Divine dosh
Wanna make some money?
Then get down on your knees and start to pray.
Thats right, believers. In case you hadnt heard the good news, the Diary brings you some divine info from the financial front.
A new report by two Harvard scholars suggests a link between economic growth and fear of hell.
Writing in the American Sociological Review, Professors Robert Barro and Rachel McCleary conclude that belief in the afterlife is the ticket to good fortune in this.
Analysing data from six international surveys across 59 countries between 1981 and 1999, Barro and McCleary connected religiosity to honesty, work ethic, thrift and openness to strangers, all of which quickly turn into good cold cash.
A mere two weeks ago, the Diary recommended readers to attend their local church, synagogue or mosque if they wanted to find happiness. Well, now happiness is not the only reward, theres moolah in it too. What in heavens name is stopping you?
This is surely the final nail in the coffin of communism. The opium of the masses, Barro and McCleary suggest, is also their best chance of economic security.
However, be warned: The research also showed that at a certain point, increases in church, mosque and synagogue attendance tended to depress economic growth. (New York Times)
Yes, we noticed.
Barro and McCleary have successfully quantified religion, which should make their maker proud. The Diary noticed one headline: The Economic Value of Hell. Its like being back in the 1980s again. If you need a friend, get a dog.
Anyway, the story of Barro and McClearys research first appeared in the Christian Science Monitor in October 2003, which was understandably chuffed. [T]he stick represented by a fear of hell apparently stimulates growth more than the carrot of the prospect of heaven, enthused the Monitor.
In other words, if youre convinced your boss is the devil, chances are youre doing a good job.
Apparently, in countries where the belief in hell is strong, growth of gross domestic product runs about 0.5% higher than average.
The Monitor suggests the Barro-McCleary study destroys the arguments of David Hume and Sigmund Freud who thought wealthy, educated, successful sorts were more bent towards scientific logic and sexual perversity than religious superstition (or something like that).
The Economist report came with a warning: lest we forget Jesuss words about the rich man, the camel and the eye of a needle.
Or the words of Gordon Gekko, the Diary might add. Bought my way into this club and now every one of these Ivy League schmucks is sucking my kneecaps Give me PSHs poor, smart and hungry. And no feelings Its trench warfare out there, sport.
Football folklore
Meanwhile, in the US, land of faith and prosperity, Wall Street Gekkos watched Sundays Super Bowl XXXVIII with more than football on their minds.
No, this is not an excuse to write about Janet Jacksons exposed right breast (heaven forbid!). Rather, it is an excuse to write about economics, and we all need one of those.
An article in the New York Times this week drew the Diarys attention to one of those strange folklores that help make the world go round. Apparently, the Super Bowl theory runs that if a team from the American Football Conference (AFC) wins the Bowl, the market is in trouble for the next few years. If a team from the National Football Conference (NFC) triumphs, share prices are set to rise.
On Sunday, in a thriller, the New England Patriots beat the Carolina Panthers 32-29. The Pats are from the AFC.
Does this spell trouble for Dubyas re-election hopes? Perhaps. Leaving aside the ludicrously complex qualifications (involving consideration of expansion teams, which league a team was in before 1966, and so on), the bubble of the bull market may be set to burst.
When the Patriots won in 2001, the Dow Jones was 17.9% lower by the time of the next Super Bowl. When the Patriots got hammered by the Chicago Bears in 1986, the Dow rose 37.4%. The Super Bowl theory has a 78% success rate in correctly forecasting the coming economic weather.
Not bad!
Meanwhile, MoveOn.orgs efforts to buy advertising time during the Super Bowl (the audience was something in the region of 150 million Americans) never got off the ground. CBS just werent interested in broadcasting an ad in which kids are shown washing dishes, cleaning offices and picking up trash and the message Guess whos going to pay off President Bushs $1 trillion deficit? flashes into the living rooms of the worlds only superpower.
Pity, really. Eli Pariser, Campaigns Director of MoveOn.org was not a happy progressive, asking in the Los Angeles Times why networks will promote Big Macs, erectile dysfunction medication, Halliburton, toilet paper, cars, mud-wrestling women and ice-cold beer, but (in the words of CBS) not anything that may have undue influence on controversial issues of public importance.
All this in the week the Bush administration released its budget plan for the fiscal year, described by the New York Times as a bit of an oddity for an election year. The only new programme was the plan to build a manned base on the moon and send some guys to Mars. Military spending is set to rise to $401.7 billion (or $1.1 billion a day). 65 government programmes are to be axed (38 of them in education) for a saving of $4.9 billion. The 2004 budget deficit stands at a whopping $521 billion. The budget deficits over the next decade are set to total roughly $2.4 trillion.
[By the way, for those of you still interested in the Janet Jackson story, US federal TV regulators have launched an inquiry into the incident. According to Jan LaRue, chief counsel for the Concerned Women for America, Jackson and Justin Timberlakes performance was a pornographic show ... We dont buy for a minute that this was not planned. Everybody knew what was going on here.]
Brand spoil
Of course, its all about branding.
And this week Interbrand announced the winners of Best Brand 2003.
For some reason, the Diary, with its iconic image of a scribbling pen-nib, failed to make the shortlist.
The winner, to nobodys surprise, was Google (once described by NYT columnist Thomas Friedman as the new God omnipotent and worshipped the world over. No wonder theres money in it!)
No complaints from here. The Diary all of us in fact would be lost without Google, not to mention damned to eternal ignorance.
Apple came second. Mini (the car, not the skirt) came third. Coca-Cola came fourth. Samsung came fifth. The World Diary finished somewhere below Samsung.
What an outsource!
Finally, to India, economic powerhouse of the 21st century.
The Indian government has published its pre-election budget update. The news is all good.
Growth may hit 8% this year, forecast the government. The economy has never been better. It is Indias national destiny to become the next global power .
The opposition is not so sure and worried about the blatantly political aspect of the budget.
India, of course, is the flourishing home of global corporate outsourcing. The issue is playing big in the US elections too. Senator John Edwards, second only to John Kerry in the race for the Democratic nomination, put it like this: Weve been so focused on free trade we dont ask for fair trade. Edwards has criticised Kerry for supporting outsourcing over US jobs. Kerry said he would stop the endless stream of jobs heading overseas (NYT) and that he will not allow everyone to go, you know, to the bottom.
As with everything else this week, a different tune is being played in Britain, where protectionism is not on the agenda. Even Britains National Health Service is being outsourced to India, Stephen Timms, minister for energy and e-commerce, told delegates at an IT conference in Mumbai.
Of course, its not election time in Britain.
Figures of the week
5
The maximum number of seconds since the last child died of hunger.
244
The number of Muslim worshippers killed in a Hajj stampede during the ritual stoning of Satan.
84 & 56
The percentage of Iraqis respectively who believe Saddam has the right to a fair trial and should be executed.
Quotes of the week
Everyone should have a shot at the American dream.
A phrase (not to be taken literally) from a speech by General Wesley Clark in his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president.
We would be naive if we didnt see the risks if we were to be the only country welcoming people from eastern Europe to work for peanuts and giving them access to our social benefits.
Swedish prime minister Goran Persson, changing Swedens policy on welfare benefits for immigrants.
Were just going to keep demonstrating to push Bush and the state department to come get this toxic garbage out of here as fast as they can.
Hervé Santilus of the Student Federation at Haiti University. Protests continued in Haiti this week against President Aristide, with 15,000 people marching on the capital. At least 47 Haitians have been killed in the last few months.
I somehow feel Im not being entirely persuasive.
British prime minister Tony Blair after being heckled by protestors in the House of Commons.
It was the stockpile that presented the final little piece that made it more of a real and present danger and threat to the region and to the world. [The] absence of a stockpile changes the political calculus.
US secretary of state Colin Powell on the absence of WMDs in Iraq.
The President was extremely kind and understanding
I explained to him all things. I gave him the background, what is happening, what had happened and he appreciated the frankness.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of Pakistans nuclear bomb, who (allegedly) accepted all responsibility this week for selling nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea and was fired by President Musharraf. Read more.
He is a politician of exceptional quality, of competence, of humanism and honesty. And France needs men of this quality.
French President Jacques Chirac on former prime minister Alain Juppé, who was convicted last Friday in a corruption scandal linked to Chiracs former mayoral office.
Contact the Diary: dominic.hilton@openDemocracy.net
