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Four essentially independent conceptions of the population problem are visible in current discussions. One is derived from macroeconomics, one from microeconomics, one from the health sciences, and one from ethical concerns about the just relation between man and nature. After describing these conceptions, this paper addresses the population problem principally using the economic definitions. It cites five reasons why discussions of the economic hazards posed by population growth have become markedly less alarmist in the past decade. Failures of highly quantified input-output models to account for human progress are emphasized. The paper presents examples of how technical demography has shed light on the dimensions of and solutions to the population problem and concludes with a brief discussion of contemporary population problems in the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of 'government failure' is central to theories of neoliberal normativity. Rather than focusing on 'market failures' and their correctives, neoliberalism aims to demonstrate ways that government `incompetence', 'inefficiency', and 'graft' pollute or completely block the provision of adequate public services. Little work has been done, however, to determine the extent to which this notion has been accepted within the political mainstream, or the ways in which examples have been deployed to highlight or solve 'government failure'. This study considers the way that one such example, the organization Habitat for Humanity, has been deployed as a challenge to interventionist government and, as such, as an alternative to 'government failure' A qualitative and quantitative content analysis of 1427 news articles that included 'Habitat for Humanity' from six North American newspapers was conducted to determine the extent to which the organization has become normalized as a viable alternative to state-delivered housing in particular, and Keynesian welfarism in general. The paper adds to the argument that neoliberal assumptions, once the purview of a small cadre of right-wing political economists, have permeated mainstream assumptions about the role of government in the provision of public goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs the modified Wald (MWALD) causality test to re-examine the relationship between crime and its determinants (inflation and unemployment) in the United States from 1960 to 2005. Bounds test approach is employed to investigate the existence of a long-run relationship. The empirical evidence suggests that inflation and crime rates are cointegrated with a positive relationship. Moreover, the causal link is from inflation and unemployment to crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to examine the implications that the implementation of the Free Trade Agreement (FTAA) between the United States and Colombia would have particularly in the situation of Colombian women. The recent contributions that gender studies have provided to the social sciences and more specifically to economics, allow elaborating new ways of understanding issues concerning the national welfare and sovereignty from a usually marginalized perspective. The fact that there are not many studies that relate the gender factor with free trade, makes this paper a catalyst of the debate in this issue, which attempts to contribute in the analysis of the social impacts, standing specifically from a gender perspective, the implementation of the trade agreement would have. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights the concept of political economy coined by well-known socio-economist Horace Greeley. Historians of economic thought, in customarily appointing Henry C. Carey dean of the American School, have generally neglected the high spokesman of discontent, Horace Greeley, founder and editor of the "New York Tribune." Horace Greeley's life and political economy stand out as clearer expressions of a young America in its middle period transition. Greeley was an awakened figure of his time. Never the totally eccentric dreamer he is frequently considered, he found himself aware that narrow parochialisms were breaking up, and he aimed to conform society to the changes under way. He saw his country as the great chance for righting wrongs- and he wished to make it a proving ground for social experimentation. Thus, he devoted his life and his paper to teaching the people to seek freedom by building a wealthy nation in which resources should be correctly utilized and special privileges should be destroyed.