The relative motion of the plates carrying these continents has been constructed in detail, but the motion of the plates with respect to another cannot readily be translated into motion with respect to the earth's interior.
Much of the language used to describe monetary policy, such as "steering the economy to a soft landing" of "a touch on the brakes" , makes it sound like a precise science. Nothing could be further from the truth. Economists have been particularly surprised by favorable inflation figures in Britain and the United States, since, conventional measures suggest that both economies, and especially America's, have little productive slack.
The Aswan Dam, for example, stopped the Nile flooding but deprived Egypt of the fertile silt that floods left-all in return for a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of silt that it barely generates electricity.New ways of organizing the workplace--all that re-engineering and downsizing--are only one contribution to the overall productivity of an economy, which is driven by many other factors such as joint investment in equipment and machinery, new technology, and investment in education and training.
But it is a little upsetting to read in the explanatory notes that describes a fight between a Turkish and a Bulgarian officer on a bridge both fall into the river--and then to find that the line consists of the falling and the weights of the officers, "Pluff! Pluff!" A hundred and kilograms." a certain line off which they noise of their eighty-five.
