we'll examine that question with the help of economic analyst richard gill on this edition of economics. i'm david schoumacher. we canll enjoy the benefitsof public services such as museums, schools, and highways, but they have to be paid for. they are, usually in the form of taxes. why must the government provide these services? why can't we rely instead on the fe market? it's a controversial question, as we see in the case of private utilities versus the tva. the great mississippi flood of 1927 left 800,000 homeless. swelling waters overran levees throughout the tennessee river and into the mississippi turning northern louisianainto an inland sea. secretary of commerce herbert hoover called the flood the greatest peacetime calamity in the history of the country. the disaster was predictable. the mississippi had flooded before. local authorities attempted to pvide flood control but with uneven efforts. the levee system is only as strong asts weakest link. the building of dams could have prevented the flood. some legislators wanted to use federal funds. but they faced tough opposition o

xce ras:whatthe wo is aolr wo" withhe helofcomics analyst richard gill we'lexamine that questio onhistion of "economics u$a." i'm daschoumacher. it is only in recent yearsatxcnge rascould ry from day ay. fogeraons, exchangeates were xedancuencies felycoertie ol to cast aside the edicbility ofhe fixed exchange rate systemwas coideredmoreunusual --it was nearly unthinkae. why thenin 1933, woule unitedsntnkable? why woulitndonthe stability of the gold stanrd?before t gat war the go standard symbolized stability and prosperity and the britispound was considered "as good as gold." but in 1925, parliament set the exchange rate of tound for gold beyond its real value. as a result, british goods became more expensive -- exports declined factory workers were laid off. england's economy began to unravel. in 1931, the governmentollapsed. a new govement broke with tdition. england went off the gold staard and devaed theound sacrificing internatiol status for domestic recovery. but for the rest of the world,the financial percussions weretaggering. [ shou in french ] newsreel announcer: the shoutin

we asked richard gill to comment.re is little question that in the mid-1980s protectionist sentiment was in the air. a suspicion arose in the united states that some foreign countries were using exports to the united states as a means of promoting the domestic growth of their own economies. they were flooding us with their goods while keeping ours out. if this suspicion were based on the existence of very high tariffs abroad, it would be fairly easy to evaluate. unfortunately, most of the obstacles that countries place in the way of foreign imports are more subtle than that, what economists call "non-tariff barriers" to trade. government subsidies, as in the case of steel, are sometimes overt, sometimes hidden and complex. complicated licensing and import procedures, special regulations concerning the standards, specifications, and testing that imported products have to meet. the magnitude of such barriers is very difficult to assess. what can be said with some confidence is that countries who are running huge trade s

we asked analyst richard gill what our economic past may imply about the future. during her industrial revolution, great britain was running out of forests. she responded by shifting to a coal technology. production increased many times over. that has been the story of modern economic growth. we see it today in metals like copper and energy sources like oil. this scenario isn't accidental. it is built into the way the market mechanism works. we have first a growing shortage of some resource. its price goes up, setting in motion a series of responses. first, it becomes profitable to try to find more-- we get added supply. it becomes advisable to use as lile of this resource as possible-- we get conservation. thirdly, it becomes desirable to focus our scientific and technological attention on developing new products and means of production that use other resources-- alternative technologies. historically, there is little doubt about the matter. responses have not only met the resource shortage problem, but have overshot the mark by a great margin, leading to increas

gill wiminute are called wheels. no one knows exactly why. this fellow's a wheel, too. says so on his plane. major richardziger of tucson, arizona, had 279 missions. your crew chief can't go along, so you always like to tell them what you're going to do. got a triple threat mission today. each section's going after a bridge. i'll come in on a course of about 40 degrees. same old thing. go out there and dodge around. dive bomb out of the left-hand turn, and then carry the bombs right on down. we're flying top cover on the other two sections while they bomb and then we go in ourselves. weather is supposed to be careful so maybe we'll have a good show. all set to go. but you don't. you wait. you wait for five minutes. that's the way it's planned. time to settle down. relax. you'll be busy later. so if you've got any thinking to do, and who hasn't? now is the time to do it. [ engines start ] >> here, lay it back. take-off is always rough. thunderbolts are heavy airplanes. besides, you've decorated it like a christmas tree. >> here, lay it back. take-off is always rough. thunderbolts are heavy tank, rockets, g