unrest and budgets

Notes 57

REAL POLITIK

America's Proud Egypt Moment
The DAILY BEAST
Peter Beinart – Mon Feb 14
NEW YORK – Forced to choose between national interests and national ideals, the Obama administration, and many of its fiercest domestic critics, chose ideals. That’s a remarkable achievement, writes Peter Beinart.
In 2009, Barack Obama told an audience in Cairo that “America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire.” Now, in 2011, he—and we—have proved it. It’s a proud moment for Egypt, and for America too.
When nations rise up nonviolently against their pro-American tyrants, Americans across the political spectrum grow ashamed, and that shame can be the difference between a peaceful revolution and Tiananmen Square.
Since World War II, international-relations theory has been dominated by “realism,” a doctrine that sees ideology as a thin veneer covering national interest, which is to say: a nation’s effort to maximize its power.
Hosni Mubarak’s regime was the foundation stone—along with Israel and Saudi Arabia—of American power in the Middle East. It tortured suspected Al Qaeda terrorists for us, pressured the Palestinians for us, and did its best to contain Iran.
When it came to Egypt, the relevant divide was between neoconservatives and Islamophobes, the kind of folks who think the real problem with the Middle East is the Koran itself. The other divide was between the neoconservatives and Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government yearned for Mubarak to stay.
Peter Beinart is associate professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.


What is the difference between success and failure? Mass

Iranian opposition defies warning, calls for rally
By Nasser Karimi, Associated Press –
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's opposition on Sunday renewed its call for a rally in support of protesters in Tunisia and Egypt despite a government warning of repercussions if demonstrations take place, a reformist website reported.
It was not clear whether the rally would actually take place. Many opposition calls for demonstrations in the past months have gone unheeded.
The protests that swept Iran in the months after the 2009 vote grew into a larger movement opposed to Iran's ruling system. It was the biggest challenge faced by Iran's clerical leadership since it came to power in the 1979 revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah.
Hundreds of thousands peacefully took to the streets in support of Mousavi, and some powerful clerics sided with the opposition.

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Doug Holtz-Eakin has nerve to say on MSNBC that Obama budget is on wrong track, will increase deficits. He was chief economist and Director of Congressional Budget Office under the two Bush presidencies when the budgets went from surplus to doubling and tripling the national debt. His explanation for the financial collapse, “common shock.”
And he is the expert on budgets? What a joke.

Monday, January 31, 2011

What caused the financial crisis?

Managers of many large and midsize financial institutions amassed enormous concentrations of highly correlated housing risk;
and they amplified this risk by holding too little capital relative to the risks and funded these exposures with short-term debt.
These risks within highly leveraged, short-funded financial firms with concentrated exposure to a collapsing asset class led to a cascade of firm failures. The losses spread in two ways. Some firms had large counterparty credit risk exposures, and the sudden and disorderly failure of one firm risked triggering losses elsewhere. We call this the risk of contagion.
In other cases, the problem was a common shock.
A rapid succession of 10 firm failures, mergers and restructurings in September 2008 caused a financial shock and panic
Confidence and trust in the financial system evaporated, as the health of almost every large and midsize financial institution in the U.S. and Europe was questioned. The financial shock and panic caused a severe contraction in the real economy.

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The wonders of voodoo accounting. Everybody wins--except the losers

By Darlene Superville, Associated Press – 55 mins ago
WASHINGTON – An administration official says President Barack Obama is proposing to cut $100 billion over a decade from the Pell Grant program through belt-tightening, but use the savings to keep the maximum college financial aid award at $5,550.
Most of the projected savings, more than $90 billion, would be achieved through two changes would require congressional approval.
The administration official spoke on condition of anonymity because Obama's 2012 budget hasn't been released. That happens on Monday, when the White House sends the plan to Capitol Hill.

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Somebody in the Administration finally getting idea. It’s time for corps to pony up.

Quote of the Day: Aw, You Don't Really Want Lower Taxes

By Uri Friedman | February 09, 2011
"There are folks who say they'd like their taxes lower, but we'll persuade 'em."
- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, speaking to Judy Woodruff at The Atlantic's "Building the Economy & Jobs of the Future" event on Wednesday morning. Geithner was discussing the administration's efforts to convince corporate CEOs to support reform of the corporate tax code, even if means eliminating loopholes that have proven lucrative for certain companies.
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INFURIATING. Republican plan to cut the budget--screw the poor, pay off the oil lobby that drives not only the budget but the wars of the past 50 years

Obama wields scalpel to budget, avoiding much pain
By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press – Sun Feb 13, 12:51 am ET
WASHINGTON

House Republicans are trying to pull back $2.5 billion that's already been promised. He's seeking increases for his "Race to the Top" initiative that provides grants to better-performing schools; Republicans on Friday unveiled a five percent cut to schools serving the disadvantaged
Obama promises to seek eliminating tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil companies — even though such ideas went nowhere under Democratic control of Congress and have even less of a chance now

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McConnell on Obama. He got part of it right

McConnell says Obama agenda is `over'
By Bruce Schreiner, Associated Press – Sat Feb 12
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declared Saturday that President Barack Obama's legislative agenda is "over," but said GOP lawmakers are willing to work with the White House to do what they "think is right for America."
In a speech Saturday night to a GOP crowd in his hometown, the Kentucky Republican derided Obama for performing "Clintonian back flips" to portray himself as a moderate, but said it's yet to be seen whether the new tone is "rhetoric or reality."

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Whahoooooooo. A leader of the opposition party willing take the risk with his base and say it the way it is. Obama is an American and a Christian. But Boehner unwilling to ,address any ignorance among his base, says educating the public is not his job

Boehner says facts show Obama a Christian, citizen Sun Feb 13
WASHINGTON
When the host of NBC's "Meet the Press" asked Boehner whether he, as speaker of the House, had a responsibility to "stand up to that kind of ignorance," Boehner told David Gregory: "It's not my job to tell the American people what to think. Our job in Washington is to listen to the American people."
Boehner continued: "Having said that, the state of Hawaii has said that he was born there. That's good enough for me. The president says he's a Christian. I accept him at his word." He later called those "the facts" of Obama's background.
Gregory asked, "But that kind of ignorance, about whether he's a Muslim, doesn't concern you?"
"The American people have the right to think what they want to think," Boehner replied. "I can't — it's not my job to tell them."

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