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Madeleine Albright, Condoleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton- Early warnings and the failure of the Obama administration to respond in Egypt
02/01/2011
Condy Rice and Madeleine Albright raised red flags about the situation in Egypt- Rice in 2005, and Albright as part of the Egypt Working Group in 2010 when Mubarak conducted another fradulent election. Hillary Clinton and president Obama acted as if taken by surprise and were hesitant in their response.
Linked Articles
U.S. Had Year of Warnings Over Egypt
Wall Street Journal 02/16/2011
Michael Gerson - Arabs' urge for self-government shouldn't be a surpriseWashington Post 02/01/2011
Condoleeza Rice and Elliott Abrams question the whole policy of supporting autocracy to preserve a false kind of stability in Egypt and the Arab world
01/28/2011
This stability that comes at the expense of liberty and basic freedoms does not serve America well. This only helps give rise to malignant forces that grow when democratic voices are suppressed. This is especially true in Egypt, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab world where a false stability has been created.
Linked Articles
Condoleezza Rice - The future of a democratic Egypt
Washington Post 02/16/2011
Egypt protests show George W. Bush was right about freedom in the Arab worldWashington Post 01/28/2011
America, Jobs and Competitiveness- (1) "Getting it right" with GE Capital
01/21/2011
Linked Articles
GE Seeks Exit from Banking Business
Wall Street Journal 04/10/2015
Jeffrey R. Immelt - A blueprint for keeping America competitiveWashington Post 01/21/2011
Contrasts in the approaches of S. Korea in 1997 and the U.S. in 2008 to banking crises, and the hobbled U.S. economic recovery
01/06/2011
S. Korea in 1997 at the urging of Treasury Secretary Rubin took decisive step to unwind failed financial institutions. This in stark contrast to Treasury Secretary Geither, regulators and U.S. Fed officials actions in 2008 to merge troubled mortgage institutions such as Countrywide and Washington Mutual with Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase. In the process creating mega banks that are hard to manage and hard to run, and "too big to fail," according to former and current Fed governors Hoenig and Fisher. Prof. Cochrane of the University of Chicago says the U.S. Federal Reserve's new job as financial regulator after the 2008 financial crisis, is an impossible one.
Linked Articles
Red Flags said to Go Unheeded at Chase
New York Times 05/14/2012
South Korea Makes a Quick Economic RecoveryNew York Times 01/06/2011
Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany- (1) in 2010 20 years after reunification of Germany, and Erfurt in 2015 as it copes with a wave of refugees in 2015
09/30/2010
Linked Articles
Empathy and Angst in a German City Transformed by Refugees
New York Times 09/11/2015
For Some Germans, Unity Is Still Work in ProgressNew York Times 09/30/2010
The public finances of France affect the credibility of the $1 trillon eurozone support package.
05/13/2010
How this affects Spain, Portugal, Italy and other countries facing financial crisis.
Linked Articles
French Cracks Are Showing in Euro-Zone Core
Wall Street Journal 05/13/2010
Italy's debt fuels worriesWall Street Journal 05/14/2010
Lack of credible progress in Afghanistan in 2010.
04/29/2010
A Defense Department biennial report and an independent report by Ann Marlowe after her sixth embed with American forces on the ground both confirm the lack of credible progress and attribute it to the lack of credible governance in Afghnistan. Failure of the current US administration to take good governance seriously.
Linked Articles
Strategy vs. Tactics in Afghanistan
Wall Street Journal 06/02/2010
U.S. Report on Afghan War Finds Few Gains in 6 MonthsNew York Times 04/29/2010
John Taylor's reply to U.S. Fed chairman Bernanke's defence of his role in setting low interest rates in 2003-2006 leading to the 2008 global financial crisis
01/04/2010
Linked Articles
The Fed and the Crisis: A Reply to Ben Bernanke
Wall Street Journal 01/10/2010
Fed chief Bernanke urges better financial regulation to prevent crisesWashington Post 01/04/2010
Why the Obama health care law gets an "F" grade from the Dean of Harvard Medical School
11/18/2009
The failure to replace the "fee-for-service" system in favor of capitated payments is cited as one of the main reasons. The other reasons are it does not resolve the issues of introducing competition in quality of care and cost, and continues the practices that disguise the true cost of care with a highly fragmented system of care. In a op-ed, Jeffrey Flier, Dean of the Harvard Medical School, gives a detailed account for the reason for his grading. A poorly drafted or incomplete law says Flier can make things worse, citing the example of the health care law in Massachusetts which is driving up costs, as it does not change the old dysfunctional system's key features such as "fee-for service," and instead tries to build a new system on broken foundations. Pearlstein in the Washington Post says the Obama health care law has addressed the "fee-for-service" problem, but this is really not the case, and Flier's reasoning may be the clue to the deeper problem for the Obama health care law.
Linked Articles
Steven Pearlstein: Eat your broccoli, Justice Scalia - The Washington Post
Washington Post 04/01/2012
Health 'Debate' Deserves a Failing GradeWall Street Journal 11/18/2009
Chuck Hagel and the fresh thinking he brings as leading candidate for U.S. Defense Secretary in 2013-
09/03/2009
Linked Articles
Chuck Hagel - Why Going It Alone No Longer Works
Washington Post 09/03/2009
Defense-Chief Candidate Has Conservatives WaryWall Street Journal 12/14/2012
The disillusionment of Mexico's voters with the the Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon administrations of the National Action Party
07/09/2009
The failure to meet rising expectations in Mexico. Mexico's GDP would be 2.5% higher if the oil sector was opened up, labor laws were changed and competitiveness introduced to the country's oligopolies in airlines telecom and other sectors, says Mexico's Center for National Competitiveness.
Linked Articles
Pocketbook Issues Weigh on Mexico Voters
New York Times 06/30/2012
Calderón's hatful of troublesEconomist 07/09/2009
The Congressional Budget Office's Elmendorf and Orszag on how the escalation in healthcare costs works havoc on the U.S. deficit (1)
06/17/2009
Linked Articles
Obama's Health Plan Needs Spending Controls, CBO Says
Washington Post 06/17/2009
Obama's Health Expert Gets PoliticalWall Street Journal 07/24/2009
The dangers of high unemployment in the American economy.
06/06/2009
WIth job losses of 467,000 in June 2009, Krugman sees a joblosses hole of 8.5 million jobs since the last recession. The 3 1/2 million jobs the stimulus is supposed to create by 2010 end fade in comparison to the scale of job loss that is emerging. With declining earnings, there is the additional prospect of deflation.
Linked Articles
New York Times 07/03/2009
Stuck at Unemployed: When A Layoff Becomes a LifestyleWashington Post 06/06/2009
Angela Merkel's experience with the reunification of East and West Germany and her views of the eurozone crisis
01/30/2011
The perceptions of the eurozone crisis of ordinary Germans and of former East German Angela Merkel are colored by the period of reunification of the two Germany's. This was paid for with a"solidarity surcharge" tax paid by Germans amounting to $1.7 trillion and led in its early stages to 4 million unemployed in the eastern part and 20% unemployment. It took over a decade for East Germany to build new modernized industries in the larger cities of the east, but still leaves the rural parts of former East Germany in a neglected state as young peoplemoved out. During this period industry in the west also regained lost global competitiveness, especially in industries such as automobiles and advanced machinery, using wage restraint agreements with unions and increases in productivity. Germans see the need for eurozone countries in the southern part of Europe needing to make similiar sacrifices and see the tax evasion in Italy and Greece as unacceptable. The real estate bubble, the lack of transparency for banks bad loans, and out of control regional spending in Spain is also seen in a similiar light. Greece is seen as the most egregious offendor because of the bad financial accounting that grossly understated the extent of the bad loans. Less publicized in Germany is the role played in the bad loans through poor lending practices of German and French banks and that as experts have pointed out Germany was to some extent bailing out German banks when it was bailing out Greece- till German banks reduced their exposure to Greece in 2011.
Linked Articles
In former East Germany, anxious residents resent paying for Europe’s problems - The Washington Post
Washington Post 06/21/2012
Merkel's Defense of Euro Forged in East GermanyNew York Times 01/30/2011
How a services-led consumption based economy has failed America through a loss of jobs, prosperity and prestige.
01/21/2011
Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, says the concept that the US could transition from a technology based export-oriented economic powerhouse to a services-led consumption based economy was fundamentally wrong. Mathew Slaughter of the Tuck School, Dartmouth, in a WSJ op-ed piece argues for a textbook principle of comparitive advantage, without considering the way it operates in a real the real world situation facing America as it struggles for economic renewal.
Linked Articles
Comparative Advantage and American Jobs
Wall Street Journal 01/26/2011
Jeffrey R. Immelt - A blueprint for keeping America competitiveWashington Post 01/21/2011
The unemployment rate and participation of young people in the U.S. labor force
01/08/2011
Linked Articles
Piecing Together the Job-Picture Puzzle
Wall Street Journal 03/12/2012
Jobless Rate Masks Depth of Labor WoesWall Street Journal 01/08/2011
Housing in a deep slump in 2011.
10/16/2010
Housing markets surveyed show rising inventories. The faulty documentation crisis likely to make things worse for banks with efforts to force banks to buyback loans.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 10/16/2010
Housing Gloom DeepensWall Street Journal 10/26/2010
The 1997-1998 financial crisis in S. Korea remembered in S. Korea as the "IMF Crisis"- a period of economic hardship for the working class
07/12/2010
Linked Articles
Seoul Forum Helps Heal IMF Wounds
Wall Street Journal 07/12/2010
South Korea Makes a Quick Economic RecoveryNew York Times 01/06/2011
Efforts to keep the problems of Greece from spreading to Spain and Portugal.
05/03/2010
Germany's approval of aloan for Greece, the $110 IMF plan, the announcement of trillion dollar EU support plan, and the new Zapatero austerity budget are designed to keep the problem from spreading.
Linked Articles
Spain is simply shifting the problem
Wall Street Journal 05/14/2010
Germany Clears Rescue for GreeceNew York Times 05/03/2010
The failure of CEO's before Akio Toyoda to address quality problems at Toyota.
01/28/2010
Quality problems were evident as early as 2006. Both CEO's Okuda and Watanable failed to get agrip on these problems in the midst of rapid expansion.
Linked Articles
Akio Toyoda - Toyota's plan to repair its public image
Washington Post 02/09/2010
Toyota Heir Faces Crisis at the WheelWall Street Journal 01/28/2010
Hatoyama fails to implement his vision for Japan.
12/23/2009
Perceived as indecisive over issues related to cutting wasteful spending and reducing the deficit, and the shift of an American base out of Okinawa, Hatoyama's popularity drops to 25%. He resigns (teary- eyed) after only 8 months in office. It shows how difficult it has become to find aleader since Mr Koizumi left office.
Linked Articles
Japanâs Premier Will Quit as Approval Plummets
New York Times 06/01/2010
Harsh Realities Stand in the Way of a Leader’s Vision of a New JapanNew York Times 12/23/2009
David Rieff provides insights on why all developing countries, Mexico, Brazil, India, Indonesia and China need to take child malnutrition seriously
10/11/2009
The Indian lower house of parliament passed a Food Security bill in August 2013. Rieff says China made serious progress to reduce malnutrition from over 21% for children under 5 years to around 7% today after 1990. In India malnutrition for children under 5 years is above 40%. There is a lot that developing coutnries can learn from each other in this area including the Bolsa Familia program in Brazil which uses the concept of improving vaccination for children and school attendance as requirements for subsidy payments to the poor. Mexico and Indonesia have different versions of programs to help the poorer sections of society. The problem is acute in India because of indifference induced by caste and other considerations and the high level of malnutrition for children. Rief says how good is ademographic dividend when many of these children are permanently and silently impaired by malnutrition by the age of three. India's Congress party leader, Sonia Gandhi, put it differently in parliament: "What is our responsibility to these people?"
Linked Articles
New York Times 10/11/2009
India's Lower House Passes Food Bill to Help PoorWall Street Journal 08/26/2013
Health care cost increases as a critical part of the U.S. deficit problem and why it defies solution (1)
07/24/2009
Linked Articles
Obama's Health Expert Gets Political
Wall Street Journal 07/24/2009
Four Deficit Myths and a Frightening FactWall Street Journal 01/19/2012
Peter Orszag and the struggle for a deficit neutral health care plan (1)
06/26/2009
Linked Articles
Obama's Health Expert Gets Political
Wall Street Journal 07/24/2009
Obama and Congress Clash on How to Pay for Health CareNew York Times 06/26/2009
The Economist cites IMF economist estimates that the public debt of the 10 largest industrialized countries will jump from 78% to 114% of GDP by 2014, leading to higher interest rates and inflation.
06/11/2009
The rising public debt and its unsustainability is what the future holds. For governments and decisionmakers there are very difficult choices, as fiscaly austerity and premature fiscal tightening or raising interest ratescan choke off a recovery. Raising taxes as happened earlier in Japan's lost decade also can choke off a recovery. Seriously tacklig health care costs and raising the retirement age, are much needed steps.
Linked Articles
Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest Rates
Wall Street Journal 06/11/2009
The biggest bill in historyEconomist 06/11/2009
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