Kuwait: Trouble in the Garden

There was, after all, a serpent even in the Garden of Eden.

Kuwait, that Connecticut-sized sandspit at the head of the Persian Gulf, controls one-quarter of the world's petroleum, collects $600 million in oil royalties annually and boasts a greater per capita income for its 468,000 people—$3,000 a year—than the U.S. Yet Kuwait's very prosperity has brought it some economic problems. The country is so saturated with imported autos, refrigerators, TV sets and other durable goods that sales have slumped for its 17,000 shopkeepers. Making this situation worse, a flood of job-seeking...