Farming out

"An undeniable setback." That was new Worldcom chief executive John Sidgmore's description of revelations that the company had lied to shareholders and the public, disguising $3.8 billion in expenses to make its cash flow and profits appear stronger.

Government authorities had a stronger description of one of the largest accounting scandals in history: criminal fraud. "I think we've got to prosecute people to the full extent of the law," said Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, warning that the deception was too big to have been carried out by only one individual.

When President Bush imposed tariffs on imported steel in March, political pundits suggested he was trying to light a fire under GOP campaigns in steel-producing swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia ("QuickTakes," WORLD, April 6). But the move is threatening to boil over into a trade war that could threaten the emerging economic recovery.

"Of making many books there is no end," says the Good Book, "and much study wearies the body" (Ecclesiastes 12:12). It has always been this way: Writers write, readers read, books are made. Within that context, however, change is coming fast, for both secular and Christian publishers.