The Aquinas 1991-09-26

              - 3•
campos ConstrUction continues
By MARY JANE NAlHAN
Assistant News Editor
Campus construction continues
as the new library, Royal Way, PolyHi
Park and a campus-wide communications
network are completed,
said Jim Devers, director of the
University physical plant.
''The library is on schedule. We
expect it to be completed on the
frrst of the year- January of '92,"
Devers said.
The library will be open in June
1992 for student use, ~id Margaret
Craft, assistant director for special
services for the library.
"We're planning on moving it
(the library collection) after school
is out for the spring semester," Craft
said ··we're trying to plan it for as
little disruption as possible."
Th.e Royal Way, the block of
Quincy Avenue between the St.
Ignatius statue and Mulberry Street,
and its _connecting gate will be
dedicated on Oct. 5. The gate will
not be finished by then, Devers said,
but will be complete enough for
Qedication.
Poly-Hi Park is complete, De-vers
said. A stairway is being construc!
C<f behind the Byron Center to
connect the fields to the main campus.
••The stair is about 95 percent
complete. We're waiting for the
walkway across the tracks to be
paved," he said. The fields will
probably also be re-seeded because
the frrst seeding did not grow well
due to the drought.
Digging around the campus can
be attributed to the University's
networking system, Devers said.
This includes excavating around the
University's houses on Clay Avenue
and at the top of the Commons.
••They're installing conduit,
which are empty tubes where the_
network wiring will be pulled
through to connect the buildings,"
Devers said
The main part of the networking
project now is the wiring, said Jerry
DeSanto, assistant provost for information
technology.
Data services will be available
in the .fall of 1992 but other aspects
of the network may be available by
the spring, DeSanto said.
Paul Krugman, an economics columnist, spoke Wednesday
night in the Houlihan-Mclean Center against free trade.
Aquinas photo/JOHN BATTISTINI
Keeping up with construction, maintenance works outside Jefferson Hall through the rain
Aquinas photo/JOHN BAmSTJNI
Economics expert
against free trade,
By PAT GUINAN
Aquinas Sports Editor
The concept of free ·trade and a
pro-market economy was challenged
Wednesday in a speech by
Paul Krugman, an economic columnist
for U.S. News and World
Report.
Krugman, a professor of economics
at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, urged economists
to be truthful with themselves about
whether they really believe that free
trade is the best system.
"The conventional wisdom on
the desirability of markets, general
free markets and free trade goes
way beyond what you can actually
derive from the theory," Krugman
said. "The truth is nobody really
believes in the theory."
Krugman detailed examples of
why people really do not believe in
free trade and free markets. He cited
William Cronin's Natures Metropolis
which describes the rise of the
city of Chicago.
Krugman explained that it was
not free market that made the small
town grow, but the influx of the
railroad, which essentially was not
a part of a free market.
Krugman also described the
manufacturing of carpets in the
'The conventional wisdom
on the desirability of
markets, general free markets
and free trade goes
way beyond what you can
actually derive from the
theory. ••. The truth is
nobody really believes in
the theory.'
Paul Krugman
economics expert
United States, which is entirely centered
around Dalton, Ga
His focus was that a self-reinforcing
entity in industry works to
foster the industry better that the
free market.
He gives the Silicon Valley as
an example.
••Today the Silicon Valley is,
because it is," Krugman said "It's
a self-reinforcing entity, because of
that great cluster of electronics fmns
... have an unparalleled pool of practical
labor ... and information is exchanged
Again it is a self-reinforcing
positive entity."
lectures
markets
Krugman explained that this idea
has been previously called the infant
industry theory.
This theory says that by promoting
an industry or using protectionism,
one can create and develop
that industry. until the "infant" can
grow into a viable part of the economy.
He explained that this idea has
been used to justify bad political
decisions, and therefore, is considered
inadequate.
Krugman believes that it makes
good economic sense to support
some industries which would be a
form of the infant industry theory.
He also wants people to be more
honest about free trade and not just
take it as a given truth.
Krugman outlines these ideas
about a self-reinforcing industrial
program in his books Age of Diminished
Expectations and Rethinking
International Trade.
In addition to writing his column
in U.S. News and World Reports,
he has taught at Yale University,
where he graduated with a B.A.
in economics .
He has also been an International
consultant for the United
Nations and the International
Monetary Fund.