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Article 18167WAR AND THE STOCK MARKETThe American stock market is commonly disturbed by uncertainty, and unsettled political conditionsnationally and internationally have not inspired renewed investor confidence. Various fears,such as terrorism and SARS, have complicated the relatively simple process of attendance atmajor public events, decreased travel to once popular destinations, and even introduced fear intoboarding an airplane.The increased resistance to power (e.g. North Korea) may cause further uncertainty about thefuture and, thus, produce a decline in the stock market or even a recession. This situation offers asuperb opportunity for a new global alliance, which would not be favorable to multi-national corporationsor free trade. The effect on the stock markets of the world could be devastating, enoughto cause global economic stagnation. Uncertainty would be heightened while new regionaleconomic systems develop, which undoubtedly lead to new trade preferences and increased competitionfor the remaining resources in resource-poor areas. Worse yet, the vision of sustainableuse of the planet may well be replaced by increased nationalism, even tribalism. The vision of sustainabilitybased on universal peace and a new relationship with natural systems would fade. Anycentrism based on a nation-state is unsustainable, especially with the emergence of a global Internet,but some alternatives to the nation-state, such as Bilderberg 1 , are a cause for concern. Tuckerand Bollyn (2003) reported that, until last year’s meeting in the Washington, DC, suburb of Chantilly,Virginia, Bilderberg had a tradition of congeniality. Tucker and Bollyn (2003) assert that Bilderbergremains united on the common goal of establishing a world government under the UnitedNations while retaining control of the planet’s wealth and all inhabitants. Tucker and Bollyn (2003)find that the remarkable concentration of wealth and power in Bilderberg is completely dissociatedfrom its guesses of how globalization benefits 6.2 billion people. As the global populationapproaches or reaches 10 billion and fewer resources are available per capita, this disparity inwealth and power will become an even greater issue. As Durant and Durant (1968) caution, historyshows that concentration of wealth is natural and inevitable and is periodically alleviated by violentor political partial redistribution.Violence is increasingly the preferred solution to wealth concentration, but war damages bothnatural and human capital, limiting the global resources per capita. Sustainable use of the planet,including decreasing the disparity in ecological footprint size, appears to be the most promisingalternative in achieving a fair and equitable distribution of resources, including the share needed tokeep and increase the store of natural capital and the maintenance of ecosystem services.WAR AND ECONOMICSWars appear to stimulate a nation-state’s economy, but even the winner suffers a long-term ecologicaldeficit. War, which damages both technological and ecological resources and uses additionalresources in the process, is incompatible with steady-state economics. Daly (2003) remarks that thepreanalytic vision from which steady-state economics emerges is that the economy, in its physicaldimensions, is as an open subsystem of a finite, non-growing and materially closed total system —the Earth ecosystem or biosphere. The biosphere takes matter and energy from the environment in1 Depending on the ideological perspective, Bilderberg may be viewed as a club of an ultra-VIP lobby of thepower elite of Europe and America capable of steering international policy from behind closed doors, or aharmless discussion group of politicians, adademics, and business tycoons, or a capitalist secret societyoperating entirely through self interest and plotting world domination (Escobar, 2003).