2003 National Inpatient Sample (NIS), a nationally representative 20 percent sample of U.S. hospital stays, and identified incident organ donors and recipients using ICD-9-CM diagnosis and procedure codes. The NIS sample included 1,447 organ donors and 4,962 transplant recipients, equivalent after weighting to 6,517 donors and 23,656 recipients nationwide; 16.9 percent of organ donors but only 0.8 percent of transplant recipients were uninsured. In multivariate analysis, compared with other inpatients organ donors were much more likely to be uninsured (OR 3.41, 95% CI 2.81-4.15), whereas transplant recipients were less likely to lack coverage (OR 0.08, 95% CI 0.06-0.12). Many uninsured Americans donate organs, but they rarely receive them.

["Is this a great country, or what?"]

[anne]

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/clinton-business-issues/

November 18, 2008

Clinton Business Issues
By Paul Krugman

Everywhere you look, there’s stuff about Bill Clinton’s donors and all that, often with the implication that there must inherently be something dirty going on, because, well, just because.

But I guess that’s just the way things are. After all, do you remember all the grief President Bush got over his family’s questionable * business ties?

Neither do I.

* http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35297-2003Dec27?language=printer

[anne]

[Typepad refuses to post Paul Krugman being pleased with the appointment of Elizabeth Warren to the bailout oversight board. There must be a letter combination is the post Typepad objects to, but that Warren is on the board surely speaks for oversight integrity.]

[kthomas]

Elizabeth Warren? Wow, I'm suprised they let someone as smart and responsible as her on the Board. Good news, indeed.

She's the kind of person people can trust and rally around.

[lonesome moderate]

I believe this is the Krugman post Anne refers to. Click on the link to see the words that I had to delete to get it past the Spam filter.

Change it’s hard to believe in

Because it’s such good news. Elizabeth Warren, expert on personal bankruptcy, crusader against credit card industry lobbyists, and founder of Credit Slips, to be a member of the bailout oversight board.

Elections have consequences.

[anne]

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2008/11/government-of-prime-minister-nuri-kamal.html

November 18, 2008

"The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is systematically dismissing Iraqi oversight officials, who were installed to fight corruption in Iraqi ministries by order of the American occupation administration, which had hoped to bring Western standards of accountability to the notoriously opaque and graft-ridden bureaucracy here." * Who does not love the expression "Western standards of accountability"? Wow. In other news, a Senator from Alaska is on trial for adhering to Western standards of accountability.

* http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/world/middleeast/18maliki.html

-- As'ad AbuKhalil

[anne]

Concerning irrigation, the peak area to population ratio was reached in 1978 and has been declining since; the amount of land irrigated has continued to increase but the rate of increase has slowed. I am told that increasing irrigation efficiency is a most important matter, and question the efficiency of drip irrigation becomes correspondingly important.

[anne]

http://www.earthpolicy.org/Updates/2008/Update72_data.htm#table11

January 19, 2006

World Irrigated Area, Total and Per Person, 1950-2003

(Million Hectares - Square Meters Per Person)

1950 94.0 371
1951 98.1 380
1952 102.1 389
1953 106.2 397
1954 110.3 405

1955 114.4 413
1956 118.4 420
1957 122.5 427
1958 126.6 433
1959 130.7 439

1960 134.7 444
1961 138.8 449
1962 141.5 449
1963 144.2 449
1964 146.8 448

1965 149.8 448
1966 153.1 449
1967 156.1 449
1968 159.6 449
1969 163.7 452

1970 167.7 453
1971 171.5 454
1972 175.1 455
1973 180.2 459
1974 183.7 459

1975 188.1 462
1976 192.3 463
1977 195.7 463
1978 203.7 474 * High Square Meters Per Person
1979 207.2 474

1980 209.3 470
1981 212.5 469
1982 215.4 467
1983 218.6 466
1984 222.8 467

1985 225.2 464
1986 227.6 461
1987 229.3 456
1988 232.1 454
1989 238.7 459

1990 245.2 463
1991 248.6 462
1992 254.9 466
1993 258.1 465
1994 260.1 462

1995 263.7 461
1996 266.0 458
1997 269.8 459
1998 271.4 455
1999 274.1 453

2000 276.3 451
2001 274.9 443
2002 277.2 441 * High Million Hectares
2003 277.1 436

Note: Latest available data is for 2003.

[kthomas]

anne, you are a living, breathing repository of good data. Never change.

[anne]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/business/economy/19bankruptcy.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

November 19, 2008

Advantage of Corporate Bankruptcy Is Dwindling
By JONATHAN D. GLATER

More companies that file for bankruptcy protection are shutting down because they cannot obtain enough financing to operate while they reorganize.

[This I had not realized, though I should have, and this is serious. There is a credit squeeze, really and truly.]

[anne]

What then does a lack of credit mean for troubled or bankrupt companies should an auto company fail? The answer could well be a cascade of credit failings for associated companies. Canada's government insurer is already limiting insurance for parts suppliers to Chrysler against a bankruptcy. There is no simple reason to think operations will continue for an auto company and suppliers given a bankruptcy filing.

Darn.