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The article explains the relationship between the components of the Kansas City Financial Stress Index (KCFSI) and financial stress in the U.S. It states that high values of the KCFSI have seem to coincide with known periods of financial stress and offer important information about future economic growth. The article also discusses a set of financial variables, explores the link between the KCFSI and economic activities, and examines how the KCFSI can be used in determining the severity of financial stress.

The article provides information concerning the international economic outlook in the U.S. and in Europe. Following unbelievable growth performance throughout the expansionary phase of the global business cycle, major economies led by the U.S. seem to have entered uneven slowing down patterns from their cyclical peaks reached in the fall of 2007. The cyclical components of the leading and/or lagging relationships of investment, profits, consumer expenditures, and inventories have substantially added to the changing pattern of the global cycle.

After a quarter century of environmental regulation in this country, significant environmental threats remain. Why has the regulatory system failed to fully address our environmental problems? The goal of this paper is to suggest that the roots of environmental problems, and the failure of environmental regulation, are deeply embedded in the processes that generate economic growth. The logic of the argument to be presented will take the following form: long-run economic growth relies on the creation of new industries and new forms of economic activity; these new forms of economic activity create new kinds of environmental problems; these new forms of economic activity constitute vested political interests that oppose environmental regulation. Each of the three main sections of the paper will provide theoretical and empirical justification for each component part of the basic argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on Great Salt Lake, Utah. Interest in the Great Salt Lake has increased recently because its potential economic resources appear to be close to realization. Economic development will bring problems as well as profit and, in this respect, the Great Salt Lake may be considered a microcosm of what is happening in other areas of economic growth. The map of Great Salt Lake thus takes on a larger meaning in the battle between economics and ecology. The prospect of recovering a vast reserve of important chemicals has stimulated activity in government and business.