Hamburger hell awaits us in super-suburb Ireland

Apr 29, 2001

Every Saturday throughout the early 1960s, a dull drone could be heard over the Colorado plains. The light aircraft flew low, at around 2,000ft. Inside, the pilot plotted future roads, suburban housing schemes and new business parks. Ray Kroc was looking for cheap land and was planning a revolution for suburban America even before the suburbs existed. Kroc, the mastermind behind McDonald’s, soon graduated to helicopters and by the 1980s, the company was one of the largest purchasers of commercial satellite photography, using it to predict suburban sprawl from outer space

We need zero tolerance

Apr 22, 2001

When we hear about zero tolerance in the United States, we think of white policemen harassing black motorists, downtown Cincinnati, riots and burnt-out cars. ‘Zero tolerance’ of crime has become one of those American slogans that sum up an attitude.

What can the babysitting co-op tell us about recession?

Apr 8, 2001

Why do economies go into recession? Why do apparently sound economies turn down? Why did Japan go pear-shaped? Did it not produce the finest consumer goods in the world? How come the Asian Tigers — outlandishly praised as late as 1997 by the IMF — experience a meltdown? Why did Californian land prices plummet in the late 1980s?