The World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings last weekend, as recession scours the world economy, were dominated by an overwhelming but largely unasked question: does the “Washington Consensus” work?

At some point, the question must arise: was the explosion in size of the financial services business in 1982-2000 real, or was it yet another figment of an overheated market’s imagination?

I n the Macedonian elections held Sunday, about 60 percent of the ethnic Macedonians voted for the former Communist SDSM, while between 60 percent and 70 percent of the Albanian minority voted for the (questionably former) Albanian terrorist leader Ali Ahmeti.

The events of Sept. 11, 2001 have caused large changes in U.S. and world politics, and may yet involve the United States in a major war, but their economic effect has been minor.

With the Germany’s IFO Business Activity Index close to its all time low, with the country’s tax cut due next year now postponed, and with the lowest economic growth rate in the EU, it is fair to ask of Germany: where did the wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) go, and what can be done to bring it […]