Naomi Klein, Robert Kuttner and Michael Hudson Dissect Obama’s New Economic Team & Stimulus Plan
On Monday Obama named New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner to the post of the Treasury Secretary. Former Treasury Secretary under Clinton Lawrence Summers was named the Director of the National Economic Council in the White House. Obama also called for a stimulus plan that will “give a jolt to the economy.” [DemocracyNow! hosts] a roundtable discussion about Obama’s latest economic moves...the state of the economy and what to expect in the coming months [with Robert Kuttner, Naomi Klein, and Michael Hudson].
“Summers was one of the key architects of our financial crisis. Hiring him to fix the economy makes as much sense as appointing Paul Wolfowitz to oversee the Iraq withdrawal.”
...I think the deal that Obama has made is that when he talked about change, he was not talking about the vested interest, he wasn’t talking about finance or real estate, or the fire sector. He is going to leave Wall Street and vested interest in the hands of the people who have been continuity from the Bush administration through the Clinton administration, and he is going to concentrate on infrastructure, and highering work place conditions, the environment, but he is not going to change the debt position. And the most worrisome aspect of the appointment of Summers is...what he did in Russia, under privatization that will be ruling Russia for the next hundred years. The key was to use public expenditure that would increase private wealth...
...The tax system, leaves these in private hands. I think all of the tax proposals that Mr. Obama have spoken about, have to do with income tax primarily. The rich people prefer not to earn income. They prefer to make capital gains. So the intention...is really to create a huge capital gains economy. Even more disparity of wealth while leaving...the enormous debt overhead...He is adding to debt, not reducing it.
...One question being asked about Tim Geithner is that if the Federal Reserve is the agency charged with examining bank holding companies...Where was Tim Geithner at the Federal Reserve of New York which has the examiners that are supposed to be examining the bank at the holding company level? Why didn’t they get a look at the book?
...When Alan Greenspan reputation was raked over the coals, it should have Rubin and Summers along side him.
...And I think we have nobody to blame but ourselves for that failure...it was an electoral strategy that relied on intellectual dishonesty and now to continue to make excuses for Obama is a real mistake, because he is not running for election anymore. He has already won, so there is no reason to be pandering in this way...
...the point is will they just just rack up huge debt and deficits or will they actually pay for this with taxes on the wealthy, which is what they promised to do and what we’re seeing Gordon Brown begin to do in Britain. Because if they do not pay for this an equitable way, in a progressive way, then what will happen is this huge investment in infrastructure will create huge economic crisis down the road. It will be blamed on Obama. And then, there will be a wave of privatizations, these new investments in public spending. There will be a whole new bubble.
...The key issue here I think coming back—the issue is Obama is coming to these decisions because he is under enormous pressure from above, Wall Street, how do you transition from a pro Obama campaign movement to an independent social movement that puts will counter-pressure on him from below? Those are the conditions under which Roosevelt sold the new deal as a compromise to elite. We do not have those dynamics right now. We have a situation where we have super-fans for Obama, constantly apologizing for every decision that he makes versus a gloves-off elite who are putting real pressure on him behind the scenes. And we are seeing the result.
November 25, 2008
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/25/naomi_klein_robert_kuttner_and_michael
30 November 2008
23 November 2008
Obama Will Use Internet to Communicate Directly to Citizens and Bypass Mainstream Media
Obama Will Use to Internet Reach Out Directly to Citizens and Bypass the Mainstream Media
It's the first visible result of a major transition-team effort to make Obama's conversations with the electorate more direct. In addition, members and supporters of the White House media upgrade want more input opportunities for the public.
Many of the changes, if adopted, also would curb the power of a traditional but often unpopular middleman between presidents and the populace: the mainstream media.
He wants to put videos of government meetings online, have officials hold online 'town hall meetings' and create an accessible internet database of government spending so that the public can track their tax dollars themselves.
All of this will be backed up by a big construction boom in America's broadband network.
Another proposal before the transition team is to give Obama's Internet audience a chance to question him directly, either as part of a traditional news conference or separately.
Andrew Rasiej, the founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, and others envision an online voting system that enables Internet respondents to decide together what the most important questions are to ask the president.A prototype of sorts went live this week at www.Obamacto.org. It's enabled thousands of respondents to vote on what the top priorities should be for a new position that Obama has created, chief technology officer.
"If 10,000 people say they want Obama to answer a question, he's probably going to respond,"they'd usurp the power of traditional journalists to ask questions. said Rasiej..."Whether Obama responds at a news conference or in a separate message to his Internet questioners...they'd make news. And they'd usurp the power of traditional journalists to ask questions."
But by far the most revolutionary - and potentially the most politically risky - part of Obama's hi-tech revolution is the internet army that stands behind him. Obama plans to bring his online backers, who shatter fundraising records, with him to Washington.
They are more than 3.1 million-strong in terms of financial contributors and volunteers. In terms of an email database of supporters, they number about 10 million and form perhaps the world's biggest focus group. It is a massive lobby of activists across the nation, which Obama can directly access via email or social networking websites such as Facebook, Myspace or Twitter.
He can deploy them in support of his plans, lobbying reluctant politicians or businesses. Nothing of its kind has ever existed before. They could help him to create one of the most powerful presidencies in history.
for complete articles:
Obama Will Use YouTube to Reach Out Directly to Voters
November 14, 2008
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/politics/story/55941.html
Obama's Wi-Fi White House Speaks to the YouTube Age
November 16 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/16/obama-white-house-barackobama
Obama Online Resources
The Office of the President-Elect
weekly address videos, news, blog, agenda, email updates
change.gov
My.BarackObama
An online community with over a million members.
Get access to tools to organize for Barack Obama and build this movement for change.
my.barackobama.com
Obama's YouTube website
www.youtube.com/barackobama
Obama CTO
Barack Obama promised to use technology to make it easier for citizens to participate in government. Obama CTO's goal is to provide the country's first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) with one example of how this might work.
www.Obamacto.org
It's the first visible result of a major transition-team effort to make Obama's conversations with the electorate more direct. In addition, members and supporters of the White House media upgrade want more input opportunities for the public.
Many of the changes, if adopted, also would curb the power of a traditional but often unpopular middleman between presidents and the populace: the mainstream media.
He wants to put videos of government meetings online, have officials hold online 'town hall meetings' and create an accessible internet database of government spending so that the public can track their tax dollars themselves.
All of this will be backed up by a big construction boom in America's broadband network.
Another proposal before the transition team is to give Obama's Internet audience a chance to question him directly, either as part of a traditional news conference or separately.
Andrew Rasiej, the founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, and others envision an online voting system that enables Internet respondents to decide together what the most important questions are to ask the president.A prototype of sorts went live this week at www.Obamacto.org. It's enabled thousands of respondents to vote on what the top priorities should be for a new position that Obama has created, chief technology officer.
"If 10,000 people say they want Obama to answer a question, he's probably going to respond,"they'd usurp the power of traditional journalists to ask questions. said Rasiej..."Whether Obama responds at a news conference or in a separate message to his Internet questioners...they'd make news. And they'd usurp the power of traditional journalists to ask questions."
But by far the most revolutionary - and potentially the most politically risky - part of Obama's hi-tech revolution is the internet army that stands behind him. Obama plans to bring his online backers, who shatter fundraising records, with him to Washington.
They are more than 3.1 million-strong in terms of financial contributors and volunteers. In terms of an email database of supporters, they number about 10 million and form perhaps the world's biggest focus group. It is a massive lobby of activists across the nation, which Obama can directly access via email or social networking websites such as Facebook, Myspace or Twitter.
He can deploy them in support of his plans, lobbying reluctant politicians or businesses. Nothing of its kind has ever existed before. They could help him to create one of the most powerful presidencies in history.
for complete articles:
Obama Will Use YouTube to Reach Out Directly to Voters
November 14, 2008
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/politics/story/55941.html
Obama's Wi-Fi White House Speaks to the YouTube Age
November 16 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/16/obama-white-house-barackobama
Obama Online Resources
The Office of the President-Elect
weekly address videos, news, blog, agenda, email updates
change.gov
My.BarackObama
An online community with over a million members.
Get access to tools to organize for Barack Obama and build this movement for change.
my.barackobama.com
Obama's YouTube website
www.youtube.com/barackobama
Obama CTO
Barack Obama promised to use technology to make it easier for citizens to participate in government. Obama CTO's goal is to provide the country's first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) with one example of how this might work.
www.Obamacto.org
Real Change Depends on Stopping the Bailout Profiteers
Real Change Depends on Stopping the Bailout Profiteers
To understand the meaning of the U.S. election results, it is worth looking back to the moment when everything changed for the Obama campaign. It was, without question, the moment when the economic crisis hit Wall Street.
The question now is whether Obama will have the courage to take the ideas that won him this election and turn them into policy. Or, alternately, whether he will use the financial crisis to rationalize a move to what pundits call “the middle” (if there is one thing this election has proved, it is that the real middle is far to the left of its previously advertised address). Predictably, Obama is already coming under enormous pressure to break his election promises, particularly those relating to raising taxes on the wealthy and imposing real environmental regulations on polluters. All day on the business networks, we hear that, in light of the economic crisis, corporations need lower taxes, and fewer regulations—in other words, more of the same.
The new president’s only hope of resisting this campaign being waged by the elites is if the remarkable grassroots movement that carried him to victory can somehow stay energized, networked, mobilized—and most of all, critical. Now that the election has been won, this movement's new missions should be clear: loudly holding Obama to his campaign promises, and letting the Democrats know that there will be consequences for betrayal.
Stopping the bailout profiteers is about more than money. It is about democracy. Specifically, it is about whether Americans will be able to afford the change they have just voted for so conclusively.
By Naomi Klein,
November 4, 2008
http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/11/real-change-depends-stopping-bailout-profiteers
To understand the meaning of the U.S. election results, it is worth looking back to the moment when everything changed for the Obama campaign. It was, without question, the moment when the economic crisis hit Wall Street.
The question now is whether Obama will have the courage to take the ideas that won him this election and turn them into policy. Or, alternately, whether he will use the financial crisis to rationalize a move to what pundits call “the middle” (if there is one thing this election has proved, it is that the real middle is far to the left of its previously advertised address). Predictably, Obama is already coming under enormous pressure to break his election promises, particularly those relating to raising taxes on the wealthy and imposing real environmental regulations on polluters. All day on the business networks, we hear that, in light of the economic crisis, corporations need lower taxes, and fewer regulations—in other words, more of the same.
The new president’s only hope of resisting this campaign being waged by the elites is if the remarkable grassroots movement that carried him to victory can somehow stay energized, networked, mobilized—and most of all, critical. Now that the election has been won, this movement's new missions should be clear: loudly holding Obama to his campaign promises, and letting the Democrats know that there will be consequences for betrayal.
Stopping the bailout profiteers is about more than money. It is about democracy. Specifically, it is about whether Americans will be able to afford the change they have just voted for so conclusively.
By Naomi Klein,
November 4, 2008
http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/11/real-change-depends-stopping-bailout-profiteers
22 November 2008
The Bailout Profiteers and the Multi-Trillion-Dollar Crime Scene
Naomi Klein on the Bailout Profiteers and the Multi-Trillion-Dollar Crime Scene
“The more details emerge, the clearer it becomes that Washington’s handling of the Wall Street bailout is not merely incompetent. It is borderline criminal,” says Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine.
...with $290 billion already committed, the Bush administration has taken no action to fill congressionally-mandated independent positions to oversee how the bailout is used.
...there’s a few elements now that are being described as illegal that we’re finding out.
There’s another piece of this puzzle that is also borderline illegal, which is that in addition to the $700 billion...bailout, there’s another $2 trillion that’s been handed out by the Federal Reserve in emergency loans to financial institutions, to banks, that actually we don’t really know who they’re handing the money out to, because, apparently, it’s a secret.
The other thing that the Fed won’t disclose is what they have accepted as collateral in exchange for these loans. This is a really key point, because, of course, at the heart of the financial crisis is—are these so- called distressed assets...there’s a very good chance the taxpayers aren’t going to be getting this money back.
...Gordon Brown got voting rights at the banks that they bailed out, seats on the boards, 12 percent dividends for...UK taxpayers, as opposed to the five percent negotiated in the US and no voting rights and no seats on the board. Other thing Gordon Brown did is he got it in writing that the banks had to start lending, as opposed to Henry Paulson, who didn’t get it in writing, and the banks are not lending.
...what the market wants is for there not to be tough regulation, is for the free money to keep flowing. What will upset the market, what will create a rocky transition, is if it’s clear that there’s a new sheriff in town, that they’re going to have to follow the law, that they’re going to cut off all of this corporate welfare, there’s going to be real accountability, real conditions attached to the money. You know what? The market really doesn’t want that.
...we actually have it backwards. It’s not the banks that have been partially nationalized; it’s Treasury that has been partially privatized by the very banks that created the crisis in the first place.
...this bailout is really not a bailout at all; it’s a parting gift to the people that the Bush—that George Bush once referred to jokingly as “my base.” You know, in one of my columns recently, I likened it to what European colonial rulers used to do when they finally realized they had to hand over power; they would loot the treasury on the way out the door...So people have to be ready for this. You know, the next shock is yet to come.
...You know, what we’re really seeing...is a resurrection of the entire free trade—discredited free trade agenda. This crisis being used—the shock of this crisis being used to resurrect all of these discredited deals. The Colombia free trade deal, the International Monetary Fund, the Doha round, they’re all coming back from the dead at precisely the moment that we should be actually burying, for good, this whole agenda of deregulation.
November 17, 2008
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/17/naomi_klein_on_the_bailout_profiteers
“The more details emerge, the clearer it becomes that Washington’s handling of the Wall Street bailout is not merely incompetent. It is borderline criminal,” says Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine.
...with $290 billion already committed, the Bush administration has taken no action to fill congressionally-mandated independent positions to oversee how the bailout is used.
...there’s a few elements now that are being described as illegal that we’re finding out.
There’s another piece of this puzzle that is also borderline illegal, which is that in addition to the $700 billion...bailout, there’s another $2 trillion that’s been handed out by the Federal Reserve in emergency loans to financial institutions, to banks, that actually we don’t really know who they’re handing the money out to, because, apparently, it’s a secret.
The other thing that the Fed won’t disclose is what they have accepted as collateral in exchange for these loans. This is a really key point, because, of course, at the heart of the financial crisis is—are these so- called distressed assets...there’s a very good chance the taxpayers aren’t going to be getting this money back.
...Gordon Brown got voting rights at the banks that they bailed out, seats on the boards, 12 percent dividends for...UK taxpayers, as opposed to the five percent negotiated in the US and no voting rights and no seats on the board. Other thing Gordon Brown did is he got it in writing that the banks had to start lending, as opposed to Henry Paulson, who didn’t get it in writing, and the banks are not lending.
...what the market wants is for there not to be tough regulation, is for the free money to keep flowing. What will upset the market, what will create a rocky transition, is if it’s clear that there’s a new sheriff in town, that they’re going to have to follow the law, that they’re going to cut off all of this corporate welfare, there’s going to be real accountability, real conditions attached to the money. You know what? The market really doesn’t want that.
...we actually have it backwards. It’s not the banks that have been partially nationalized; it’s Treasury that has been partially privatized by the very banks that created the crisis in the first place.
...this bailout is really not a bailout at all; it’s a parting gift to the people that the Bush—that George Bush once referred to jokingly as “my base.” You know, in one of my columns recently, I likened it to what European colonial rulers used to do when they finally realized they had to hand over power; they would loot the treasury on the way out the door...So people have to be ready for this. You know, the next shock is yet to come.
...You know, what we’re really seeing...is a resurrection of the entire free trade—discredited free trade agenda. This crisis being used—the shock of this crisis being used to resurrect all of these discredited deals. The Colombia free trade deal, the International Monetary Fund, the Doha round, they’re all coming back from the dead at precisely the moment that we should be actually burying, for good, this whole agenda of deregulation.
November 17, 2008
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/17/naomi_klein_on_the_bailout_profiteers
21 November 2008
2025: The End of US Dominance
2025: The End of US Dominance
The United States' leading intelligence organisation has warned that the world is entering an increasingly unstable and unpredictable period in which the advance of western-style democracy is no longer assured, and some states are in danger of being "taken over and run by criminal networks".
The global trends review, produced by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) every four years, represents sobering reading in Barack Obama's intray as he prepares to take office in January.
Looking ahead to 2025, the NIC (which coordinates analysis from all the US intelligence agencies), foresees a fragmented world, where conflict over scarce resources is on the rise, poorly contained by "ramshackle" international institutions, while nuclear proliferation, particularly in the Middle East, and even nuclear conflict grow more likely.
"Global Trends 2025: A World Transformed" warns that the spread of western democratic capitalism cannot be taken for granted, as it was by George Bush and America's neoconservatives.
"No single outcome seems preordained: the Western model of economic liberalism, democracy and secularism, for example, which many assumed to be inevitable, may lose its lustre – at least in the medium term," the report warns.
It adds: "Today wealth is moving not just from West to East but is concentrating more under state control," giving the examples of China and Russia.
"In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, the state's role in the economy may be gaining more appeal throughout the world."
At the same time, the US will become "less dominant" in the world – no longer the unrivalled superpower it has been since the end of the Cold War, but a "first among equals" in a more fluid and evenly balanced world, making the unilateralism of the Bush era no longer tenable.
November 20 2008
Read full article in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/20/barack-obama-president-intelligence-agency
Read the full National Intelligence Council global trends review (pdf):
http://www.dni.gov/nic/PDF_2025/2025_Global_Trends_Final_Report.pdf
GLOBAL TRENDS 2025: THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE COUNCIL'S 2025 PROJECT on the National Intelligence Council (NIC) website:
http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_2025_project.html
The United States' leading intelligence organisation has warned that the world is entering an increasingly unstable and unpredictable period in which the advance of western-style democracy is no longer assured, and some states are in danger of being "taken over and run by criminal networks".
The global trends review, produced by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) every four years, represents sobering reading in Barack Obama's intray as he prepares to take office in January.
Looking ahead to 2025, the NIC (which coordinates analysis from all the US intelligence agencies), foresees a fragmented world, where conflict over scarce resources is on the rise, poorly contained by "ramshackle" international institutions, while nuclear proliferation, particularly in the Middle East, and even nuclear conflict grow more likely.
"Global Trends 2025: A World Transformed" warns that the spread of western democratic capitalism cannot be taken for granted, as it was by George Bush and America's neoconservatives.
"No single outcome seems preordained: the Western model of economic liberalism, democracy and secularism, for example, which many assumed to be inevitable, may lose its lustre – at least in the medium term," the report warns.
It adds: "Today wealth is moving not just from West to East but is concentrating more under state control," giving the examples of China and Russia.
"In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, the state's role in the economy may be gaining more appeal throughout the world."
At the same time, the US will become "less dominant" in the world – no longer the unrivalled superpower it has been since the end of the Cold War, but a "first among equals" in a more fluid and evenly balanced world, making the unilateralism of the Bush era no longer tenable.
November 20 2008
Read full article in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/20/barack-obama-president-intelligence-agency
Read the full National Intelligence Council global trends review (pdf):
http://www.dni.gov/nic/PDF_2025/2025_Global_Trends_Final_Report.pdf
GLOBAL TRENDS 2025: THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE COUNCIL'S 2025 PROJECT on the National Intelligence Council (NIC) website:
http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_2025_project.html
15 November 2008
World Leaders Agree to Act Together on Financial Crisis
President Bush with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., left, and Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan at the Group of 20 summit in Washington on Saturday.Jim Watson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
World Leaders Agree to Act Together on Financial Crisis
Facing the gravest global economic crisis in many decades, the leaders of 20 countries agreed Saturday to work more closely to reinvigorate their economies, but put off the thornier questions of how to overhaul regulation until next year, effectively giving a major assignment to the Obama administration.
Meeting here, in the capital of the country where the crisis began, leaders from the United States, France, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other nations began an effort that the countries said would be a far-reaching reform of the institutions that have governed global markets since World War II.
In a five-page communiqué that mixed broad principles with specific steps to be tackled in the next three months, the Group of 20 pledged to bolster supervision of banks and credit-rating agencies, to scrutinize executive pay at firms, and to use fiscal and monetary policies to cushion the blow of a downturn that is hitting countries around the world.
The meeting laid out a roadmap for overhauling financial regulations that would postpone most of the difficult decisions until Mr. Obama is in office.
November 15, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/washington/16leaders.html?ref=world
States Want Their Own Federal Financial Bailout
States Want Their Own Federal Financial Bailout
Led by California with a $28 billion hole in its budget, 41 states are in financial trouble, and many of their leaders are looking to Congress to bail them out.
State officials are hoping to join the ranks of the financial industry and auto manufacturers, who've found a sympathetic ear on Capitol Hill. They've found some key supporters: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats are promoting aid to states as part of a broad stimulus package that could inject more than $300 billion into the ailing economy.
The idea is getting a strong bipartisan push from governors across the country, with California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York Democratic Gov. David Paterson among the chief proponents. Both are blaming Washington for their states' mounting troubles.
In a report released last week, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says that 41 states are facing budget shortfalls either this year, next year or both. The report says that states are facing "a great fiscal crisis" and their revenue projections are only weakening...The only states that managed to stay off the list are Texas, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Indiana and West Virginia.
Many Democrats want Congress to include infrastructure projects as part of a stimulus package.
That's also what the U.S. Conference of Mayors wants to do. On Friday, the mayors suggested a "Main Street" stimulus package, announcing that they'd identified 4,591 infrastructure projects that would cost $24.4 billion but would create more than a quarter of a million jobs in return.
November 15, 2008
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/55932.html
Led by California with a $28 billion hole in its budget, 41 states are in financial trouble, and many of their leaders are looking to Congress to bail them out.
State officials are hoping to join the ranks of the financial industry and auto manufacturers, who've found a sympathetic ear on Capitol Hill. They've found some key supporters: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats are promoting aid to states as part of a broad stimulus package that could inject more than $300 billion into the ailing economy.
The idea is getting a strong bipartisan push from governors across the country, with California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York Democratic Gov. David Paterson among the chief proponents. Both are blaming Washington for their states' mounting troubles.
In a report released last week, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says that 41 states are facing budget shortfalls either this year, next year or both. The report says that states are facing "a great fiscal crisis" and their revenue projections are only weakening...The only states that managed to stay off the list are Texas, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Indiana and West Virginia.
Many Democrats want Congress to include infrastructure projects as part of a stimulus package.
That's also what the U.S. Conference of Mayors wants to do. On Friday, the mayors suggested a "Main Street" stimulus package, announcing that they'd identified 4,591 infrastructure projects that would cost $24.4 billion but would create more than a quarter of a million jobs in return.
November 15, 2008
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/55932.html
G20 Source: Leaders to Agree on Action Plan
G20 Source: Leaders to Agree on Action Plan
World leaders on Saturday are ready to task finance ministers with drawing up recommendations for improving the regulation and functioning of financial markets, according to a G20 official reading from a draft agreement.
New guidelines should be established by the end of March for discussion at a follow-up meeting in April, after President-elect Barack Obama takes over in the White House, the official said. The host nation of the next summit is not specified in the draft document, he said.
The official said leaders are close to giving their approval to the draft statement. He declined to be identified before the text is formally adopted.
The text is divided into two parts.
A five-page document of principles calls for intensified government efforts at bolstering national economies, cooperation on international regulation of the financial system, reform of global structures to aide needy developing countries and a refusal of protectionism, the official said.
A second five-page document, called an ''action plan'' looks at measures intended to improve transparency and responsibility, improve regulation, improve the trustworthiness of markets, strengthen international cooperation and reform international institutions, the official said.
Novemebr 15, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-US-Meltdown-Summit.html
World leaders on Saturday are ready to task finance ministers with drawing up recommendations for improving the regulation and functioning of financial markets, according to a G20 official reading from a draft agreement.
New guidelines should be established by the end of March for discussion at a follow-up meeting in April, after President-elect Barack Obama takes over in the White House, the official said. The host nation of the next summit is not specified in the draft document, he said.
The official said leaders are close to giving their approval to the draft statement. He declined to be identified before the text is formally adopted.
The text is divided into two parts.
A five-page document of principles calls for intensified government efforts at bolstering national economies, cooperation on international regulation of the financial system, reform of global structures to aide needy developing countries and a refusal of protectionism, the official said.
A second five-page document, called an ''action plan'' looks at measures intended to improve transparency and responsibility, improve regulation, improve the trustworthiness of markets, strengthen international cooperation and reform international institutions, the official said.
Novemebr 15, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-US-Meltdown-Summit.html
At Global Finance Talks, 20 Different Agendas
At Global Finance Talks, 20 Different Agendas
With 20 world leaders in town for 24 hours, there wasn’t much time for grand gestures or bold promises at Saturday’s summit meeting on the global financial crisis. But that did not stop the leaders from bringing 20 different agendas, some more ambitious than others.
Besides Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Bush were the leaders from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, and Turkey.
To help countries hurt by the crisis, Mr. Brown is pushing for the resources of the International Monetary Fund to be expanded. The fund, he said, should function like an “international central bank.”
The trouble with this idea is that there are only a handful of candidates with enough cash to pour money into the I.M.F. — China, Japan, and oil producers like Saudi Arabia...To persuade these countries to increase their contributions would require giving them a larger role in the governance of the fund. And that would mean reducing the influence of Britain and other European countries.
For the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva...he has been outspoken about how developing countries are victims of a crisis not of their own making.
“No country is safe,” Mr. da Silva said last weekend, opening a preparatory meeting of finance ministers in São Paulo. “They are all being infected by problems that originated in the advanced countries.”
November 15, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/washington/16leaders.html?ref=world
With 20 world leaders in town for 24 hours, there wasn’t much time for grand gestures or bold promises at Saturday’s summit meeting on the global financial crisis. But that did not stop the leaders from bringing 20 different agendas, some more ambitious than others.
Besides Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Bush were the leaders from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, and Turkey.
To help countries hurt by the crisis, Mr. Brown is pushing for the resources of the International Monetary Fund to be expanded. The fund, he said, should function like an “international central bank.”
The trouble with this idea is that there are only a handful of candidates with enough cash to pour money into the I.M.F. — China, Japan, and oil producers like Saudi Arabia...To persuade these countries to increase their contributions would require giving them a larger role in the governance of the fund. And that would mean reducing the influence of Britain and other European countries.
For the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva...he has been outspoken about how developing countries are victims of a crisis not of their own making.
“No country is safe,” Mr. da Silva said last weekend, opening a preparatory meeting of finance ministers in São Paulo. “They are all being infected by problems that originated in the advanced countries.”
November 15, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/washington/16leaders.html?ref=world
Obama Will Use YouTube to Reach Out Directly to Voters
Obama Will Use YouTube to Reach Out Directly to Voters
President-elect Barack Obama will add a new media wrinkle Saturday to his weekly radio address: the first YouTube video version, to be posted on both his transition site and the popular Internet video site.
It's the first visible result of a major transition-team effort to make Obama's conversations with the electorate more direct. In addition, members and supporters of the White House media upgrade want more input opportunities for the public.
Many of the changes, if adopted, also would curb the power of a traditional but often unpopular middleman between presidents and the populace: the mainstream media.
Alan Rosenblatt, who directs Internet activism efforts at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, predicts that Obama's future videos will break through radio's five-minute limit to become a communications form of their own.
Indeed, in a 2007 YouTube interview, Obama said he intended to use the medium for "fireside chats."
YouTube, which wasn't a factor in politics until 2006, proved a cheap, powerful and effective tool for Obama. It drew more than 110 million viewers for his 1,800 campaign-related videos.
Another proposal before the transition team is to give Obama's Internet audience a chance to question him directly, either as part of a traditional news conference or separately.
Andrew Rasiej, the founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, and others envision an online voting system that enables Internet respondents to decide together what the most important questions are to ask the president.
A prototype of sorts went live this week at www.Obamacto.org. It's enabled thousands of respondents to vote on what the top priorities should be for a new position that Obama has created, chief technology officer.
(The leader late Friday, with more than 10,000 votes, was "ensure the Internet is widely accessible & network neutral," which Obama backs. Not so the second-ranked priority, repealing the USA PATRIOT Act.)
"If 10,000 people say they want Obama to answer a question, he's probably going to respond," said Rasiej, whose group seeks to use the Internet to enhance participation in government, promote its transparency and produce grass-roots political effects.
Whether Obama responds at a news conference or in a separate message to his Internet questioners, Rasiej said, they'd make news. And they'd usurp the power of traditional journalists to ask questions.
November 14, 2008
for complete article:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/politics/story/55941.html
President-elect Barack Obama will add a new media wrinkle Saturday to his weekly radio address: the first YouTube video version, to be posted on both his transition site and the popular Internet video site.
It's the first visible result of a major transition-team effort to make Obama's conversations with the electorate more direct. In addition, members and supporters of the White House media upgrade want more input opportunities for the public.
Many of the changes, if adopted, also would curb the power of a traditional but often unpopular middleman between presidents and the populace: the mainstream media.
Alan Rosenblatt, who directs Internet activism efforts at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, predicts that Obama's future videos will break through radio's five-minute limit to become a communications form of their own.
Indeed, in a 2007 YouTube interview, Obama said he intended to use the medium for "fireside chats."
YouTube, which wasn't a factor in politics until 2006, proved a cheap, powerful and effective tool for Obama. It drew more than 110 million viewers for his 1,800 campaign-related videos.
Another proposal before the transition team is to give Obama's Internet audience a chance to question him directly, either as part of a traditional news conference or separately.
Andrew Rasiej, the founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, and others envision an online voting system that enables Internet respondents to decide together what the most important questions are to ask the president.
A prototype of sorts went live this week at www.Obamacto.org. It's enabled thousands of respondents to vote on what the top priorities should be for a new position that Obama has created, chief technology officer.
(The leader late Friday, with more than 10,000 votes, was "ensure the Internet is widely accessible & network neutral," which Obama backs. Not so the second-ranked priority, repealing the USA PATRIOT Act.)
"If 10,000 people say they want Obama to answer a question, he's probably going to respond," said Rasiej, whose group seeks to use the Internet to enhance participation in government, promote its transparency and produce grass-roots political effects.
Whether Obama responds at a news conference or in a separate message to his Internet questioners, Rasiej said, they'd make news. And they'd usurp the power of traditional journalists to ask questions.
November 14, 2008
for complete article:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/politics/story/55941.html
10 November 2008
Current Warming Sharpest Climate Change in 5,000 Years
Current Warming Sharpest Climate Change in 5,000 Years
Research on Arctic and North Atlantic ecosystems shows the recent warming trend counts as the most dramatic climate change since the onset of human civilization 5,000 years ago, according to studies published Thursday.
Researchers from Cornell University studied the increased introduction of fresh water from glacial melt, oceanic circulation, and the change in geographic range migration of oceanic plant and animal species.
The team, led by oceanographer Charles Greene, described "major ecosystem reorganization" or "regime shift" in the North Atlantic, a consequence of global warming on the largest scale in five millennia.
"The rate of warming we are seeing (now) is unprecedented in human history," said Greene, whose research appears in the November 2008 issue of the journal Ecology.
November 7, 2008
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081107/sc_afp/environmentclimatewarmingatlantic
Research on Arctic and North Atlantic ecosystems shows the recent warming trend counts as the most dramatic climate change since the onset of human civilization 5,000 years ago, according to studies published Thursday.
Researchers from Cornell University studied the increased introduction of fresh water from glacial melt, oceanic circulation, and the change in geographic range migration of oceanic plant and animal species.
The team, led by oceanographer Charles Greene, described "major ecosystem reorganization" or "regime shift" in the North Atlantic, a consequence of global warming on the largest scale in five millennia.
"The rate of warming we are seeing (now) is unprecedented in human history," said Greene, whose research appears in the November 2008 issue of the journal Ecology.
November 7, 2008
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081107/sc_afp/environmentclimatewarmingatlantic
Bush Authorized US Attacks Anywhere in the World
Report: Bush Authorized US Attacks Anywhere in the World
The New York Times has revealed the US military has waged nearly a dozen secret attacks inside Syria, Pakistan and other countries since 2004.
The assaults were approved under a classified order signed by then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and authorized by President Bush.
The order authorizes US military attacks anywhere in the world if they can be linked to targeting al-Qaeda. Last month’s US attack inside Syria appears to be the latest known instance under the policy. Syria says eight civilians were killed. The attacks have often been carried out in collaboration with the CIA.
November 10, 2008
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/10/headlines#3
see also:
Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/washington/10military.html?hp
The New York Times has revealed the US military has waged nearly a dozen secret attacks inside Syria, Pakistan and other countries since 2004.
The assaults were approved under a classified order signed by then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and authorized by President Bush.
The order authorizes US military attacks anywhere in the world if they can be linked to targeting al-Qaeda. Last month’s US attack inside Syria appears to be the latest known instance under the policy. Syria says eight civilians were killed. The attacks have often been carried out in collaboration with the CIA.
November 10, 2008
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/10/headlines#3
see also:
Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/washington/10military.html?hp
Bailout Includes Secretive, Possibly Illegal $140B Windfall for Banks
Bailout Includes Secretive, Possibly Illegal $140B Windfall for Banks
The Washington Post has revealed the recent $700 billion taxpayer bailout of Wall Street contains a possibly illegal provision that stands to give American banks a massive windfall.
As part of the bailout, lawmakers changed tax code Section 382, which limits the kinds of tax shelters companies can use during corporate mergers. It was created to stop companies who avoid paying taxes by acquiring shell companies valued by the losses on their stocks. The companies would then write off the losses and avoid paying taxes on their own profits.
Taxpayers stand to lose some $140 billion from the move.
Experts say the Treasury had no legal authority to eliminate the tax measure. Republicans have been trying to overhaul or eliminate it since its introduction in 1986.
Congressional aides admitted lawmakers agreed to keep the change hidden to avoid public outrage. Staffers with Senate Finance Committee chair, Max Baucus, a Democrat, reportedly asked that an administration briefing on the tax code change be kept secret. One congressional aide said, “We’re all nervous about saying that this was illegal because of our fears about the marketplace. To the extent we want to try to publicly stop this, we’re going to be gumming up some important deals.”
November 10, 2008
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/10/headlines#6
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/09/AR2008110902155.html
The Washington Post has revealed the recent $700 billion taxpayer bailout of Wall Street contains a possibly illegal provision that stands to give American banks a massive windfall.
As part of the bailout, lawmakers changed tax code Section 382, which limits the kinds of tax shelters companies can use during corporate mergers. It was created to stop companies who avoid paying taxes by acquiring shell companies valued by the losses on their stocks. The companies would then write off the losses and avoid paying taxes on their own profits.
Taxpayers stand to lose some $140 billion from the move.
Experts say the Treasury had no legal authority to eliminate the tax measure. Republicans have been trying to overhaul or eliminate it since its introduction in 1986.
Congressional aides admitted lawmakers agreed to keep the change hidden to avoid public outrage. Staffers with Senate Finance Committee chair, Max Baucus, a Democrat, reportedly asked that an administration briefing on the tax code change be kept secret. One congressional aide said, “We’re all nervous about saying that this was illegal because of our fears about the marketplace. To the extent we want to try to publicly stop this, we’re going to be gumming up some important deals.”
November 10, 2008
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/10/headlines#6
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/09/AR2008110902155.html
Changing Climate May Push More Countries Past the Brink of War
Changing Climate May Push More Countries Past the Brink of War
The Earth’s fast-changing climate has a range of serious thinkers — from military brass to geographers to diplomats — predicting a spate of armed conflicts driven by the weather.
Each report predicted starkly similar problems: gunfire over land and natural resources as once-bountiful soil turns to desert and coastlines slip below the sea. They also expect violent storms to unsettle weak governments and set up dispirited radicals in revolt.
Security analysts say profound dangers are just years, not decades, away. They already see evidence of societies at odds.
Mounting studies suggest a number of potentially violent scenarios:
• People see their fertile land turn arid and migrate — packing them closer to historical and newfound adversaries.
• Countries already weak or crippled by corruption tip into chaos with even moderate climate change. Crop failures spur violent uprisings and give new energy to ethnic grudges in the face of famine.
•Competition for resources — food, water, oil — grows more tense in times of scarcity.
• Economic collapse in North Africa gives rise to Islamist extremism as blame for climate change focuses on the West. By accident of history and geography, Islamic countries feel the first profound effects of climate change.
• Flooding of coastal areas — particularly in South Asia and the United States — force severe migration and alter regional and even national identities.
• A push to revive the nuclear power industry — as a way to find energy that doesn’t belch more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — masks rogue countries’ efforts to build atomic weapons.
November 10, 2008
http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/881881.html
The Earth’s fast-changing climate has a range of serious thinkers — from military brass to geographers to diplomats — predicting a spate of armed conflicts driven by the weather.
Each report predicted starkly similar problems: gunfire over land and natural resources as once-bountiful soil turns to desert and coastlines slip below the sea. They also expect violent storms to unsettle weak governments and set up dispirited radicals in revolt.
Security analysts say profound dangers are just years, not decades, away. They already see evidence of societies at odds.
Mounting studies suggest a number of potentially violent scenarios:
• People see their fertile land turn arid and migrate — packing them closer to historical and newfound adversaries.
• Countries already weak or crippled by corruption tip into chaos with even moderate climate change. Crop failures spur violent uprisings and give new energy to ethnic grudges in the face of famine.
•Competition for resources — food, water, oil — grows more tense in times of scarcity.
• Economic collapse in North Africa gives rise to Islamist extremism as blame for climate change focuses on the West. By accident of history and geography, Islamic countries feel the first profound effects of climate change.
• Flooding of coastal areas — particularly in South Asia and the United States — force severe migration and alter regional and even national identities.
• A push to revive the nuclear power industry — as a way to find energy that doesn’t belch more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — masks rogue countries’ efforts to build atomic weapons.
November 10, 2008
http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/881881.html
09 November 2008
China Unveils $586 Billion Economic Stimulus Plan
China Unveils $586 Billion Economic Stimulus Plan
In a sweeping move at a time when major projects are being put off around the world, Beijing said it would spend an estimated $586 billion by 2010 on wide array of national infrastructure and social welfare projects, including constructing new railways, subways, airports and rebuilding communities devastated by an earthquake in southwest China in May.
The package, announced by the State Council Sunday evening, is the largest economic stimulus effort ever undertaken by the Chinese government and would amount to about 7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product during each of the next two years.
November 10, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/world/asia/10china.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
In a sweeping move at a time when major projects are being put off around the world, Beijing said it would spend an estimated $586 billion by 2010 on wide array of national infrastructure and social welfare projects, including constructing new railways, subways, airports and rebuilding communities devastated by an earthquake in southwest China in May.
The package, announced by the State Council Sunday evening, is the largest economic stimulus effort ever undertaken by the Chinese government and would amount to about 7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product during each of the next two years.
November 10, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/world/asia/10china.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
Al Gore and the Purpose-Driven Web
Al Gore and the Purpose-Driven Web
“The purpose, I would urge all of you — as many of you as are willing to take it up — is to bring about a higher level of consciousness about our planet and the imminent danger and opportunity we face because of the radical transformation in the relationship between human beings and the Earth,” Mr. Gore said Friday evening at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.
In other words, Web 2.0 should be used to fight global warming.
The Internet — specifically, the “cloud” where information is stored — also has a role to play, Mr. Gore said. “We have to have the truth — the inconvenient truth, forgive me — stored in the cloud so that people don’t have to rely on that process, and so we can respond to it collectively.”
November 7, 2008
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/the-web-according-to-gore/
“The purpose, I would urge all of you — as many of you as are willing to take it up — is to bring about a higher level of consciousness about our planet and the imminent danger and opportunity we face because of the radical transformation in the relationship between human beings and the Earth,” Mr. Gore said Friday evening at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.
In other words, Web 2.0 should be used to fight global warming.
The Internet — specifically, the “cloud” where information is stored — also has a role to play, Mr. Gore said. “We have to have the truth — the inconvenient truth, forgive me — stored in the cloud so that people don’t have to rely on that process, and so we can respond to it collectively.”
November 7, 2008
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/the-web-according-to-gore/
Mini Nuclear Plants to Power Communities
Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes
Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb.
The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground.
'Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world,' said John Deal, chief executive of Hyperion. 'They will cost approximately $25m [£13m] each. For a community with 10,000 households, that is a very affordable $250 per home.'
Deal claims to have more than 100 firm orders, largely from the oil and electricity industries, but says the company is also targeting developing countries and isolated communities. 'It's leapfrog technology,' he said.
November 9 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/09/miniature-nuclear-reactors-los-alamos
Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb.
The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground.
'Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world,' said John Deal, chief executive of Hyperion. 'They will cost approximately $25m [£13m] each. For a community with 10,000 households, that is a very affordable $250 per home.'
Deal claims to have more than 100 firm orders, largely from the oil and electricity industries, but says the company is also targeting developing countries and isolated communities. 'It's leapfrog technology,' he said.
November 9 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/09/miniature-nuclear-reactors-los-alamos
08 November 2008
Iceland Struggling After Economic Collapse
Stunned Icelanders Struggle After Economy’s Fall
The collapse came so fast it seemed unreal, impossible.
Overnight, people lost their savings. Prices are soaring. Once-crowded restaurants are almost empty. Banks are rationing foreign currency, and companies are finding it dauntingly difficult to do business abroad. Inflation is at 16 percent and rising. People have stopped traveling overseas. The local currency, the krona, was 65 to the dollar a year ago; now it is 130. Companies are slashing salaries, reducing workers’ hours and, in some instances, embarking on mass layoffs.
Until last spring, Iceland’s economy seemed white-hot. It had the fourth-highest gross domestic product per capita in the world. Unemployment hovered between 0 and 1 percent (while forecasts for next spring are as high as 10 percent). A 2007 United Nations report measuring life expectancy, real per-capita income and educational levels identified Iceland as the world’s best country in which to live.
In a recent survey, one-third of Icelanders said they would consider emigrating. Foreigners are already abandoning Iceland.
November 8, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/world/europe/09iceland.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all
The collapse came so fast it seemed unreal, impossible.
Overnight, people lost their savings. Prices are soaring. Once-crowded restaurants are almost empty. Banks are rationing foreign currency, and companies are finding it dauntingly difficult to do business abroad. Inflation is at 16 percent and rising. People have stopped traveling overseas. The local currency, the krona, was 65 to the dollar a year ago; now it is 130. Companies are slashing salaries, reducing workers’ hours and, in some instances, embarking on mass layoffs.
Until last spring, Iceland’s economy seemed white-hot. It had the fourth-highest gross domestic product per capita in the world. Unemployment hovered between 0 and 1 percent (while forecasts for next spring are as high as 10 percent). A 2007 United Nations report measuring life expectancy, real per-capita income and educational levels identified Iceland as the world’s best country in which to live.
In a recent survey, one-third of Icelanders said they would consider emigrating. Foreigners are already abandoning Iceland.
November 8, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/world/europe/09iceland.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all
07 November 2008
Bush Officials Moving Fast to Cut Environmental Protections
Bush Officials Moving Fast to Cut Environmental Protections
In the next few weeks, the Bush administration is expected to relax environmental-protection rules on power plants near national parks, uranium mining near the Grand Canyon and more mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachia.
Here's a look at some changes that are likely to go into effect before the inauguration.
GRAND CANYON
MOUNTAINTOP-REMOVAL COAL MINING
AIR POLLUTION
ENDANGERED SPECIES
and OTHERS
November 6, 2008
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/55441.html
In the next few weeks, the Bush administration is expected to relax environmental-protection rules on power plants near national parks, uranium mining near the Grand Canyon and more mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachia.
Here's a look at some changes that are likely to go into effect before the inauguration.
GRAND CANYON
MOUNTAINTOP-REMOVAL COAL MINING
AIR POLLUTION
ENDANGERED SPECIES
and OTHERS
November 6, 2008
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/55441.html
06 November 2008
Gordon Brown to Push for World Trade Deal Before George Bush Leaves Office
Gordon Brown to Push for World Trade Deal Before George Bush Leaves Office
Gordon Brown has won the agreement of senior aides to Barack Obama to try to secure a world trade deal before President Bush quits the White House in January.
Brown is to raise the issue at a meeting of world leaders being convened by Bush on the economic crisis in Washington next Saturday. The business secretary, Peter Mandelson, said yesterday that the world economy could secure a deal worth £120bn annually if an agreement is secured.
[Lord Mandelson, the former EU trade commissioner,] said: "Mr Obama has a pro-market approach including government action to shape markets and distribute its fruits more fairly. Inevitably, he and others in the Democratic party are concerned by the impact of globalisation on American workers and industry. This could lead to Democrats becoming more sceptical about the virtues of free trade...We will be engaging with our counterparts and friends to encourage an open-market, non-protectionist policy to be adopted".
A deal largely broke down in the summer due to disagreements between the Indians and the US over the so-called special safeguard mechanism, that would have allowed developing countries with non-commercial agricultural sectors to protect their sectors from sudden and substantial surges in agricultural imports into their economies.
November 6 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/06/world-trade-deal
Gordon Brown has won the agreement of senior aides to Barack Obama to try to secure a world trade deal before President Bush quits the White House in January.
Brown is to raise the issue at a meeting of world leaders being convened by Bush on the economic crisis in Washington next Saturday. The business secretary, Peter Mandelson, said yesterday that the world economy could secure a deal worth £120bn annually if an agreement is secured.
[Lord Mandelson, the former EU trade commissioner,] said: "Mr Obama has a pro-market approach including government action to shape markets and distribute its fruits more fairly. Inevitably, he and others in the Democratic party are concerned by the impact of globalisation on American workers and industry. This could lead to Democrats becoming more sceptical about the virtues of free trade...We will be engaging with our counterparts and friends to encourage an open-market, non-protectionist policy to be adopted".
A deal largely broke down in the summer due to disagreements between the Indians and the US over the so-called special safeguard mechanism, that would have allowed developing countries with non-commercial agricultural sectors to protect their sectors from sudden and substantial surges in agricultural imports into their economies.
November 6 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/06/world-trade-deal
Rahm Emanuel Accepts Post as White House Chief of Staff
Rahm Emanuel Accepts Post as White House Chief of Staff
“I announce this appointment first because the chief of staff is central to the ability of a president and administration to accomplish an agenda,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. “And no one I know is better at getting things done than Rahm Emanuel.”
November 6, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/us/politics/07elect.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all
“I announce this appointment first because the chief of staff is central to the ability of a president and administration to accomplish an agenda,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. “And no one I know is better at getting things done than Rahm Emanuel.”
November 6, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/us/politics/07elect.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all
World Reacts to Obama's Victory
World reacts to Obama's victory
Barack Obama: [To] all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world - our stories are singular but our destiny is shared. A new dawn of American leadership is at hand.
November 06, 2008
Reations to Obama's victory by various countries:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/11/20081155293464248.html
Barack Obama: [To] all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world - our stories are singular but our destiny is shared. A new dawn of American leadership is at hand.
November 06, 2008
Reations to Obama's victory by various countries:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/11/20081155293464248.html
02 November 2008
The Bailout: Bush’s Final Pillage
The Bailout: Bush’s Final Pillage
by Naomi Klein
October 29th, 2008
[T]he real purpose of the bailout? [T]he Bush version of “partial nationalization” is rigged to turn the U.S. Treasury into a bottomless cash machine for the banks for years to come...because the market will now be banking on the fact that the U.S. government won’t let these particular companies fail.
This tethering of the public interest to private companies is the real purpose of the bailout plan: Paulson is handing all the companies that are admitted to the program—a number potentially in the thousands—an implicit Treasury Department guarantee...the market is being told loud and clear that Washington will not allow the country’s financial institutions to bear the consequences of their behavior, no matter how reckless. This may well be Bush’s most creative innovation: no-risk capitalism.
Meanwhile, every day it becomes clearer that the bailout was sold to the public on false pretenses. Clearly, it was never really about getting loans flowing. It was always about doing what it is doing: turning the state into a giant insurance agency for Wall Street.
This duplicity is a political opportunity. Whoever wins the election on November 4 will have enormous moral authority. It should be used to call for a freeze on the dispersal of bailout funds—not after the inauguration, but right away. All deals should be renegotiated immediately, this time with the public getting the guarantees.
for the details and complete story:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081117/klein
http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/10/bailout-bush-s-final-pillage
by Naomi Klein
October 29th, 2008
[T]he real purpose of the bailout? [T]he Bush version of “partial nationalization” is rigged to turn the U.S. Treasury into a bottomless cash machine for the banks for years to come...because the market will now be banking on the fact that the U.S. government won’t let these particular companies fail.
This tethering of the public interest to private companies is the real purpose of the bailout plan: Paulson is handing all the companies that are admitted to the program—a number potentially in the thousands—an implicit Treasury Department guarantee...the market is being told loud and clear that Washington will not allow the country’s financial institutions to bear the consequences of their behavior, no matter how reckless. This may well be Bush’s most creative innovation: no-risk capitalism.
Meanwhile, every day it becomes clearer that the bailout was sold to the public on false pretenses. Clearly, it was never really about getting loans flowing. It was always about doing what it is doing: turning the state into a giant insurance agency for Wall Street.
This duplicity is a political opportunity. Whoever wins the election on November 4 will have enormous moral authority. It should be used to call for a freeze on the dispersal of bailout funds—not after the inauguration, but right away. All deals should be renegotiated immediately, this time with the public getting the guarantees.
for the details and complete story:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081117/klein
http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/10/bailout-bush-s-final-pillage
The Bailout Profiteers
The Bailout Profiteers
The Wall Street bailout looks a lot like Iraq — a "free-fraud zone" where private contractors cash in on the mess they helped create
by Naomi Klein
October 31st, 2008
In Iraq, the contractors were tasked with reconstructing the country from the mess made by U.S. missiles...Today, a new team of contractors is lining up to reconstruct the U.S. economy — reconstruct it from the mess made by the very banks, brokers and law firms that are now applying for contracts. And it's not at all clear that America can survive their assistance.
As soon as the bailout was announced, it became clear that Treasury officials would hire outsiders to perform their jobs for them — at a profit.
It didn't have to be this way. Five days before Paulson struck his deal with the banks, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown negotiated a similar bailout — only he extracted meaningful guarantees for taxpayers: voting rights at the banks, seats on their boards, 12 percent in annual dividend payments to the government, a suspension of dividend payments to shareholders, restrictions on executive bonuses, and a legal requirement that the banks lend money to homeowners and small businesses.
In sharp contrast, this is what U.S. taxpayers received: no controlling interest, no voting rights, no seats on the bank boards and just five percent in dividend payouts to the government, while shareholders continue to collect billions in dividends every quarter. What's more, golden parachutes and bonuses already promised by the banks will still be paid out to executives — all before taxpayers are paid back.
[The Bank of New York Mellon] will be to the bailout what Halliburton is to the military: the contractor of contractors...bank president Gerald Hassell said, "It's the ultimate outsourcing — because the Federal Reserve and the Treasury do not have the mechanics to run the entire program, and we're essentially the general contractor across the entire program."
Has the Treasury partially nationalized the private banks, as we have been told? Or is it the other way around? Is it Treasury that has been partially privatized by Wall Street, its massive rescue plan now entirely in the hands of a private bank it is directly subsidizing?
This is why the stakes of the bailout are so high: Unless we get a good deal, there will be nothing left over after the banks are done feeding to pay for the meager services now provided in exchange for taxation, let alone for the more ambitious initiatives promised on the campaign trail. The spiraling cost of saving Wall Street from its bad bets is already being used as an excuse for why we can't solve our many other crises, from health care to climate change.
There is a better way to fix a broken financial system. Treasury's plan to buy up the toxic debts never made sense and should be immediately scrapped — a move that would also handily get rid of most of the crony contractors. As for purchasing equity in banks, the next round of deals — and there will be more — has to start from the premise that the banks are bankrupt and will therefore accept whatever terms we choose to impose, including real regulatory oversight. The possibilities of what could be done if a chunk of the banking system were genuinely under public control — from a moratorium on home foreclosures to mandatory investment in green community redevelopment — are limitless.
for the details and complete story:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/24012700/the_new_trough
http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/10/bailout-profiteers
The Wall Street bailout looks a lot like Iraq — a "free-fraud zone" where private contractors cash in on the mess they helped create
by Naomi Klein
October 31st, 2008
In Iraq, the contractors were tasked with reconstructing the country from the mess made by U.S. missiles...Today, a new team of contractors is lining up to reconstruct the U.S. economy — reconstruct it from the mess made by the very banks, brokers and law firms that are now applying for contracts. And it's not at all clear that America can survive their assistance.
As soon as the bailout was announced, it became clear that Treasury officials would hire outsiders to perform their jobs for them — at a profit.
It didn't have to be this way. Five days before Paulson struck his deal with the banks, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown negotiated a similar bailout — only he extracted meaningful guarantees for taxpayers: voting rights at the banks, seats on their boards, 12 percent in annual dividend payments to the government, a suspension of dividend payments to shareholders, restrictions on executive bonuses, and a legal requirement that the banks lend money to homeowners and small businesses.
In sharp contrast, this is what U.S. taxpayers received: no controlling interest, no voting rights, no seats on the bank boards and just five percent in dividend payouts to the government, while shareholders continue to collect billions in dividends every quarter. What's more, golden parachutes and bonuses already promised by the banks will still be paid out to executives — all before taxpayers are paid back.
[The Bank of New York Mellon] will be to the bailout what Halliburton is to the military: the contractor of contractors...bank president Gerald Hassell said, "It's the ultimate outsourcing — because the Federal Reserve and the Treasury do not have the mechanics to run the entire program, and we're essentially the general contractor across the entire program."
Has the Treasury partially nationalized the private banks, as we have been told? Or is it the other way around? Is it Treasury that has been partially privatized by Wall Street, its massive rescue plan now entirely in the hands of a private bank it is directly subsidizing?
This is why the stakes of the bailout are so high: Unless we get a good deal, there will be nothing left over after the banks are done feeding to pay for the meager services now provided in exchange for taxation, let alone for the more ambitious initiatives promised on the campaign trail. The spiraling cost of saving Wall Street from its bad bets is already being used as an excuse for why we can't solve our many other crises, from health care to climate change.
There is a better way to fix a broken financial system. Treasury's plan to buy up the toxic debts never made sense and should be immediately scrapped — a move that would also handily get rid of most of the crony contractors. As for purchasing equity in banks, the next round of deals — and there will be more — has to start from the premise that the banks are bankrupt and will therefore accept whatever terms we choose to impose, including real regulatory oversight. The possibilities of what could be done if a chunk of the banking system were genuinely under public control — from a moratorium on home foreclosures to mandatory investment in green community redevelopment — are limitless.
for the details and complete story:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/24012700/the_new_trough
http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/10/bailout-profiteers
01 November 2008
Britain Listed Iceland as Terrorist Entity to Freeze Assets Leading to Economic Collapse
An Iceland Mired in Debt Blames Britain for Woes
The troubles between [Iceland and Britain] began three weeks ago when Britain took the extraordinary step of using its 2001 antiterrorism laws to freeze the British assets of a failing Icelandic bank. That appeared to brand Iceland a terrorist state.
“I must admit that I was absolutely appalled,” the Icelandic foreign minister, Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, said in an interview, describing her horror at opening the British treasury department’s home page at the time and finding Iceland on a list of terrorist entities with Al Qaeda, Sudan and North Korea, among others.
“The immediate effect was to trigger an almost complete freeze on any banking transactions between Iceland and abroad,” said Jon Danielsson, an economist at the London School of Economics. “When you’re labeled a terrorist, nobody does business with you.”
The Icelandic prime minister, Geir H. Haarde, accused Britain of “bullying a small neighbor” and said the action was “very out of proportion.”
Iceland’s key interest rate now stands at 18 percent. The currency, the krona, has declined 44 percent in the last year.
“Salaries are frozen, food prices are shooting up and they are laying off people left, right and center,” [Danielsson] said. “Companies are going bankrupt all over the place. It’s unimaginable how bad it is.”
Ms. Gisladottir said Britain’s decision had sent Iceland back some 30 or 40 years, to a time when it was an isolated, poor country, dependent mostly on its fishing trade.
“This is a major crisis,” she said. “We haven’t been in this situation for, probably, ever. We cannot solve it alone. We need solidarity from partners, from friendly countries, and we thought the U.K. was one of them.”
November 1, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/world/europe/02iceland.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
The troubles between [Iceland and Britain] began three weeks ago when Britain took the extraordinary step of using its 2001 antiterrorism laws to freeze the British assets of a failing Icelandic bank. That appeared to brand Iceland a terrorist state.
“I must admit that I was absolutely appalled,” the Icelandic foreign minister, Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, said in an interview, describing her horror at opening the British treasury department’s home page at the time and finding Iceland on a list of terrorist entities with Al Qaeda, Sudan and North Korea, among others.
“The immediate effect was to trigger an almost complete freeze on any banking transactions between Iceland and abroad,” said Jon Danielsson, an economist at the London School of Economics. “When you’re labeled a terrorist, nobody does business with you.”
The Icelandic prime minister, Geir H. Haarde, accused Britain of “bullying a small neighbor” and said the action was “very out of proportion.”
Iceland’s key interest rate now stands at 18 percent. The currency, the krona, has declined 44 percent in the last year.
“Salaries are frozen, food prices are shooting up and they are laying off people left, right and center,” [Danielsson] said. “Companies are going bankrupt all over the place. It’s unimaginable how bad it is.”
Ms. Gisladottir said Britain’s decision had sent Iceland back some 30 or 40 years, to a time when it was an isolated, poor country, dependent mostly on its fishing trade.
“This is a major crisis,” she said. “We haven’t been in this situation for, probably, ever. We cannot solve it alone. We need solidarity from partners, from friendly countries, and we thought the U.K. was one of them.”
November 1, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/world/europe/02iceland.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
White House Pushes To Deregulate
A Last Push To Deregulate
White House to Ease Many Rules
The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.
The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms.
Those and other regulations would help clear obstacles to some commercial ocean-fishing activities, ease controls on emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming, relax drinking-water standards and lift a key restriction on mountaintop coal mining.
Once such rules take effect, they typically can be undone only through a laborious new regulatory proceeding, including lengthy periods of public comment, drafting and mandated reanalysis.
One rule, being pursued over some opposition within the Environmental Protection Agency, would allow current emissions at a power plant to match the highest levels produced by that plant, overturning a rule that more strictly limits such emission increases. According to the EPA's estimate, it would allow millions of tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually, worsening global warming.
These rules "will force Americans to choke on dirtier air for years to come, unless Congress or the new administration reverses these eleventh-hour abuses," said lawyer John Walke of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Oct. 30, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/30/AR2008103004749.html?hpid=topnews
White House to Ease Many Rules
The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.
The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms.
Those and other regulations would help clear obstacles to some commercial ocean-fishing activities, ease controls on emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming, relax drinking-water standards and lift a key restriction on mountaintop coal mining.
Once such rules take effect, they typically can be undone only through a laborious new regulatory proceeding, including lengthy periods of public comment, drafting and mandated reanalysis.
One rule, being pursued over some opposition within the Environmental Protection Agency, would allow current emissions at a power plant to match the highest levels produced by that plant, overturning a rule that more strictly limits such emission increases. According to the EPA's estimate, it would allow millions of tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually, worsening global warming.
These rules "will force Americans to choke on dirtier air for years to come, unless Congress or the new administration reverses these eleventh-hour abuses," said lawyer John Walke of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Oct. 30, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/30/AR2008103004749.html?hpid=topnews
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