Several outstanding books have been written about the road to September 11. The Search for Al Qaeda has a different mission. While it does review how al Qaeda was created and developed, it focuses ...more closely on what has happened to the terrorist network since that awful day. According to Riedel, al Qaeda's ultimate goals are to drive America from the Muslim world (the ummah); to destroy Israel; and to create a jihadist caliphate along the lines of the Ottoman Empire at its height. The book reveals al Qaeda's multi-pronged strategy for accomplishing those goals; draw America into the type of "bleeding wars" that drove the Soviets from Afghanistan, build a safe haven for al Qaeda in Pakistan; develop other "franchises" in the Islamic world that can overthrow pro-American regimes; and conduct more Western attacks along the lines of 9-11 or the transit bombings in Madrid and London. Bruce Riedel is an expert on the Middle East and South Asia, with 30 years of policymaking experience in regional diplomacy and counterterrorism. He draws on this experience and firsthand knowledge in profiling the four most important figures in the al Qaeda movement: Osama bin Laden, its creator and charismatic leader: ideologue Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian co-leader of al Qaeda and its principal spokesman; Abu Musaib al Zarqawi, the tenacious leader of al Qaeda in Iraq until his death in 2006; and Mullah Omar, Taliban host to al Qaeda. These profiles provide the base from which Riedel delivers a much clearer understanding of al Qaeda and what must be done to counter it.
We use rich historical data on military procurement to estimate the effects of government spending. We exploit regional variation in military buildups to estimate an "open economy relative ...multiplier" of approximately 1.5. We develop a framework for interpreting this estimate and relating it to estimates of the standard closed economy aggregate multiplier. The latter is highly sensitive to how strongly aggregate monetary and tax policy "leans against the wind." Our open economy relative multiplier "differences out" these effects because monetary and tax policies are uniform across the nation. Our evidence indicates that demand shocks can have large effects on output.
Profiles the most important figures in the al Qaeda movement--Osama bin Laden, Ayman Zawahiri, Abu Musaib al Zarqawi, and Mullah Omar, giving a comprehensive analysis of its origins, leadership, ...ideology, and strategy. Focuses more closely on what has happened to al Qaeda since 9/11 and outlines its ultimate goals
We investigate the relationship between air transport demand (passenger-kilometer: PAX) and economic growth (GDP) between 1966 and 2006 in Brazil. Special attention is paid to stationary features and ...the existence of a long-run equilibrium between variables to work in a vector autoregressive environment. Our findings suggest that GDP and PAX are co-integrated. Impulse-response analysis indicates a strong positive reaction of PAX due to a positive change in GDP. However, GDP reacts to a change in PAX in a slower and moderated way. We interpret these findings as an empirical evidence of air transport multiplier effects in the economy.
This article investigates whether the global spread of the English language provides an inherent advantage to native English speakers. This question is studied within the context of the economics ...profession, where the impact of being a native English speaker on future publishing success is examined. English speakers may have an advantage because they are writing in their native language, the quality of writing is a crucial determinant of publishing success, and all the top economics journals are published in English. Using a ranking of the world's top 2.5% of economists, this article confirms that native English speakers are ranked 100 spots higher (better) than similar non‐native English speakers. A variety of extensions examine and dispel many other potential explanations. (JEL A11, J44, F66)
Most of the 20th century saw a progressive reduction in the labor market participation of older workers, but in the 1990s, there was a turning point in this trend across the developed world. ...Incentives to retire early have gradually been removed and, even, substituted by benefits for workers who remain active. This study shows that these reforms will find less and less opposition from workers as a consequence of the growth in their life expectancy, as long as it has a greater positive effect on the productivity of the elderly than on the value of leisure.
This study contributes to the tax competition literature by investigating the determinants of local option sales tax (LOST) adoptions using a model that simultaneously accounts for the presence of ...horizontal and vertical fiscal interactions. We use discrete time Cox Proportional Hazard regressions to study adoption patterns for county and municipal LOSTs in an environment where municipalities were authorized to implement LOSTs nearly two decades before counties. Controlling for factors measuring fiscal stress and the jurisdiction s ability to export its taxes, we demonstrate that both vertical and horizontal fiscal spillovers play an important role in characterizing the strategic interdependence of local governments when they tax a common retail sales base.
The business cycle accounting “wedge” methodology is used to identify the mechanisms driving the rapid growth of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan since 1966. Analysis with a neoclassical ...growth model reveals that growth in these economies has been sustained by different mechanisms at different stages of development. Factor accumulation, which arises primarily from increases in capital wedges, accounts for most of the rapid growth in the earlier stages. However, in the later stages, total factor productivity growth becomes the primary driver.
► The growth of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan since 1966 is studied. ► Business cycle accounting is used to find the critical forces driving this growth. ► The prime driver differs at different stages of development. ► Factor accumulation from rising capital wedges is crucial in the earlier stages. ► Total factor productivity growth is important in the later stages.
We explore a methodological improvement to the standard dynamic demand model for petrol – a general model which allows for slowly evolving, unobservable habits. If this habit formation model is ...correct, then standard estimation techniques produce inconsistent estimates. We find price elasticities of –0.13 (short‐run) and –0.20 (long‐run). Importantly, standard techniques are misleading about the precision of elasticity estimates and the confidence interval around the long‐run price elasticity is quite wide. We test for price irreversibility and find, in contrast to the USA, almost no evidence that petrol responds differently to price increases and decreases.
UNMASKING THE INSURGENTS Nordland, Rod; Masland, Tom; Dickey, Christopher
Newsweek,
02/2005, Letnik:
145, Številka:
6
Magazine Article
What happened? Barham Salih's theory: "The Baathists regrouped and in the last six or seven months reorganized. Plus they had significant amounts of money, in Iraq and in Syria." Those contacts and ...networks that Saddam Hussein's key cronies began developing months before the invasion now paid off.
PDF
