SENTINEL WATCH May 23, 2005 ISSUE

NO COMPETITION FOR RESOURCES

TONY LOBL

I RECENTLY READ two news reports back-to-back that got me thinking about supply and demand.

First, I read that the Japanese government had granted concessions to national businesses to drill for oil in a disputed area of the East China Sea, which further tests strained relations between Japan and China. And then, right here in London, a bright little girl told how no local secondary school had a place for her because London's boroughs find themselves stretched 6,000 pupils beyond capacity.