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Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 160 January 29, 2004 No.160 The Beneficiaries of Saddam's Oil Vouchers: The List of 270 The following report from MEMRI's Baghdad office is a translation of an article which appeared in the Iraqi daily Al-Mada, [1] whichobtained lists of 270 companies, organizations, and individuals awarded allocations (vouchers) of crude oil by Saddam Hussein's regime. The beneficiaries reside in 50 countries: 16 Arab, 17 European, 9 Asian, and the rest from sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.Only a portion of the 270 recipients are listed and identified. BackgroundThe following points should be taken into consideration:...

Hernando de Soto: "The problem is not economic, but legal" ICA. One of the most awaited sessions at CADE 2003 was, without doubt, the president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy, Hernando de Soto, concerning market economics. The economist affirmed that this system, which has been applied with success in many western nations, can not take hold in Latin America despite the fact that the majority of countries in the region fulfill all of the measures required by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). De Soto said that to establish a market economy in Peru, it is not necessary to...

Michael Maren, a critic of Western development programs for poor countries, once called foreign aid in a magazine interview "a complete waste of money that succeeds primarily at keeping Westerners employed." Because Maren is a former aid worker and a Third World expert, the wisecrack reverberated in international development circles -- and it's surely what many of us suspect, deep down. But on the whole, we seem to persist in trusting that some fractional good is done with our aid dollars, somewhere, even if the odd dictator or armed lunatic must be enriched in the process.What we don't necessarily expect...

Midterm vote has a message for Vicente Fox07/11/2003By RUBEN NAVARRETTE / The Dallas Morning News Television talk-show host Dr. Phil has a cocky refrain for guests who fess up about some assumption that didn't hold up or a plan that went astray. Thought you could gamble away the family vacation money and replace it before anyone noticed? Dr. Phil will ask with a smirk, "How's that working for ya?" The guest I want to see in the hot seat is Vicente Fox. The Mexican president caved in to nationalism and stood on the sidelines after the attacks of Sept. 11,...

September 3, 2002 Reality Check for Redistributionists Why property rights are environmental rights By Ronald Bailey Johannesburg—Forward to Socialism," "W$$D Stop Bushing People," "Don't Owe, Won't Pay," "Israel USA UK—The Toxic Axis of Evil," "Osama Bomb Sandton Kill Bush and MBeki," and "No to Neoliberal policies and Capitalism" were just a few of the slogans that adorned banners and posters in Saturday's march on the World Summit on Sustainable Development. None of the banners or chants in the demonstration of more than 10,000 people mentioned any of the conventional environmental issues like climate change, population control, renewable resources, or...