Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Lane Hall-Witt]

Bob,

Well, make of it what you will, but I think the site offers an extraordinary range of data, straight news, and analysis as well as links to external government, multilateral, thinktank, academic, and media resources. I haven't found many other sites where so much useful information is so easily accessible.

As for the liberal bias underlying some of the analysis, three thoughts:

(1) I think the site justifies itself just by bringing together so many sources of data, news, and external thought, so you can filter out any analysis you don't like and still take value out of the site.

(2) Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with the analyses, conservatives and liberals should at least agree that the questions raised on the site are of fundamental economic importance: the crises in Asia and Latin America, corporate governance, U.S. monetary and fiscal policy, the structure of the global banking system, the role of multilateral institutions such as the IMF and World Bank. All to say: this site is a pretty good place to scan if you just want a headline sense of the important policy issues of the day, even if you don't want to be "demagogued" on the issues.

(3) The biases argued here almost always are trying to participate in good-faith debate rooted in widely accepted frameworks of economic and policy analysis -- the exceptions being the partisan screeds of Paul Krugman, linked from the New York Times site. <NG> The analyses here are genuinely interested in establishing common intellectual ground so there can be honest debate of the priorities that policymakers should heed. This isn't the mindless partisan screamfests we get on the cable news networks, where no one cares about alternate views or rational grounds for discussion.

One last thing on this: before you paint all of NYU with the same brush, you should bear in mind that Orrin Hatch got his M.B.A. from there some years ago. There's actually a pretty active and energetic conservative presence on campus, though it certainly isn't Liberty University or Brigham Young. <G>

As for the prospects of war: my views on this haven't changed, and from my vantage point it appears that the preparations continue to ramp up. I'd be very surprised if we haven't moved by the end of February 2003. I have half a mind to put money down on 16 January 2003 as the start date, in honor of the 12th anniversary of the start of the Gulf War bombing campaign. Before I bet the farm buying options contracts for the start date, though, I'll be doing thorough DD at this site:

http://www.bibletime.com/bt/headlines/gulfwar/

(Please, no one disrupt the thread by flaming me -- just a little joke for Bob, all in good mutual fun, since we've got some history on these issues!)