The recent rise in interest rates may mark the first sign that the chickens of Washington’s fiscal recklessness are coming home to roost, as investors worry that huge budget deficits in the coming years will threaten not just recovery from today’s recession but longer-term economic growth as well Top federal policymakers are responding. Federal Reserve …
Continue reading “Needed: A New Imperative to Cut the Deficit”
President Obama’s decision to speak in Cairo this week is symbolically appropriate because, for better and for worse, that city highlights the multiple conflicts across the Middle East on which he must take sides. What he says publicly and how he maneuvers privately in Cairo, and during his earlier stop in Riyadh, will either cement …
Continue reading “Three Ways Obama Must Choose Wisely in Cairo”
The American people are about to confront their contradictions – their demand for more specific services but less “government” in general, for lower deficits but not for higher taxes or less of the spending that dominates government. Also heading for a confrontation are Americans and their leaders in Washington, the latter of whom are preparing …
Continue reading “On Taxes and Spending, Democrats Must Not Ignore Public Skepticism”
She sits mostly alone, a woman of fragile health but breathtaking courage – a solitary figure who represents the aspirations of 47 million fellow citizens of Burma and of millions living in oppression elsewhere. She is Aung San Suu Kyi, who is to Burma what Nelson Mandela was to South Africa and Natan Sharansky was …
Continue reading “Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi: Diplomacy, Human Rights – And a Brave Woman”
As President Obama prepares to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington next week, the United States and its allies are crafting an approach toward the Middle East that carries high risk to Western interests and leaves Israel increasingly alone in an ever-more turbulent region. The Obama Administration plans to travel the well-worn path …
Continue reading “U.S. Takes Risky Approach to Iran and the Middle East”
“Were it left to me to decide whether to have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government,” Thomas Jefferson wrote to Edward Carrington in 1787, “I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” Fortunately, neither Jefferson nor his successors have been forced to decide between these core features of liberal society. …
Do you wonder what caused the deep global economic downturn, how the nation‟s best economic minds did not see it coming and why the government‟s response has been somewhat incoherent? The answer: We‟re having a “Minsky moment,” says Robert J. Barbera, author of The Cost of Capitalism, who believes the teachings of the late economist …
Continue reading “The Cost of Capitalism: We’re Having a Minsky Moment”