Dec. 28, 2008

Dec. 28, 2008—Did you hear the one about the stockbroker who’s been sleeping like a baby? Every hour, he wakes up and cries. That was before he read that Somali pirates were issuing a new ransom-backed security to buy Citigroup. Moody’s rated it AAA, Henry M. Paulson Jr. deemed the pirates “fundamentally sound,” and Bernard L. Madoff will safeguard the returns. NYT

d'oh...

Dec. 23, 2008 The new edition of Foreign Affairs magazine has a pair of articles about the global financial mess that carry these disturbing headlines: "A Weakening of the West," reads one, and "The Rise of the Chinese Model" the other.Those two pieces frame a serious but little-discussed strategic problem for President-elect Barack Obama. The meltdown in financial markets hasn't simply damaged the American economy. It also has tarnished the U.S. economic model, and threatens to reduce Washington's ability to exert influence around the globe.
The "Anglo-Saxon brand of market-based capitalism" is under a cloud, Roger Altman, former U.S. deputy Treasury secretary and now chairman of Evercore Partners, writes in one of the Foreign Affairs pieces. "The U.S. financial system is seen as having failed." That can't be good for America's moral authority. –WSJ A2

nearing solstice

Dec. 21, 2008—A Jewish financier rips off millions of dollars devoted to memorializing the Holocaust—who could make this stuff up? Dickens, Balzac, Trollope and, for that matter, even Mel Brooks might be appalled. ... Last week ABC asked 16 of the banks that have received handouts from the Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program the same two direct questions: How have you used that money, and how much have you spent on bonuses this year? Most refused to answer. –Frank Rich, NYT WK 10

happy holidays, 2008

CHRIST-MASS Dec. 25

Let us ignore all the slaughter and danger

(Think of the Manger! Remember the Manger!)

Now as our day of rejoicing begins

(Never mind Poland—Abandon the Finns)

Lift up your voices “Long Live Christianity!”

(Cruelty, sadism, blood and insanity)

Noel Coward, Christmas 1939

FEAST OF ST STEPHEN; Dec. 26

his little volume is a series of poems on the saints. Each poem is preceded by a brief biography of the saint it celebrates—which is a very necessary precaution, as few of them ever existed. It does not discuss much poetic power, and such lines as these on St. Stephen—

Did ever man before so fall asleep?

A cruel shower of stones his only bed

For lullaby the curses loud and deep

His covering with blood red

may be said to add another terror to martyrdom. Still it is a thoroughly well intentioned book and eminently suitable for invalids. –Wilde, “The Circle of Saints,” 1882

Dec. 18, 2008

Dec. 18, 2008—“The striking thing about the normal is that there is nothing normal about it: normality is the gentrification of ordinary madness.”—Hanif Kureishi, Something to Tell You, cited in NYRB Nov. 6, 2008, p. 66

Dec. 17, 2008

Dec. 17, 2008—In an extraordinary admission that the SEC was aware of numerous red flags raised about Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, but failed to take them seriously enough, [SEC head] Mr. Cox ordered a review of the agency’s oversight of the .... firm. WSJA1 [after Katrina & Iraq nothing, but when they finally f#$% the investment class they do a review...]

--For two decades, a parade of US officials came to China and lectured Beijing on the necessity of privatizing its banks, said Qu Hongbin, the chief economist for China at HSBC. “So, slowly we did that, and now, all of a sudden, we see everybody else nationalizing their banks.” –NYT A29 [these Asians can be SO sarcastic...]

catching up

Dec. 16, 2008—An American security consultant ... was himself kidnapped last week in northern Mexico after delivering a seminar there on how to avoid that fate... NYT A6

Dec. 16, 2008—The inspector general of the Interior Department has found that agency officials often manipulated scientific facts to limit protections for species at risk... NYT A19

Dec. 14, 2008—An unpublished, 513 page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country, and then molded into a $100 billion failure by bureaucratic turf wars, spiraling violence and ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society and infrastructure. NYT A1

Dec. 13, 2008—The [White House] decision [to aid the auto industry] came after a tense standoff this week in which senior White House officials pleaded with Senate Republicans not to block the measure, including a warning by VP Dick Cheney that they would be remembered as the party of Herbert Hoover if the industry collapsed. NYT A1

Dec.12, 2008—Texas’s governor said US regulation of carbon dioxide emissions will be “economically disastrous” for the state. WSJ A1, A4

Dec. 12, 2008—Several big US firms are reincorporating in Switzerland, helping them avoid expected legislation aimed at companies in tax havens. WSJ A1, B1

Dec. 12, 2008—In vitro fertilization, embryonic stem cell research likened to “in of abortion”—Roman Catholic Church—USA Today, 2A

ides of December

Dec. 15, 2008—An Iraqi TV journalist shouted in Arabic, “This is a farewell kiss, you dog,” as President George W. Bush, throwing his shoes at the US leader Sunday during a news conference. WSJ A1

--failing to successfully use ACORN voter “fraud” to steal the election, the Right is now using ACORN to torpedo the Employee Free Choice Act. See NYT A15, linking Blagoevich, SEIU President Andy Stern, and “often indicted” [defamatory statement] ACORN

doing the math

Dec. 10, 2008—The Treasury sold four-week notes at a 0% yield for the first time, with investors in effect giving their cash to the government for safe-keeping until 2009. WSJ A1 [make that 41 days, please]

--US students improved their math scores in an international test...WSJA1 [not a moment too soon]

--Rent-a-Womb is where Market Logic Leads. ... Massive inequality, we have learned, isn’t the best way to run an economy after all. And when you think about it, it’s also profoundly ugly... Surrogate motherhood ... is a glass-and-gender minefield. ... If surrogacy ever becomes a widely practiced market transaction, it will probably make pregnancy into just another dirty task for the working class, with wages driven down and wealthy couples hiring the work out because it’s such a hassle to be pregnant.—Thomas Frank, WSJ A12 [again, all glory laud and honor to Market God]

legal issues

Dec. 9, 2008—A Yale man with a law degree from Harvard, he was a litigation powerhouse, a leader at some of the more prominent firms at the New York bar who then started a top-shelf practice of his own. But when the lawyer, Marc S. Dreier, stepped off a flight from Canada on Sunday night, federal authorities arrested him in a $100 million fraud scheme, portraying his recent undertakings as more high-stakes grifting than high-end lawyering. NYT A28—even Harvard can’t fix that Yale training…

--Here’s another sign of the tough economic times: Some clinics are reporting a surge in the number of women applying to donate eggs or serve as surrogate mothers for infertile couples. .. One ad running in campus newspapers promises $25,000 for a donor who is “100% Jewish with … High SAT scores … Attractive, at Healthy Body Weight and Free of Genetic Diseases.” WSJ D1 --so is it still Jewish if it comes from a Jewish egg, but a gentile vagina? or how about a gentile egg and a Jewish vagina?

nunc dimitus

December 8, 2008 -- President-elect Barack Obama is weighing in on behalf of workers staging a sit-in on the factory floor of their former Chicago employer to protest abruptly losing their jobs last week. Obama told a news conference Sunday that Republic Windows and Doors should follow through on its commitments to the 200 workers, who say they won't leave the plant until they are assured they'll receive their severance and vacation pay. "The workers who are asking for the benefits and payments that they have earned, I think they're absolutely right and understand that what's happening to them is reflective of what's happening across this economy," Obama said.

went in dumb come out dumb too

12-5-08—“Half the people in that stadium can ‘t spell LSU,” says political consultant James Carville, an LSU alumnus. ... Only three SEC member schools have endowments larger than $1 billion as of the 2007 fiscal year, while half or more of the schools in other major conferences ... do. ... Nonetheless, in 2006, four SEC schools—Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and LSU—raised $35 million or more in athletic donations... The historical knock on SEC schools among rivals is that their success is predicated on a willingness to stockpile great players by violating NCAA rules on recruiting and athlete benefits. While some of the sanctions have been minor, every SEC school but Vanderbilt has been on probation in the last 25 years. Another charge is that lower academic standards give SEC teams an advantage in recruiting. Just three SEC schools—Vanderbilt, Florida, and Georgia—were cited among the top 80 universities in US News & World Report’s 2009 college rankings, while all 11 members of the Big Ten were in the top 80.—WSJ, W4

gimme gimme shock treatment

12-4-08—Obama’s team is resisting Treasury overtures to get more involved in financial rescue spending. WSJ A1[what a shock]

12-4-08—Vermont ranked as the healthiest US state in the lastest annual rating. Louisiana finished last, after Mississippi. WSJ A1 [what a shock]

12-4-2008—China Suns Investments in West’s Finance Sector --NYT B5 [what a shock]

12-3-08—Chertoff, Shifting Views on Security, Pushes Use of “Soft Power”—WSJ A6 [even HLS graduates can learn...][what a shock]

12-3-08--“Blocking Obama’s Health Plan is Key to the GOP’s Survival,” proclaims the headline of a November blog by Michael F. Cannon, the libertarian Cato Institute’s director of Health Policy Studies. His argument, stitched together from other blog posts, is pretty much the same as Mr. Kristol’s in 1993. Any kind of national medical program would be so powerfully attractive to working-class voters that it would shift the tectonic plates of the nation’s politics. Therefore, such a program must be stopped. –Thomas Frank, WSJ A15 [can Democrats learn?]

T-giving weekend update

11-29/30-08—Bill Cosby says comedians need time to develop their Obama routines. “It’s too soon,” he says. “They not finished with the last guy yet.” WSJ W3.

11-29-08--Europe Says Drug Makers Unfairly Block Generics, Driving up Health Costs. NYT B3

11-27-08---A “lack of moderation discernible on all fronts,” is how Dwight D. Eisenhower assessed Sweden in 1960, seeing Scandinavia in general and as a cautionary tale about extended social welfare.

11-27-08—Lawmakers in Baghdad Delay Vote on US Pact. NYT A6

11-27-08—Afghan Leader, Showing Impatience with War, Demands Timetable from NATO NYT A6

November 27, 2008--Randy Scandinavia? A “lack of moderation discernible on all fronts” is how Dwight D. Eisenhower assessed Sweden in 1960, seeing Scandinavia in general as a cautionary tale about extended social welfare. “We don’t sin any more than other people, but we probably sin more openly,” responded an irate Swedish baker, when approached by a journalist. ...As the columnist C. L. Sulzberger observed in The New York Times after Denmark, the most libertine of the Scandinavian constellation, legalized pornography, “There is nothing in the least bit either unwholesome or immoral about the Danes who simply share with Benjamin Franklin, an American never renowned for excessive Puritanism, a belief that honesty is the best policy.”

But calling out American criticism of Scandinavia for its hypocrisy missed one point: to many Americans, procreation aside, sex was supposed to be naughty. Making it wholesome spoiled the fun. Anyone who has had to acclimate to the obligatory nakedness (supposedly for health reasons) of saunas in this part of the world knows that to be true. There is nothing sexy, believe me, I know, about sweating in a small, dark sauna with a half dozen large, middle-aged Germans.

But I digress. ... Now dimly recalled for the censorship ruckus caused by its full-frontal male nudity, “I Am Curious (Yellow)” became the ultimate Scandinavian sex film. Its naked couplings, involving notably ordinary lovers, were punctuated by ponderous disquisitions on Swedish labor law, interviews with Olaf Palme, the Swedish labor minister, and a section with the Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Norman Mailer championed it as “one of the most important pictures.” There you go. Even “Bonanza” was sexier, in retrospect. How did Scandinavia turn from “Maid in Sweden” to Ikea, from the purveyor of earnest free love into the purveyor of affordable love seats, from the home of Christina Lindberg (the maid) into the home of Abba? .... Berge Ragnar Furre, a Norwegian historian, theologian and a politician in the Socialist Left Party, now on the Nobel Committee, offered this thought: “You have to remember that here in Norway we have also had a strong tradition of liberal democracy that is against sexuality, so we are historically divided as a liberal society.” In other words, Norwegians have long split between being sexually liberated and puritanical, while remaining politically liberal in both cases. ....“Suddenly we are very proud of our native prostitutes,” Ms. Mühleisen said, shaking her head. “They’re supposedly cleaner, more law-abiding, they stay out of the tourist center in Oslo. So a whole new discussion about good Norwegian sexuality — which, this being Scandinavia, includes equal rights for women — has arisen in contrast to bad sexuality, which is now the sexuality of the ‘other.’ ” NYTC1, C8

Nov. 25, 2008

11-25-08—US Court Allows Abuse Case v. Vatican. The appeals court found that the Vatican may be responsible for policies or directives as they were carried out in the US, and may have affect how abuse complaints were handled. One of the central pieces of evidence in the case is a 1962 memo, issued by the Vatican and unearthed by reporters in 2003, which directs Catholic bishops to keep silent about claims of sex abuse. The document was approved by Pope John the23d. WSJ A4

--While [GWB] administration officials acknowledged that the number of nations supporting the [Iraq] war changed over time, academic researchers say three official [website] lists appear to have been changed, yet retained their original release date, making them appear to be unaltered originals.—NYT A9

catching up

11-23-08—Maybe it won’t be long before some excellent writer undertakes “The Decline and Fall of the American Empire.”—NYT BK 13

11-22-08—New accusations have emerged during the appeal of the bribery conviction of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama that could buttress Democrats’ claims that the case against him was politically tainted....NYT A10

11-21-08—An internal investigation by the CIA has found that the agency withheld crucial information from federal investigators who spent years trying to determine whether CIA officers committed crimes related to the accidental drowning of a missionary plane in Peru in 2001. NYT A6

11-19-08—The ex-head of an EPA probe into BP pipeline spills in Alaska claims the DOJ prematurely shut down the investigation. WSJ, A1

--November 5, 1968. Nixon elected President.

this is why they call them intelligence agencies....

--A new study of the global future by American intelligence agencies [said] “although the United States is likely to remain the single most powerful actor, the United States’ relative strength—even in the military realm—will decline and US leverage will become more constrained... By 2025, it predicted, “the US will find itself as one of a number of important actors on the world stage,” playing “a prominent role in global events” but not a decisive one as in the past. NYT A13

framboise

November 20, 2008

Sarkozy’s Fiscal Meeting Raises Diplomatic Hackles

By MARK LANDLER

WASHINGTON — President Nicolas Sarkozy of France left the summit meeting on the financial crisis here last weekend in a triumphal mood, declaring that it had tamed the animal spirits of American capitalism. Then he went home and announced that he would hold his own summit meeting in a few weeks in Paris — on the same topic.

That has raised hackles in diplomatic circles, not just because the meeting appears to compete with a planned gathering of 20 world leaders next April. Mr. Sarkozy’s aggressive statements have put American officials on edge, with some saying that he seemed determined to turn the global crisis into a referendum on the ills of untrammeled capitalism.

“Sarkozy claimed he put a bell on the American cat,” said Simon Johnson, a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. “He said the U.S. had agreed to a whole range of negotiations on regulations. But he didn’t actually come in and negotiate any of these things.”

Making matters worse, Mr. Sarkozy said nothing about his plans to convene a meeting to President Bush or the 18 other leaders while he was here. A senior European diplomat said he found the French proposal “amazing,” while an American official said that that would be a charitable description.

French officials said the gathering on Jan. 8 and 9, which is to be co-hosted by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is merely a conference, intended to bring together political leaders and prominent thinkers to discuss issues like globalization and the values of capitalism.

The surfeit of summit meetings reflects what has become a tense trans-Atlantic contest over the global economy. Much of this is posturing by ambitious leaders, but it also reflects a genuine philosophical debate about how best to fix the fractured global markets.

On one side is Mr. Sarkozy, the supercharged French leader, determined to keep the initiative on what many in Europe regard as a long-overdue discussion of the excesses of American-style capitalism.

On the other is Mr. Bush, playing out his final weeks in office but unwilling to allow Europeans, especially the French, to dominate the debate on how to overhaul international financial regulations.

Certainly, the two leaders had sharply different interpretations of what happened at the meeting. Mr. Sarkozy portrayed it as a shift in power, saying, “Europe for the first time expressed its clear determination.” Americans had “never, ever” been willing to negotiate these kinds of regulatory changes, he said.

Mr. Bush agreed that the meeting had been productive. But he noted that the leaders had reaffirmed the value of free markets, free trade and the primacy of national regulation — all hallmarks of American capitalism.

The timing of Mr. Sarkozy’s January meeting has ruffled feathers, even more than its agenda has, because the Group of 20 set out a detailed process to tackle regulatory reform. It assigned working groups to develop proposals on 47 issues, to be taken up later by the leaders, possibly in London.

At that meeting, President-elect Barack Obama will have a seat at the table. Mr. Obama will not, however, be in office during the Paris meeting, ensuring that the participants discuss the future of capitalism when the world’s leading practitioner of it is still in a transition.

Though the Élysée Palace, Mr. Sarkozy’s office, announced the meeting as an international summit, his aides emphasized that it was an informal gathering not connected to the G-20.

Among those planning to attend are two Nobel Prize-winning economists, Joseph E. Stiglitz and Amartya Sen. Mr. Blair is contacting world leaders, aides said, adding that it was too soon to say which ones would attend.

“It’s a joint idea of Tony Blair and Nicolas Sarkozy; they have had it on their minds for a while,” said a French official, who, like other officials, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Mr. Sarkozy has had many ideas. He proposed last weekend’s meeting, though Mr. Bush rejected his idea to hold the talks in New York. American officials said it was Mr. Bush’s idea to expand the guest list to 20 countries, rather than the usual gathering of 7 or 8.

The common ground between Europe and the United States is greater than these public statements suggest. The United States has shown a willingness to accept regulation of a wide variety of institutions and markets, including credit default swaps — a form of bond insurance — and possibly private equity firms and hedge funds, that are not now regulated.

“People may have been surprised by the U.S. willingness to cooperate on issues,” said David H. McCormick, under secretary of the Treasury for international affairs.

Although the French favor a strong state role in the economy and are partial to regulatory agencies with cross-border authority, they did not propose such measures at the talks here. That was mainly because Britain and Germany had earlier resisted a supranational regulator.

mission accomplished, again

11-18-08—Premier of Iraq is quietly firing fraud monitors. US created the posts. Corruption said to soar. –NYT A1 mission accomplished

11-17-08

11-17-08—Those hard dates [in the US pullout agreement from Iraq with Iraq] reflect a significant concession by the departing Bush administration, which had been publicly adverse to timetables. –NYT A1 mission accomplished

--Dan Rather’s lawsuit against CBS, claiming a slanted investigation into his report on President Bush’s National Guard service, seems to have unearthed evidence of political influence. NYT A1, B1 fancy the Bushies trying to politicize something...!...

--“The work of this Congress will be seen as a watershed, where we turned away from the outmoded, Depression-era approach to financial regulation and adopted a framework that will position our financial services industries to be world leaders into the new century.”—Phil Gramm, Dec. 15,2000, NYT A1 short century

--[After National Review columnist Kathleen Parker] wrote in her syndicated column ... arguing that Gov. Palin was unfit to be vice president, Ms. Parker received nearly 11,000 e-mail messages, one of which lamented that her mother did not abort her.—NYT B9 Right wingers carve out special cases exception for abortion

Jan. 21, 2009, Bush et al get their turn...

11-14-08 NYT A10

MADRID — Nearly 20 years after the Salvadoran Army killed six Jesuit priests in one of the most notorious events of El Salvador’s civil war, a criminal complaint filed in the Spanish High Court has revived hopes that those behind the massacre could face trial.

Human rights lawyers filed a complaint on Thursday against the Salvadoran president at the time, Alfredo Cristiani Burkard, and 14 former members of the Salvadoran military, for their roles in the killings of the priests and two female employees, and in the official cover-up that followed. International outrage over the murders proved to be pivotal in sapping American support for United States military assistance to the Salvadoran Army. ...

“The crusading Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón made legal history in 1998 when he secured the arrest in Britain of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet using a Spanish legal principle that crimes against humanity can be prosecuted anywhere. General Pinochet narrowly escaped extradition to Spain by pleading ill health. Since then, Spain’s High Court has received cases connected to rights abuses in several countries, including Argentina, Chile and Guatemala.

“It will put pressure on the Salvadoran authorities and remind them that there is an international community out there and they have to respect its norms,” [human rights lawyer Bernabu] said by telephone. Even if the suspects were not extradited, the Spanish case could force a trial in El Salvador, Ms. Bernabeu said. Any prosecution would serve as some form of justice and help strengthen calls for a repeal of the country’s controversial amnesty law, she said. “Remember, Pinochet died a criminal,” she said.

11-12-08

11-12-08—Iraq Signs $3.5 billion Deal for China to Develop Oil Field ... the first major oil-development deal that Iraq has made with a foreign company since the American-led invasion of 2003. NYT A10 [and the silly unpatriotic liberals thought this was a war for USA oil companies....]

11-11-08

11-11-08--Along the Atlantic Coast, parts of the “suburban South,” notably Virginia and North Carolina, made history last week in breaking from their Confederate past and supporting Mr. Obama. Those states have experienced an influx of better educated and more prosperous voters in recent years, pointing them in a different political direction than states farther west, like Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, and Appalachian sections of Kentucky and Tennessee. Southern counties that voted more heavily Republican this year than in 2004 tended to be poorer, less educated and whiter, a statistical analysis by The New York Times shows. Mr. Obama won in only 44 counties in the Appalachian belt, a stretch of 410 counties that runs from New York to Mississippi. Many of those counties, rural and isolated, have been less exposed to the diversity, educational achievement and economic progress experienced by more prosperous areas. NYT A1

--I’m finished with the Reagan Democrats of Macomb County in suburban Detroit....Before the Democratic convention, barely 40 percent of Macomb County voters were “comfortable” with the idea of Mr. Obama as president, far below the number who were comfortable with a nameless Democrat. But on Election Day, nearly 60 percent said they were “comfortable” with Mr. Obama. About the same number said Mr. Obama “shares your values” and “has what it takes to be president.” ... But focusing on the ways that Macomb County has become normal and uninteresting misses the extraordinary changes taking place next door in Oakland County — a place that played a bigger role in Mr. Obama’s success and perhaps in an emerging national Democratic ascendancy. While Macomb County is home to the white middle class that America’s auto industry made possible, Oakland County is home to the affluent, business-oriented suburbanites of Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills, some of the richest townships in America. Just a quarter of Macomb County residents have college degrees, but more than 40 percent do in Oakland. ... On Tuesday, Oakland County voters gave Mr. Obama a 57 percent to 42 percent victory over John McCain — those 15 points translated into an astonishing 96,000-vote margin. That helped form one of the most important new national changes in the electorate: Mr. Obama built up striking dominance in the country’s growing, more diverse and well-educated suburbs.—Stanley Greenberg A25

---A long standing tradition at Goshen [Indiana] College draw national attention Monday when a conservative radio show questioned the school’s practice of not playing the national anthem at sporting events. ... Bill Born, vice president of student life at the school, told Gallaher that not playing the national anthem was part of the college’s Mennonite and pacifist tradition. SBT A1

rust never sleeps

11-10-08--The encomiums greeting Barack Obama’s victory last week presented a reverse image of the darts for John Kerry after his 2004 defeat. But Kerry campaign veterans could not help noticing a surprise in the returns. In the battleground state of Ohio, where Mr. Kerry lost the presidency to George W. Bush, the 2.74 million votes he received almost precisely matched Mr. Obama’s 2008 total. Mr. Obama won because John McCain received 300,000 fewer votes than Mr. Bush did. That points to a cautionary reminder for Mr. Obama and his team: the election turned partly on what they did right, but also on what Republicans did wrong. And there is no assurance that Democrats will confront a similarly star-crossed opposition in elections to come.

“We should be confident, but not cocky,” said Donald Fowler of South Carolina, a former national Democratic Party chairman. “Several things that worked against them in this campaign could change quickly.” Among them, Mr. Fowler said of the deeply unpopular Republican incumbent in the White House, “Bush is going to disappear.” Mr. Obama, a senator from Illinois, inarguably fashioned an impressive victory for any Democrat, much less the first black nominee in American history. His 52 percent share of the popular vote exceeded that of any Democratic candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 — and topped Ronald Reagan’s 1980 majority against Jimmy Carter. With breakthroughs in the South, Midwest and Mountain West, Mr. Obama captured at least nine states carried by Mr. Bush in 2004, with the outcome in Missouri still unclear. Yet the record-shattering turnout that some observers predicted appears not to have materialized. Curtis Gans of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate projects that, when outstanding votes are tallied, the number of Americans casting ballots will fall short of the 130-million floor predicted by the McCain and Obama campaigns. Mr. Gans ascribes that shortfall in part to diminished Republican fervor — a “demobilization” that created political openings for Mr. Obama’s disciplined campaign organization. The reasons for that begin with Mr. Bush’s political infirmity, but they do not end there. Lacking a deep wellspring of support among conservative party regulars, Mr. McCain courted them to win the Republican nomination — in the process weakening his once-formidable standing among independents. He sought to appeal to both factions with his selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, and saw most Americans deem her unqualified for the presidency. The campaign’s unalloyed appeals to cultural populism drove well-educated, high-income voters to the Democratic ticket. Meantime, disarray among Congressional Republicans over the financial bailout package in September compounded injuries Republicans suffered throughout Mr. Bush’s second term to their reputation for pragmatism and competence. Democrats “benefited greatly from tapping into voters’ frustrations about a very badly damaged Republican brand,” said Mr. McCain’s political director NYT A17

kiss and make up

Nov. 9, 2008--That whole anti-American, friend-to-the-terrorists thing about President-elect Barack Obama? Never mind.

Just a few weeks ago, at the height of the campaign, Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota told Chris Matthews of MSNBC that, when it came to Mr. Obama, “I’m very concerned that he may have anti-American views.”

But there she was on Wednesday, after narrowly escaping defeat because of those comments, saying she was “extremely grateful that we have an African-American who has won this year.” Ms. Bachmann, a Republican, called Mr. Obama’s victory, which included her state, “a tremendous signal we sent.”

election aftermath

Nov. 7, 2008--

“The single most important thing that Congress can do right now is create universal voter registration, which would mean that all eligible voters are automatically registered,” said Rosemary E. Rodriguez, the chairwoman of the federal Election Assistance Commission, which oversees voting. “We also saw incredible success with early voting, and requiring states to adopt it would help as well.”

Ms. Rodriguez said universal registration would reduce the dependence on third-party groups like Acorn to sign up people and would remove the impetus for much of the pre-election litigation over who should be allowed to register.

Congress is already discussing the adoption of early voting nationwide. It now exists in 32 states in various forms.

A bill to do so was drafted last year by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, and its co-sponsors included Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois. The bill was tabled after receiving little support from Congressional Republicans but is likely to have a better chance next year when Democrats hold expanded majorities on Capitol Hill and Mr. Obama is president.

NYT A1, A21

Nov. 6, 2008

Nov. 6, 2008—The ugly American that everybody was sick of has turned into an amicable, open-minded citizen of the world.—Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, NYT A13

--Election monitors from a European-rights watchdog organization say Tuesday’s elections met acceptable democratic standards. The Organization for Security and cooperation in Europe says, however, that US authorities should fix some flaws in its election system. SBT A3

weekend update, Nov. 1/2, 2008

Nov. 1/2, 2008—Many young workers [in Japan] are shunning choice promotions—even foregoing raises—in favor of humdrum jobs with minimal responsibilities. ... Employment experts have begun to call these workers hodo-hodo zoku, or the “so-so folks.” ... Chiaki Arai, who has written about the hodo-hodo phenomenon in newspapers, blames Japan’s economic woes during the long slump in the 1990s and early 200s. He says young workers saw older generations throw themselves into their work, only to face job and pay cuts as companies restructured. Now, young employees are cautious about giving too much of themselves—even it it means less money or prestige, Dr. Arai says... Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co. is finding it so hard to identify managerial candidates that it has turned to the clerical workers it calls office e ladies to fill positions. ... Law firms say the trend has companies seeking legal counsel on whether they can fire employees who refuse promotions. WSJ A1. A

--Many of the roughly 3000 political appointees of President George W. Bush are beating the bushes harder than expected for post-election employment. WSJ A3

Happy Halloween

10-31-08—McCain and Obama Advisers Briefed on Deteriorating Afghan War, NYT A11

--Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has collected a record-shattering $640 million, but only two of his staff members are among the 15 highest-paid workers in the general election, according to campaign finance records. The rest, including the three highest paid, are employed by Senator John McCain. The Obama campaign, despite having more than 700 field offices across the country, compared with fewer than 400 for Mr. McCain, has spent slightly less on rent than its counterpart. And even though Mr. Obama has raised $400 million more than Mr. McCain, he has spent less on fund-raising consultants. NYT A18

--Financial giants getting injections of federal cash owed their executives more than $40 billion for past years' pay and pensions as of the end of 2007, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows. The government is seeking to rein in executive pay at banks getting federal money, and a leading congressman and a state official have demanded that some of them make clear how much they intend to pay in bonuses this year. But overlooked in these efforts is the total size of debts that financial firms receiving taxpayer assistance previously incurred to their executives, which at some firms exceed what they owe in pensions to their entire work forces. WSJ A1

10-30-08

10-30-08—Striking new evidence has emerged of a widespread gap in the cost of health insurance, as women pay much more than men of the same age for individual insurance policies providing identical coverage... Some insurance executives expressed surprise... NYT A1

--Iraqis insist on changes to long-delayed security pact with US –NYT A15

--Conceding it needed outside help in figuring out why the suicide rate among service members was rising, the Army.... NYT A17

--“A revolution [in France] comes when what was taboo becomes mainstream.... when you have images in the Metro of a woman paying for sex who could be the middle-aged woman next door, and a single pregnant Muslim justice minister and no one seems to care, the certainties are in trouble.” Pascal Bruckner, French intellectual, NYT E6

10-29-2008

10-29-08—First came the mortgage crisis. Now comes the credit card crisis. NYT A1

--At least 310 private security companies from around the world have received contracts from US agencies to protect American and Iraqi officials, installations, convoys and other entities in Iraq since 2003, according to the most comprehensive accounting yet of the secretive and weakly regulated role that private firms have played in the conflict. NYT A5

--The Alaska Republican Party on Tuesday found itself in the awkward [but not unusual] position of urging voters to return a convicted felon to the US Senate. NYT A13

10-27-2008

10-27-08—China appears to join Europe in call for overhaul of ‘financial’ rules. WSJ A8

--Speculative currency trades plunge Kuwait into bank bailout. WSJ A1

--“Madonna of the Goldfinch,” a 500-year-old painting by the Renaissance master Raphael (1483-1520), [and one of the greatest paintings in the world] will go on display next month after a decade-long restoration in a lab in Italy, the BBC reported. NYT C2

NYRB

10-23-08—I just took rurality as my ground... The landscapes [of Wyoming and Newfoundland] are different, but the economic situations and the beliefs of the people who live in the places are quite similar, because [the people] can’t see who’s making the rules and the economic strategies that govern them, they continue to believe in the independent rural life, which is deliciously ironic and very said. –Annie Proulx, NYRB (Oct. 23, 2008) p. 41,

--A Web site that tracks security issues has estimated that in 2008, the US defense budget will be $711 billion, or about 48 % of overall world military spending. This would be close to twice as much as the budgets of Europe and China, the second- and third- biggest military spenders, combined. –Alan Ryan, NYRB (Oct. 23, 2008) p. 4159.

9-25-08—The astrophysicist Adrian Melott of the University of Kansas, in a fight with zealots who wanted equal time for creationism in the Kansas public schools, founded an organization called FLAT (Families for Learning Accurate Theories). His society parodied creationists by demanding equal time for flat earth geography, arguing that children should be exposed to both sides of the controversy over the shape of the earth. –Steven Weinberg, NYRB p. 73.

--[Obama’s] coalition represents, in a very literal sense, an America of the future in which there will be more white-collar tech-related jobs and fewer blue-collar manufacturing jobs. There will be more immigrants and people of color and fewer Anglo-Saxon whites. Cities and inner-ring suburbs will be more important than small towns and sprawling, diffuse exurbs. The concerns of the middle and upper-middle classes will predominate in political life, not those of the working class (i.e., not the traditional “backbone of the Democrat Party” of the passing industrial age). It will, finally, be a country more reliant on the young than the old. –Michael Tomasky, NYRB 81.

more proof of GWB's foreign policy genius

Russia tells OPEC eyes swing oil producer role

Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:32am EDT

By Amie Ferris-Rotman and Vladimir Soldatkin

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia could become a swing producer to influence global prices, the country's top energy official said on Wednesday as OPEC's Secretary General met with a Russian president for the first time.

The resurrection of a decade-old idea of a big oil reserve comes as another sign of Russia's growing ties with OPEC, which has unnerved global consumers already worried by talks between Russia, Iran and Qatar to create an OPEC-style gas group.

10-20/21-2008

10-21-08--“Right now,” said Mr. White, the head of the American National Socialist Workers Party, “we’re facing the potential of a half-black candidate financed by Jewish money going up against a white candidate financed by Jewish money, who are both advocating the same policy. So you’ve got two terrible choices.” ... There have been sporadic reports throughout the country of Obama signs vandalized with swastikas, windows smashed at local Obama campaign offices and racist pamphlets dropped on doorsteps. Overt and thinly veiled racist comments about Mr. Obama have been caught on camera at rallies, and a Republican women’s group in California — the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated — has made headlines for a flier that showed Mr. Obama’s face on a faux food stamp that also included watermelon and fried chicken. NYT A19

--The characters [on “Family Guy”] ambush Nazi soldiers in an alley and steal their uniforms so they can travel without drawing attention. Putting on an overcoat, Stewie notices a McCain-Palin campaign button affixed to the lapel. NYT A18

10-20-08—“The landscape’s changed, said Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University professor. “I think we’ll see a big turn in the US position [at upcoming international financial summit]. ... We certainly would prefer that market principles have an important bearing [on policy]. But I don’t think we can blow them [European officials] off as we might have a year ago.” WSJ A4

weekend update

10-19-08—Suddenly, Europe Looks Pretty Smart. NYT WK 1

--FBI Struggling to Handle Wave of Finance Cases. NYT A1—too busy w/ voting fraud

--When it comes to the topic of aging, [Catherine] Denuve is known for saying (to quote loosely), “You choose either your face or your fanny.” NYTSM 34.

10-18/19-08--“You won’t let them turn the Buckeye State into the Acorn State.” Sarah Palin—WSJ A9

10-18-08--Asked how many members of Congress she would describe as “anti-American,” [GOP MN Rep. Michelle] Bachmann replied: “I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America. I would like to see an expose like that.” NYT A15—too busy w/ voting fraud

--10-17-08—GOP Donor Is accused of Overcharging Pentagon. NYT A12—but not vote fraud

Sunday paper

10-11-08--The new approach, which would have government inject capital directly into the nation’s banks, is on that administration officials had publicly opposed until just a few days ago... The surprising turnabout by Treas. Sec. Paulson has raised questions about whether he squandered valuable time by trying to sell Congress a plan that he and other administrations had failed to think through in advance. It also raises questions about whether the administration’s deep philosophical hostility to government ownership in private companies aggravated the financial crisis by delaying rescue action.—NYT A1

--Britain overreached imperially. The US has been doing it financially. ... Right now, it doesn’t seem so ridiculous to ask whether 2008 will come to be seen as the first year of a distinctly non-American century.—NYT WK1

--This guy [GWB] is basically a bum who became president of the United States. –Oliver Stone, NYT AR1

--The major spy character [in LeCarre’s new novel A Most Wanted Man] ...is Guenther Bachmann. Not Smiley: much rougher, more desperate, not a bit worried about doing evil in defense of good because nor it’s 9/11 evil, not Soviet evil. –NYT BKR 10

--Have you been wondering why Republicans have suddenly stopped talking about “family values”? Could it be because a divorced John McCain chose as his running mate a stay-at-work mom who hid her last, unplanned pregnancy... and who has a pregnant, unwed teenager with a self described “**** redneck” of a boyfriend who “does want kids”... and n ex-brother-in-law who tasered her nephew, and a husband with a DUI who loves his country so much he joined a secessionist party? All of which leaves the GOP clinging to one remaining family value—the shotgun wedding! All previous values are null and void because “life happens.”--Doonesbury

10-10

10-10-08—The White House announced steps to speed the transition process for the next administration. WSJ A1 –good riddance to bad rubbish

--[US] Joint Chiefs Chairman is Pessimistic on Afghanistan. NYT A11—hey what’s the loss of another country compared to the destruction of global capitalism?

--US Failing to Promote Math Skills, Study Finds. NYT A15 hard to count all those dollars

--What had been a [GOP] disdain for liberal intellectuals slipped into a disdain for the educated class as a whole.—NYT A29, David Brooks, conservative columnist

first Sunday in October

10-05-08--The US is too isolated, too insular. They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining.—Horace Engdahl, secretary of the Swedish Academy which awards the Nobel prize in literature, NYT Wk3

--Until we get our financial act together, our motto is going to be: “Swedish spoken here—or Arabic or Chinese or German.”—Thomas Friedman, NYT WK9

—In Raleigh, executives at RBC Bank canceled the parachuters that were supposed to spear at the grand openings of its new headquarters, saying it was not an appropriate time to have people jumping off a bank building. –NYT A16

hoosier hysteria

10-03-08--Many events in Washington, on Wall Street and elsewhere around the country have led to what has been called the most serious financial crisis since the 1930s. But decisions made at a brief meeting on April 28, 2004, explain why the problems could spin out of control. The agency’s failure to follow through on those decisions also explains why Washington regulators did not see what was coming.

On that bright spring afternoon, the five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission met in a basement hearing room to consider an urgent plea by the big investment banks.

They wanted an exemption for their brokerage units from an old regulation that limited the amount of debt they could take on. The exemption would unshackle billions of dollars held in reserve as a cushion against losses on their investments. Those funds could then flow up to the parent company, enabling it to invest in the fast-growing but opaque world of mortgage-backed securities; credit derivatives, a form of insurance for bond holders; and other exotic instruments.

The five investment banks led the charge, including Goldman Sachs, which was headed by Henry M. Paulson Jr. Two years later, he left to become Treasury secretary.

A lone dissenter — a software consultant and expert on risk management — weighed in from Indiana with a two-page letter to warn the commission that the move was a grave mistake. He never heard back from Washington. ...

In letters to the commissioners, senior executives at the five investment banks complained about what they called unnecessary regulation and oversight by both American and European authorities. A lone voice of dissent in the 2004 proceeding came from a software consultant from Valparaiso, Ind., who said the computer models run by the firms — which the regulators would be relying on — could not anticipate moments of severe market turbulence.

“With the stroke of a pen, capital requirements are removed!” the consultant, Leonard D. Bole, wrote to the commission on Jan. 22, 2004. “Has the trading environment changed sufficiently since 1997, when the current requirements were enacted, that the commission is confident that current requirements in examples such as these can be disregarded?”

He said that similar computer standards had failed to protect Long-Term Capital Management, the hedge fund that collapsed in 1998, and could not protect companies from the market plunge of October 1987.

Mr. Bole, who earned a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Chicago, helps write computer programs that financial institutions use to meet capital requirements.

He said in a recent interview that he was never called by anyone from the commission.

“I’m a little guy in the land of giants,” he said. “I thought that the reduction in capital was rather dramatic.”—NYT A1, A23

--...this is Homer [Simpson’s] first vote in a presidential general election. “It’s time for a change, he says to an electronic voting machine. But ... the machine records the vote (multiple votes, actually) for John McCain, then tries to swallow Homer when he disagrees. “This doesn’t happen in America,” Homer exclaims. “Maybe Ohio, but not in America!”—NYT A20

--Sunspots are Fewest since 1954, but Significance is Unclear—NYT A21

--Sen. Obama has advertised in Indiana for months, and until recently Republicans have ridiculed those efforts. On Tuesday, the RNC made its first advertising buy in the state, a 10-day, $740,000 purchase, after polls showed a statistical tie in a state Mr. Bush won by 31% in 2004. –WSJ A15

Oct. 1

10-01-08--Even worse, from the French perspective, Americans are reckless optimists, incurably blind to the tragedy of life, to the weary convolutions of history and thus to the need for lengthy August vacations and financial regulations. NYT A12

USA! usa!

9-30-08--In an effort to control rising costs, a small but growing number of insurers and employers are giving people the choice to seek treatment in other countries, a practice known as medical tourism. WSJ B1

the saga continues

9-29-08--WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Monday appointed a prosecutor to examine potential criminal charges in the Justice Department's firings of nine federal prosecutors, which it said bore substantial signs of improper political considerations.

The appointment of Nora Dannehy, a federal prosecutor in Connecticut, came as the department released an inspector general's report that found former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had "abdicated" his responsibility in the matter.

The report also said several White House officials, including former top political aide Karl Rove, were unwilling to be interviewed by investigators about the 2006 firings.

GWB IDs crisist culprit

9-29-82--In a televised address Thursday, President George Bush blamed the current financial crisis on the “massive amount of money [that] flowed into the United States from investors abroad, rather than on greedy decisions by US mortgage lenders and borrowers. WSJ A2

WSJ IDs crisis culprit

--Sept. 27/28, 2008--What we have here essentially are a pair of government slush funds created in July as part of the Economic Recovery Act that pump tax dollars into the coffers of low-income housing advocacy groups, such as Acorn.

Acorn, one of America’s most militant left-wing “community activist groups,” is spending $16 million this year to register Democrats to vote in November. In the past several years, Acorn’s voter registration programs have come under investigation in Ohio, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri and Washington, while several of their employees have been convicted of voter fraud.

Along with other potential recipients of these funds, … Acorn has promoted laws like the Community Reinvestment Act, which laid the foundation for the house of cards built out of subprime loans. Thus, we’d be funneling more cash to the groups that helped create the lending mess in the first place.

…We’re told the White House and House Republicans are insisting that the Acorn fund be purged from the bailout bill. The Paulson plan is supposed to get us out of this problem, not start it over again. –WSJ, Editorial, A18

d'oh!!

9-25-08--Crisis Stirs Critics of Free Markets. WSJ A3

more disgusted blonde people

9-24-08--Yet doubts were being raised not just at the United Nations but farther afield, with Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, among the most outspoken. She said that at last year’s meeting of the Group of 8, she had strongly urged both the United States and Britain to be more rigorous in supervising financial activities, and even offered specific proposals to be applied to banks and other institutions.

But the United States was not interested, she said. She also seemed to express a certain exasperation that the United States was now asking Europe for help, after inflicting damage on the rest of the world that could have been avoided.

“We did what we were supposed to do,” she said in an interview with Münchner Merkur, a German newspaper. “We adopted a decent E.U. regulation on the national statute books,” but “when it came to it, the Americans said, ‘That’s not for us.’ ”—NYT A6

yoompin yimminy

9-23-2008--A banking system in crisis after the collapse of a housing bubble. An economy hemorrhaging jobs. A market-oriented government struggling to stem the panic. Sound familiar?

It does to Sweden. The country was so far in the hole in 1992 — after years of imprudent regulation, short-sighted economic policy and the end of its property boom — that its banking system was, for all practical purposes, insolvent.

But Sweden took a different course than the one now being proposed by the United States Treasury. And Swedish officials say there are lessons from their own nightmare that Washington may be missing.

Sweden did not just bail out its financial institutions by having the government take over the bad debts. It extracted pounds of flesh from bank shareholders before writing checks. Banks had to write down losses and issue warrants to the government.

That strategy held banks responsible and turned the government into an owner. When distressed assets were sold, the profits flowed to taxpayers, and the government was able to recoup more money later by selling its shares in the companies as well.

“If I go into a bank,” said Bo Lundgren, who was Sweden’s finance minister at the time, “I’d rather get equity so that there is some upside for the taxpayer.” NYT C9

9-18-08

9-18-08—But now American legal influence is waning. Even as a debate continues in the [US Supreme] court over whether its decisions should ever cite foreign law, a diminishing number of foreign courts seem to pay attention to the writings of American justices. NYT A1

--“We have the irony of a free-market administration doing things that the most liberal Democratic administration would never have been doing in its wildest dreams.” –Ron Chernow NYT C1

--[President] Bush sought to reassure the public Monday, but his comments appeared to have little effect on markets. WSJ A3

--..European states have regularly come to the rescue of their distressed companies.—WSJ A4

market god

9-17-08—There is simply no way to blame this disaster, as Republicans used to do, on labor unions or over-regulation. No, this is the conservatives’ beloved financial system doing what comes naturally....By the way, this is the same system the Republicans would still apparently like to put in charge of Social Security. –Thomas Frank, WSJ A25

late weekend update

9-12-08-- Some of the world's biggest corporations are facing intense pressure from China to allow the state-approved union to form in their Chinese plants and offices. But many companies fear admitting the unions will give their Chinese employees the power to slow or disrupt their operations and will significantly increase the cost of doing business here.-- NYT C1

protecting democracy at home

9-9-08—Senior Justice [sic] Dept. officials told civil-rights organizations they plan to deploy hundreds of poll monitors in November to prevent voting-rights violations and deter fraud ... The 2006 Justice [sic] Dept. firings of several US attorneys grew into a political scandal because some of those fired landed on a list to be removed from office after they refused to file charges against Democrats over alleged vote-fraud infractions. WSJ A4

9-4-08

9-4-08—A new study finds that the strongest of hurricans and typhoons have become even stronger over the last two and half decades, adding grist to the contentious debate over whether global warning has already made storms more destructive. NYT A18

9-4-08--Justice Minister Rachida Dati said Wednesday that she was pregnant and that it was “fundamental” for her to have a child. Ms. Dati, 42, is single and the highest-ranking Muslim minister in the French government. She would not reveal the identity of the father, saying, “I have a complicated private life and I’m keeping it off limits to the press.” Ms. Dati had an arranged marriage in her youth that was annulled. More than half of all births in France are outside of marriage. NYT A10

9-4-08—At the Petnecostal church where Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin worshipped for more than two decades, congregants speak in tongues, and are part of a faith that believes that humanity is in its “end times”—the days preceding a world-wide cataclysm bringing Christian redemption and the second coming of Jesus. –WSJ A6

9-3-08

VP Dick Cheney will use his trip to th Caucasus this week to try to loose Russia's grip on Caspian and Central Asian oil and as exports. But he may be too late. WSJ A14

for sarah palik and her ilk

Dear White Trash:

Please keep and enjoy your god and your guns. Since, as Casanova observes, intelligence is avenged when fools are deceived, I will enjoy myself as I watch you continue to lose your jobs, your money and your health

Labor Day Weekend Update 2008

Sept. 2, 2008—Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales mishandled highly classified notes about a secret counter terror program, but not on purpose, according to a memo by his legal team. WSJ A2

--Sept. 2, 2008.On Monday morning, Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant and that she intended to marry the father. Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge.

--August 31, 2008—I have spent the last 8 years so disgusted with the incompetent yahoos of the executive branch that I had forgotten that I believe in one of the core principles of the Democratic Party—that government can be a useful meaningful and worthwhile force for good in this republic instead of just an embarrassing, torturing Book of revelation starter kit...Picture this: a wind-powered public school classroom of 19 multi-racial 8-year olds reading above grade level and answering the questions of their engaging, inspirational teacher before going home to a cancer-free (or in remission) parent or parents who have to work only 8 hours a day in a country as war solely with the people who make war on us, where maybe Exxon Mobil can settle of, oh, $8 billion in quarterly profits instead of $11 billion, and the federal government’s point man for Biblical natural disasters is some one who knows more about emergency management that a how to put on a horse show. Is that really too much to ask? Can we do that?—Sara h Vowell, NYT, WK 12

-August 30, 2008—The era of the American Internet is ending ... Data is increasingly flowing around the US, which may have intelligence—and conceivably military—consequences. NYT B1

--August 26-29, 1968. Riots at Democratic Convention in Chicago.

8-29-08

8-29-08--In the first major oil deal Iraq has made with a foreign country since 2003, the Iraqi government and the China National Petroleum Corporatin have signed a contract in Beijinbg that woulc be worth up to $3 billion, Iraqi official said Thursday. NYT A9

thank you GWB

8-27-08--By Bernd Debusmann--REUTERS - At the Beijing Olympics, China trounced the United States in the contest for gold medals. In the Caucasus, Russia inflicted a humiliating military defeat on Georgia, America's closest ally in the region. At home, the U.S. economy is in deep trouble. The misery index, a combination of the rates of inflation and unemployment, stands at its highest in 16 years (11.3 percent in July) and there are forecasts of worse to come. The Olympics marked China's status as a world power and the first time since 1996 that Americans did not win most gold medals. In the Caucasus, Russia showed that it can do as it sees fit in its own backyard, no matter how loudly Washington protests. That includes recognizing as independent states the two breakaway provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, that Georgia claims as its own. In the Great Power game in the region, the score so far is Russia 1, U.S. nil. ... Given the perils of crystal-gazing into the future shape of the world, it is not easy to find an expert willing to hazard a guess on how long American supremacy will last. But there is at least one, Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at New York University who two years ago correctly forecast the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble and the dismal chain of events that followed. At the time, many of his fellow economists snickered. ...One of America's most serious problems, Roubini writes on his website, is the fact that the U.S. is the world's biggest net borrower and net debtor. The countries financing the American deficits are its rivals, China and Russia, and Middle Eastern oil exporters. ...History, he says, provides lessons on the importance of financial prudence. "Empires ... tend to be net lenders, i.e. run current account surpluses. The decline of the British Empire started in World War II when the British fiscal deficits in the war and the current account deficits turned the empire into a net borrower and a net debtor." The British twin deficits were being financed by a rising power that was a net lender and a net creditor - the United States. Whether it will ever return to that state depends, in part, on the competence, or lack of it, of the next U.S. administration. President George W. Bush's team did not set a good example.

late weekend update

8-24-08—“What option do I have?” said Richard Wilson, 82, a Harvard physicist and an expert on nuclear power and environmental risk [at a Global Risk conference in Sicily]. “I could go down to Hilton Head and take a little club and knock a ball around the course, but I don’t find that a very attractive thought.” NYT

8-23/24-08—Now 40% of black students at Ivy League colleges are first- or second- generation immigrants... The growing prominence of black immigrants is prompting some to favor the term “black” as more accurate, and inclusive, than “African-American.” But the growing divresitiy of blacks in America, epitomized by Sen. Obama, also breeds tension. “I have definitely heard parents and friends who are Rwandan tell me, ‘You don’t want to associate with African-Americans. They are lazy. They have bad habits,’” says Mr. Mahirwe, [a] Columbia student. “And I am friends with African-Americans who will say, ‘Look at those Aricans. They take our jobs. They think they are better than us.’” WSJ A4

8-23-08—“The end of an empire is messy at best/And this empire is ending/Like all the rest”—Randy Newman, “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country” [on album Harps and Angels] NYT A25