Oct 25, 2010
President Obama’s message at the Moving America Forward rally in Las Vegas
http://goo.gl/fb/81DCS
The Feds vs. Fruit Juice - The FTC goes to war against those who promote the health benefits of the pomegranate
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303738504575568461196114520.html
Back to Work at California HQ
http://goo.gl/fb/ofxL6
Panama's Presidential Temptation - Its market-friendly leader is beguiled by grandiose state projects
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522341151402162.html
President Obama & Moving America Forward Rally Fires Up Base
http://goo.gl/fb/9Z18d
Licensing to Kill - A new study shows how city regulations harm small business
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304741404575564171912051184.html
OFA: What Can You Do to Help Further Change?
http://goo.gl/fb/hrbqa
Another Drilling Smackdown - The White House loses again in court
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304741404575564520883929464.html
Los Angeles Goes All in with President Obama
http://goo.gl/fb/5idj6
The G-20's 'Rebalancing' Act - Dollar devaluation is not a global growth strategy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303321904575571363698234720.html
Federal President's Weekly Address: Letting Wall Street Run Wild Again
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/23/weekly-address-letting-wall-street-run-wild-again
How to Privatize the Mortgage Market - Europeans manage just fine without Fannie and Freddie-type agencies
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304772804575558303668606406.html
The White House Blog: What Do They Expect in Return?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/22/what-do-they-expect-return
The NAACP's Unhealthy Tea Party Obsession - Black-on-black crime remains at epidemic levels and black children continue to suffer in bad schools. Doesn't the organization have better things to worry about?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303738504575568434291817928.html
Our Fiscal Policy Paradox - Government's kitbag is overflowing with ways to spur demand. Yet fiscal policy sits idle, paralyzed by extreme partisanship.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303738504575568122743023374.html
Stiglitz: Why Easier Money Won't Work - The Fed risks fueling a destructive bond market bubble, while any gains from a weaker dollar will come at the expense of those to whom we hope to export
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304023804575566573119083334.html
The Real Case for Defunding NPR - My quarrel with government subsidies is that they cast a chill over the markets in which entrepreneurs seek to raise capital for highbrow journalism
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303738504575568222953428174.html
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Press Briefing
Oct 23, 2010
Iraq Prime Minister Calls WikiLeaks Report Political
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303299304575570253164829026.html
Al-shabab ordered Kismayo district residents to pay a monthly fee
http://mustaqiim.com/Al-shabab%20to%20collect%20Monthly%20Fee%20from%20Kismayo%20Residents.htm
Obama Rebuilt the Regulatory State. Now, Republicans Are About To Destroy It.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/78586/epa-osha-fcc-republicans-congress-midterm-elections
What's the Worst That Could Happen With The New Health Law?
http://fixhealthcarepolicy.com/in-the-news/whats-the-worst-that-could-happen-with-the-new-health-law
Moral Arguments for Soaking the Rich
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/78459/moral-argument-soaking-the-rich
City Centered: Investing in Metropolitan Areas to Build the Next Economy
http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2010/1021_metro_economy_katz.aspx
Iraq Prime Minister Calls WikiLeaks Report Political
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303299304575570253164829026.html
Al-shabab ordered Kismayo district residents to pay a monthly fee
http://mustaqiim.com/Al-shabab%20to%20collect%20Monthly%20Fee%20from%20Kismayo%20Residents.htm
Obama Rebuilt the Regulatory State. Now, Republicans Are About To Destroy It.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/78586/epa-osha-fcc-republicans-congress-midterm-elections
What's the Worst That Could Happen With The New Health Law?
http://fixhealthcarepolicy.com/in-the-news/whats-the-worst-that-could-happen-with-the-new-health-law
Moral Arguments for Soaking the Rich
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/78459/moral-argument-soaking-the-rich
City Centered: Investing in Metropolitan Areas to Build the Next Economy
http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2010/1021_metro_economy_katz.aspx
Friday, October 22, 2010
High costs of making batteries stall affordability of electric cars
High costs of making batteries stall affordability of electric cars. By Mike Ramsey
The Wall Street Journal Europe, page 22, Oct 19, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB40001424052748703735804575536242934528502.html
The push to get electric cars on the road is backed by governments and auto makers around the world, but they face a hurdle that may be tough to overcome: the stubbornly high cost of the giant battery packs that power the vehicles.
Both the industry and government are betting that a quick takeoff in electric-car sales will drive down the price of the battery packs, which can account for more than half the cost of an electric vehicle.
But a number of scientists and automotive engineers believe cost reductions will be hard to come by. Unlike with tires or toasters, battery packs aren't likely to enjoy traditional economies of scale as their makers ramp up production.
Some experts say that increased production of batteries means the price of the key metals used in their manufacture will remain steady—or maybe even rise—at least in the short term.
These experts also say the price of the electronic parts used in battery packs as well as the enclosures that house the batteries aren't likely to decline appreciably.
The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal of bringing down car-battery costs by 70% from last year's price, which it estimated at $1,000 per kilowatt hour of battery capacity, by 2014.
Jay Whitacre, a battery researcher and technology policy analyst at Carnegie Mellon University, is skeptical. The government's goals "are aggressive and worth striving for, but they are not attainable in the next three to five years," he said in an interview. "It will be a decade at least" before that price reduction is reached.
The high cost of batteries is evident in the prices set for early electric cars. Nissan Motor Co.'s Leaf, due in the U.S. in December, is priced at $33,000. Current industry estimates say its battery pack alone costs Nissan about $15,600.
That cost will make it difficult for the Leaf to turn a profit. And it also may make the Leaf a tough sell, since even with government tax breaks the car will cost more than twice the $13,520 starting price of the similar-size Nissan Versa hatchback.
Nissan won't comment on the price of the battery packs, other than to say that the first versions of the Leaf won't make money. Only later, when the company begins mass-producing the battery units in 2013, will the car be profitable, according to Nissan.
The Japanese company believes it can cut battery costs through manufacturing scale. It is building a plant in Smyrna, Tenn., that will have the capacity to assemble up to 200,000 packs a year.
Other proponents of electric vehicles agree that battery costs will fall as production ramps up. "They will come down by a factor of two, if not more, in the next five years," said David Vieau, chief executive officer of A123 Systems, a start-up that recently opened a battery plant in Plymouth, Mich.
Alex Molinaroli, president of Johnson Controls Inc.'s battery division, is confident it can reduce the cost of making batteries by 50% in the next five years, though the company won't say what today's cost is. The cost reduction by one of the world's biggest car-battery makers will mostly come from efficient factory management, cutting waste and other management-related costs, not from fundamental improvement of battery technology, he said.
But researchers such as Mr. Whitacre, the National Academies of Science and even some car makers aren't convinced, mainly because more than 30% of the cost of the batteries comes from metals such as nickel, manganese and cobalt. (Lithium makes up only a small portion of the metals in the batteries.)
Prices for these metals, which are set on commodities markets, aren't expected to fall with increasing battery production—and may even rise as demand grows, according to a study by the Academies of Science released earlier this year and engineers familiar with battery production.
Lithium-ion battery cells already are mass produced for computers and cellphones and the costs of the batteries fell 35% from 2000 through 2008—but they haven't gone down much more in recent years, according to the Academies of Science study.
The Academies and Toyota Motor Corp. have publicly said they don't think the Department of Energy goals are achievable and that cost reductions are likely to be far lower. It likely will be 20 years before costs fall by 50%—not the three or so years the DOE projects—according to an Academy council studying battery costs. The council was made up of nearly a dozen researchers in the battery field.
"Economies of scale are often cited as a factor that can drive down costs, but hundreds of millions to billions of ... [battery] cells already are being produced in optimized factories. Building more factories is unlikely to have a great impact on costs," the Academies report said.
The report added that the cost of the battery-pack enclosure that holds the cells is a major portion of the total battery-pack cost, and isn't likely to come down much. In addition, battery packs include electronic sensors and controls that regulate the voltage moving through and the heat being generated by the cells. Since those electronics already are mass-produced commodities, their prices may not fall much with higher production, the study said.
Lastly, the labor involved in assembling battery packs is expensive because employees need to be more highly trained than traditional factory staff because they work in a high-voltage environment. That means labor costs are unlikely to drop, said a senior executive at one battery manufacturer.
When car makers began using nickel-metal hydride batteries, an older technology, in their early hybrid vehicles, the cost of the packs fell only 11% from 2000 to 2006 and has seen little change since, according to the Academies study.
Toyota executives, including Takeshi Uchiyamada, global chief of engineering, say their experience with nickel-metal hydride batteries makes them skeptical that the prices of lithium ion battery pack prices will fall substantially.
"The cost reductions aren't attainable even in the next 10 years," said Menahem Anderman, principal of Total Battery Consulting Inc., a California-based battery research firm. "We still don't know how much it will cost to make sure the batteries meet reliability, safety and durability standards. And now we are trying to reduce costs, which automatically affect those first three things."
The Wall Street Journal Europe, page 22, Oct 19, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB40001424052748703735804575536242934528502.html
The push to get electric cars on the road is backed by governments and auto makers around the world, but they face a hurdle that may be tough to overcome: the stubbornly high cost of the giant battery packs that power the vehicles.
Both the industry and government are betting that a quick takeoff in electric-car sales will drive down the price of the battery packs, which can account for more than half the cost of an electric vehicle.
But a number of scientists and automotive engineers believe cost reductions will be hard to come by. Unlike with tires or toasters, battery packs aren't likely to enjoy traditional economies of scale as their makers ramp up production.
Some experts say that increased production of batteries means the price of the key metals used in their manufacture will remain steady—or maybe even rise—at least in the short term.
These experts also say the price of the electronic parts used in battery packs as well as the enclosures that house the batteries aren't likely to decline appreciably.
The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal of bringing down car-battery costs by 70% from last year's price, which it estimated at $1,000 per kilowatt hour of battery capacity, by 2014.
Jay Whitacre, a battery researcher and technology policy analyst at Carnegie Mellon University, is skeptical. The government's goals "are aggressive and worth striving for, but they are not attainable in the next three to five years," he said in an interview. "It will be a decade at least" before that price reduction is reached.
The high cost of batteries is evident in the prices set for early electric cars. Nissan Motor Co.'s Leaf, due in the U.S. in December, is priced at $33,000. Current industry estimates say its battery pack alone costs Nissan about $15,600.
That cost will make it difficult for the Leaf to turn a profit. And it also may make the Leaf a tough sell, since even with government tax breaks the car will cost more than twice the $13,520 starting price of the similar-size Nissan Versa hatchback.
Nissan won't comment on the price of the battery packs, other than to say that the first versions of the Leaf won't make money. Only later, when the company begins mass-producing the battery units in 2013, will the car be profitable, according to Nissan.
The Japanese company believes it can cut battery costs through manufacturing scale. It is building a plant in Smyrna, Tenn., that will have the capacity to assemble up to 200,000 packs a year.
Other proponents of electric vehicles agree that battery costs will fall as production ramps up. "They will come down by a factor of two, if not more, in the next five years," said David Vieau, chief executive officer of A123 Systems, a start-up that recently opened a battery plant in Plymouth, Mich.
Alex Molinaroli, president of Johnson Controls Inc.'s battery division, is confident it can reduce the cost of making batteries by 50% in the next five years, though the company won't say what today's cost is. The cost reduction by one of the world's biggest car-battery makers will mostly come from efficient factory management, cutting waste and other management-related costs, not from fundamental improvement of battery technology, he said.
But researchers such as Mr. Whitacre, the National Academies of Science and even some car makers aren't convinced, mainly because more than 30% of the cost of the batteries comes from metals such as nickel, manganese and cobalt. (Lithium makes up only a small portion of the metals in the batteries.)
Prices for these metals, which are set on commodities markets, aren't expected to fall with increasing battery production—and may even rise as demand grows, according to a study by the Academies of Science released earlier this year and engineers familiar with battery production.
Lithium-ion battery cells already are mass produced for computers and cellphones and the costs of the batteries fell 35% from 2000 through 2008—but they haven't gone down much more in recent years, according to the Academies of Science study.
The Academies and Toyota Motor Corp. have publicly said they don't think the Department of Energy goals are achievable and that cost reductions are likely to be far lower. It likely will be 20 years before costs fall by 50%—not the three or so years the DOE projects—according to an Academy council studying battery costs. The council was made up of nearly a dozen researchers in the battery field.
"Economies of scale are often cited as a factor that can drive down costs, but hundreds of millions to billions of ... [battery] cells already are being produced in optimized factories. Building more factories is unlikely to have a great impact on costs," the Academies report said.
The report added that the cost of the battery-pack enclosure that holds the cells is a major portion of the total battery-pack cost, and isn't likely to come down much. In addition, battery packs include electronic sensors and controls that regulate the voltage moving through and the heat being generated by the cells. Since those electronics already are mass-produced commodities, their prices may not fall much with higher production, the study said.
Lastly, the labor involved in assembling battery packs is expensive because employees need to be more highly trained than traditional factory staff because they work in a high-voltage environment. That means labor costs are unlikely to drop, said a senior executive at one battery manufacturer.
When car makers began using nickel-metal hydride batteries, an older technology, in their early hybrid vehicles, the cost of the packs fell only 11% from 2000 to 2006 and has seen little change since, according to the Academies study.
Toyota executives, including Takeshi Uchiyamada, global chief of engineering, say their experience with nickel-metal hydride batteries makes them skeptical that the prices of lithium ion battery pack prices will fall substantially.
"The cost reductions aren't attainable even in the next 10 years," said Menahem Anderman, principal of Total Battery Consulting Inc., a California-based battery research firm. "We still don't know how much it will cost to make sure the batteries meet reliability, safety and durability standards. And now we are trying to reduce costs, which automatically affect those first three things."
Press Briefing
Oct 22, 2010
President Obama: It Gets Better
http://goo.gl/fb/yoePW
When Will Our Progressive Corporatism Nightmare End?
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/22/morning-bell-when-will-our-progressive-corporatism-nightmare-end
Employers, Insurance and Health Care
http://goo.gl/fb/yGQBG
Fed’s Plosser: Bad Incentives Drove Much of Financial Crisis
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/10/20/feds-plosser-bad-incentives-drove-much-of-financial-crisis/
Partnership for Sustainable Communities Awards Grants to Build Infrastructure…
http://goo.gl/fb/UNUFo
OFA: Progress In Iowa
http://goo.gl/fb/Mi4Iu
Offshore Oil Drilling in Shallow Water: Good Safety Record, Less Risky
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/21/offshore-oil-drilling-in-shallow-water-good-safety-record-less-risky/
Jobs and Economic Security for America's Women Report
http://goo.gl/fb/3cGgP
Remarks by the President at a Rally in Portland, Oregon
http://goo.gl/fb/oSPzX
Can Yoga Be Christian? - An exercise craze provokes questions of body and soul
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562651537656366.html
Tax Cut Facts: How Obama’s Tax Cuts Are Helping American Families
http://goo.gl/fb/1yO7X
San Francisco's Public Pension Revolt - The city has cut back on almost every service: Summer schools have been shut, potholes deepen, parks close early, and services for the poor have been pared to the quick.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562350166984886.html
Building Stronger, Sustainable Communities Through Strategic Coordination
http://goo.gl/fb/Y6EyG
The Tea Party Is Wrong About Earmarks - Why just accept the president's spending priorities? Congress has the right and duty to make appropriations in the public interest.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562442197836742.html
The Role and Perspectives of Arms Control and Confidence- and Security-Building Regimes in Building Trust in the Evolving Security Environment
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149779.htm
Soros Bets on Nevada - The campaign to hijack state judicial selection
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575526164036476490.html
President’s Working Group on Financial Markets Releases Money Market Funds Report
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg918.htm
Britain's 'Austerity' Lessons - What Margaret Thatcher can teach David Cameron—and the Republican Party
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304023804575566431921159198.html
New Haitian Mango Centers will Increase Production and Incomes for Thousands of Haitian Mango Farmers
http://www.usaid.gov/press/releases/2010/pr101021.html
NPR's Taxpayer-Funded Intolerance - All Americans, particularly those of Arab or Muslim descent, should protest the firing of Juan Williams
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304023804575566363119493650.html
Focus on Nutrition: Creating Inclusive Partnerships and Deepening our Knowledge
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/nutrition_partnerships_and_knowledge
Providing Jobs and Economic Security for America's Women
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/21/providing-jobs-and-economic-security-americas-women
Struggles and Triumphs: Afghan Governor Naeemi Discusses Progress in Afghanistan
http://blogs.state.gov/ap/index.php/site/entry/naeemi_nato_afghanistan
A Free Trade Agreement with South Korea Would Promote Both Prosperity and Security
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12490
President Obama: It Gets Better
http://goo.gl/fb/yoePW
When Will Our Progressive Corporatism Nightmare End?
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/22/morning-bell-when-will-our-progressive-corporatism-nightmare-end
Employers, Insurance and Health Care
http://goo.gl/fb/yGQBG
Fed’s Plosser: Bad Incentives Drove Much of Financial Crisis
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/10/20/feds-plosser-bad-incentives-drove-much-of-financial-crisis/
Partnership for Sustainable Communities Awards Grants to Build Infrastructure…
http://goo.gl/fb/UNUFo
OFA: Progress In Iowa
http://goo.gl/fb/Mi4Iu
Offshore Oil Drilling in Shallow Water: Good Safety Record, Less Risky
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/21/offshore-oil-drilling-in-shallow-water-good-safety-record-less-risky/
Jobs and Economic Security for America's Women Report
http://goo.gl/fb/3cGgP
Remarks by the President at a Rally in Portland, Oregon
http://goo.gl/fb/oSPzX
Can Yoga Be Christian? - An exercise craze provokes questions of body and soul
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562651537656366.html
Tax Cut Facts: How Obama’s Tax Cuts Are Helping American Families
http://goo.gl/fb/1yO7X
San Francisco's Public Pension Revolt - The city has cut back on almost every service: Summer schools have been shut, potholes deepen, parks close early, and services for the poor have been pared to the quick.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562350166984886.html
Building Stronger, Sustainable Communities Through Strategic Coordination
http://goo.gl/fb/Y6EyG
The Tea Party Is Wrong About Earmarks - Why just accept the president's spending priorities? Congress has the right and duty to make appropriations in the public interest.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562442197836742.html
The Role and Perspectives of Arms Control and Confidence- and Security-Building Regimes in Building Trust in the Evolving Security Environment
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149779.htm
Soros Bets on Nevada - The campaign to hijack state judicial selection
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575526164036476490.html
President’s Working Group on Financial Markets Releases Money Market Funds Report
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg918.htm
Britain's 'Austerity' Lessons - What Margaret Thatcher can teach David Cameron—and the Republican Party
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304023804575566431921159198.html
New Haitian Mango Centers will Increase Production and Incomes for Thousands of Haitian Mango Farmers
http://www.usaid.gov/press/releases/2010/pr101021.html
NPR's Taxpayer-Funded Intolerance - All Americans, particularly those of Arab or Muslim descent, should protest the firing of Juan Williams
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304023804575566363119493650.html
Focus on Nutrition: Creating Inclusive Partnerships and Deepening our Knowledge
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/nutrition_partnerships_and_knowledge
Providing Jobs and Economic Security for America's Women
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/21/providing-jobs-and-economic-security-americas-women
Struggles and Triumphs: Afghan Governor Naeemi Discusses Progress in Afghanistan
http://blogs.state.gov/ap/index.php/site/entry/naeemi_nato_afghanistan
A Free Trade Agreement with South Korea Would Promote Both Prosperity and Security
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12490
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Press Briefing
Oct 21, 2010
Video: Open for Questions: Cybersecurity
http://goo.gl/fb/iMnkU
Renewable Electricity Standards Kill Jobs Too
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/21/morning-bell-renewable-electricity-standards-kill-jobs-too
Video: National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards
http://goo.gl/fb/SZK8B
WaPo Editorial: Nicaragua, Honduras and hypocrisy
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/19/AR2010101906475.html
Watch a Campaign Update and Make Calls Tonight
http://goo.gl/fb/WmBFZ
Britain Bows Out of the Security Game - New defense cuts will leave the U.K. unable to support even its current deployment in Afghanistan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304741404575564313178698450.html
Getting Out the Early Vote
http://goo.gl/fb/EWGeh
France's Perpetual Revolution - The left seems to have forgotten Marx's line about history repeating itself as tragedy and farce
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304741404575564354040144426.html
Cutting Through the Rhetoric on Spending
http://goo.gl/fb/gXQ0h
Card Checkmate - Voters in four states head to the polls to preserve honest union elections
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552582690690048.html
A Small Business in Arkansas Benefits from the Affordable Care Act
http://goo.gl/fb/Ze31a
WikiPropaganda - Wikipedia bars a global warming censor from editing its pages
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575560630778483558.html
Video: Campaign Update with Mitch Stewart: October 20, 2010
http://goo.gl/fb/I3UfC
The SEC's Mozilo settlement gives the political class a pass
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562311735698220.html
Fired Up in Ohio
http://goo.gl/fb/cxKLw
The Biggest Race You Haven't Heard Of - A rare chance to defuse the pension bomb
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304741404575564133687036768.html
Joe Biden: "Remember when the GOP was in control?"
http://goo.gl/fb/1Movx
Brookings: The needy have a direct interest in substantial reductions in the federal deficit - beginning with the end of nearly all A.R.R.A. expansion in safety net spending
http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2010/0917_stimulus_safety_net_haskins.aspx
Federal Prez's Incoherent Closing Argument - While the economy is the No. 1 issue, the president constantly changes the subject
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304741404575564383870852928.html
State Dept: Briefing on Pending Major Arms Sale
http://www.state.gov/t/pm/rls/rm/149749.htm
ObamaCare's Incentive to Drop Insurance - My state of Tennessee could reduce costs by over $146 million using the legislated mechanics of health reform to transfer coverage to the federal government
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562643804015252.html
Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues: Video Remarks to the African Union Launch of the Decade for Women
http://www.state.gov/s/gwi/rls/rem/2010/149756.htm
President Obama Prefers Imported Oil over American Made
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/20/president-obama-prefers-imported-oil-over-american-made/
Democracy -- not on the march
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=108&subid=900003&contentid=255199
Walter and Miriam Schneir - A longtime champion of the Rosenbergs tries to confront the evidence
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562223216619854.html
U.S. - Maghreb Entrepreneurship Conference: December 1-2, 2010
http://www.state.gov/e/eeb/rls/fs/2010/149742.htm
Obama and the Coming Palestinian State - What if the president abstains from a Security Council vote establishing one?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575559973666125394.html
Video: Open for Questions: Cybersecurity
http://goo.gl/fb/iMnkU
Renewable Electricity Standards Kill Jobs Too
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/21/morning-bell-renewable-electricity-standards-kill-jobs-too
Video: National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards
http://goo.gl/fb/SZK8B
WaPo Editorial: Nicaragua, Honduras and hypocrisy
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/19/AR2010101906475.html
Watch a Campaign Update and Make Calls Tonight
http://goo.gl/fb/WmBFZ
Britain Bows Out of the Security Game - New defense cuts will leave the U.K. unable to support even its current deployment in Afghanistan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304741404575564313178698450.html
Getting Out the Early Vote
http://goo.gl/fb/EWGeh
France's Perpetual Revolution - The left seems to have forgotten Marx's line about history repeating itself as tragedy and farce
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304741404575564354040144426.html
Cutting Through the Rhetoric on Spending
http://goo.gl/fb/gXQ0h
Card Checkmate - Voters in four states head to the polls to preserve honest union elections
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552582690690048.html
A Small Business in Arkansas Benefits from the Affordable Care Act
http://goo.gl/fb/Ze31a
WikiPropaganda - Wikipedia bars a global warming censor from editing its pages
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575560630778483558.html
Video: Campaign Update with Mitch Stewart: October 20, 2010
http://goo.gl/fb/I3UfC
The SEC's Mozilo settlement gives the political class a pass
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562311735698220.html
Fired Up in Ohio
http://goo.gl/fb/cxKLw
The Biggest Race You Haven't Heard Of - A rare chance to defuse the pension bomb
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304741404575564133687036768.html
Joe Biden: "Remember when the GOP was in control?"
http://goo.gl/fb/1Movx
Brookings: The needy have a direct interest in substantial reductions in the federal deficit - beginning with the end of nearly all A.R.R.A. expansion in safety net spending
http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2010/0917_stimulus_safety_net_haskins.aspx
Federal Prez's Incoherent Closing Argument - While the economy is the No. 1 issue, the president constantly changes the subject
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304741404575564383870852928.html
State Dept: Briefing on Pending Major Arms Sale
http://www.state.gov/t/pm/rls/rm/149749.htm
ObamaCare's Incentive to Drop Insurance - My state of Tennessee could reduce costs by over $146 million using the legislated mechanics of health reform to transfer coverage to the federal government
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562643804015252.html
Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues: Video Remarks to the African Union Launch of the Decade for Women
http://www.state.gov/s/gwi/rls/rem/2010/149756.htm
President Obama Prefers Imported Oil over American Made
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/20/president-obama-prefers-imported-oil-over-american-made/
Democracy -- not on the march
http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=108&subid=900003&contentid=255199
Walter and Miriam Schneir - A longtime champion of the Rosenbergs tries to confront the evidence
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562223216619854.html
U.S. - Maghreb Entrepreneurship Conference: December 1-2, 2010
http://www.state.gov/e/eeb/rls/fs/2010/149742.htm
Obama and the Coming Palestinian State - What if the president abstains from a Security Council vote establishing one?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575559973666125394.html
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Press Briefing
Oct 20, 2010
Adrienne Explains How College Students Are Benefiting from the Affordable Care Act
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/19/adrienne-explains-how-college-students-are-benefiting-affordable-care-act
Bernanke's Inflation Target Misses the Mark - The more latitude the Fed has to try to spur economic growth, the more economic uncertainty there will be
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575560302444820376.html
President Obama Signs Executive Order On Education and Hispanics
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/19/president-obama-signs-executive-order-education-and-hispanics
ObamaCare, for Some - Step right up and get your waiver
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703794104575546052343243306.html
Haitian Farmers Increase Agriculture Productivity through Support of U.S. Government
http://www.usaid.gov/press/releases/2010/pr101019.html
Volte-Face - GM's new electric car depends on coal-belching power plants to charge its batteries. What's the point?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562133163140878.html
Remarks by the President at DSCC Fundraiser
http://goo.gl/fb/CQsNq
Where France Goes . . . other Western entitlement nations are likely to follow
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575561682510521208.html
The Basel Committee's response to the financial crisis: report to the G20
http://www.bis.org/publ/bcbs179.htm
Bravo, Canada - A U.N. snub is a badge of honor
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575560421374193814.html
Vietnam-US Relations: Past, Present, and Future
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/search-for-publications/browse-alphabetic-list-of-titles/?class_call=view&mode=view&pub_ID=3562
The Overseas Profits Elephant in the Room - There's a trillion dollars waiting to be repatriated if tax policy is right
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704469004575533880328930598.html
The Cuba Embargo at 50
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/the-cuba-embargo-at-50/
Misconceptions about energy lead to waste
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/19/misconceptions-about-energy-lead-to-waste/
A Free Press Stirs in North Korea - Armed with pinhole cameras and flash drives, journalists are getting videos, photographs and reporting out of the Hermit Kingdom
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575559980603982928.html
There Is No 'War on Teachers' - There is a growing bipartisan agreement on the importance of rewarding good ones
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703794104575546502615802206.html
Adrienne Explains How College Students Are Benefiting from the Affordable Care Act
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/19/adrienne-explains-how-college-students-are-benefiting-affordable-care-act
Bernanke's Inflation Target Misses the Mark - The more latitude the Fed has to try to spur economic growth, the more economic uncertainty there will be
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575560302444820376.html
President Obama Signs Executive Order On Education and Hispanics
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/19/president-obama-signs-executive-order-education-and-hispanics
ObamaCare, for Some - Step right up and get your waiver
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703794104575546052343243306.html
Haitian Farmers Increase Agriculture Productivity through Support of U.S. Government
http://www.usaid.gov/press/releases/2010/pr101019.html
Volte-Face - GM's new electric car depends on coal-belching power plants to charge its batteries. What's the point?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562133163140878.html
Remarks by the President at DSCC Fundraiser
http://goo.gl/fb/CQsNq
Where France Goes . . . other Western entitlement nations are likely to follow
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575561682510521208.html
The Basel Committee's response to the financial crisis: report to the G20
http://www.bis.org/publ/bcbs179.htm
Bravo, Canada - A U.N. snub is a badge of honor
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575560421374193814.html
Vietnam-US Relations: Past, Present, and Future
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/search-for-publications/browse-alphabetic-list-of-titles/?class_call=view&mode=view&pub_ID=3562
The Overseas Profits Elephant in the Room - There's a trillion dollars waiting to be repatriated if tax policy is right
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704469004575533880328930598.html
The Cuba Embargo at 50
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/the-cuba-embargo-at-50/
Misconceptions about energy lead to waste
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/19/misconceptions-about-energy-lead-to-waste/
A Free Press Stirs in North Korea - Armed with pinhole cameras and flash drives, journalists are getting videos, photographs and reporting out of the Hermit Kingdom
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575559980603982928.html
There Is No 'War on Teachers' - There is a growing bipartisan agreement on the importance of rewarding good ones
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703794104575546502615802206.html
Press Briefing
Oct 19, 2010
Background on the White House Science Fair
http://goo.gl/fb/xcAlW
China's Rare Earths Gambit - Beijing is courting a backlash by denying access to vital elements
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575559532707753878.html
The Challenges and Opportunities of Biotechnology. Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs
http://www.state.gov/e/eeb/rls/rm/2010/149589.htm
The Housing Bust Lobby - Obama is right to resist the foreclosure wails from the political left
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554342373628422.html
Dinner with Putin: Musings on the Politics of Modernization in Russia
http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2010/10_russia_putin_hill.aspx
The Trouble With Talking to the Taliban - As in Vietnam, compromise is not in the insurgents' playbook
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575560112389695490.html
Remarks by the President and First Lady at a Reception for Governor Ted Strickland
http://goo.gl/fb/7z1B8
Treasury Announces Plan to Continue to Sell Citigroup Common Stock
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg915.htm
Conservatives: The Left Still Doesn’t Get Poverty
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/19/morning-bell-the-left-still-doesnt-get-poverty
President Obama to Host White House Science Fair
http://goo.gl/fb/bRuHN
Washington State's Union Tax - Bill Gates Sr. supports a state income tax on wealthy Washingtonians, but public unions are the real muscle behind the initiative
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575560301019870596.html
Next Steps on U.S.-Russian Nuclear Negotiations and Nuclear Non-Proliferation
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2010/10_nonproliferation_albright_talbott.aspx
Data Dump RE: Political Positioning in the Maghreb-Sahel
http://themoornextdoor.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/data-dump-re-political-positioning-in-the-maghreb-sahel/
Barack Obama: "Our destiny is written by us"
http://www.youtube.com/v/-nQXNsD0sFY
How the Fed Is Holding Back Recovery - By promising to print more money, it's giving Congress an excuse to avoid critical tax and spending cuts
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575559972460199304.html
The US Perspective on Eurasian Energy
http://www.state.gov/s/eee/rmk/149543.htm
California’s Climate Policy: The Present and Future of AB 32
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/15/californias-climate-policy-the-present-and-future-of-ab-32/
Background on the White House Science Fair
http://goo.gl/fb/xcAlW
China's Rare Earths Gambit - Beijing is courting a backlash by denying access to vital elements
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575559532707753878.html
The Challenges and Opportunities of Biotechnology. Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs
http://www.state.gov/e/eeb/rls/rm/2010/149589.htm
The Housing Bust Lobby - Obama is right to resist the foreclosure wails from the political left
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554342373628422.html
Dinner with Putin: Musings on the Politics of Modernization in Russia
http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2010/10_russia_putin_hill.aspx
The Trouble With Talking to the Taliban - As in Vietnam, compromise is not in the insurgents' playbook
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575560112389695490.html
Remarks by the President and First Lady at a Reception for Governor Ted Strickland
http://goo.gl/fb/7z1B8
Treasury Announces Plan to Continue to Sell Citigroup Common Stock
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg915.htm
Conservatives: The Left Still Doesn’t Get Poverty
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/19/morning-bell-the-left-still-doesnt-get-poverty
President Obama to Host White House Science Fair
http://goo.gl/fb/bRuHN
Washington State's Union Tax - Bill Gates Sr. supports a state income tax on wealthy Washingtonians, but public unions are the real muscle behind the initiative
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575560301019870596.html
Next Steps on U.S.-Russian Nuclear Negotiations and Nuclear Non-Proliferation
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2010/10_nonproliferation_albright_talbott.aspx
Data Dump RE: Political Positioning in the Maghreb-Sahel
http://themoornextdoor.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/data-dump-re-political-positioning-in-the-maghreb-sahel/
Barack Obama: "Our destiny is written by us"
http://www.youtube.com/v/-nQXNsD0sFY
How the Fed Is Holding Back Recovery - By promising to print more money, it's giving Congress an excuse to avoid critical tax and spending cuts
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575559972460199304.html
The US Perspective on Eurasian Energy
http://www.state.gov/s/eee/rmk/149543.htm
California’s Climate Policy: The Present and Future of AB 32
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/15/californias-climate-policy-the-present-and-future-of-ab-32/
Monday, October 18, 2010
Press Briefing
Oct 18, 2010
In China, Even the Premier Is Censored. By L. Gordon Crovitz
The Wall Street Journal, page A18, Oct 18, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554333040567148.html
From the outside, China can seem monolithic, run by Communist Party officials united by the prime directive of maintaining power. But every once in a while splits become visible and remind us that while China may now be the world's second-largest economy, there's a steep price for being a laggard when it comes to the free flow of information.
Consider Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. He has called for political reform several times in recent months, but censors have blocked domestic reporting of his comments. This led to an open letter from 23 well-known Communist Party elders calling for free speech. The letter was posted last week in a blog area of sina.com, one of the country's largest websites, and widely shared before being removed.
This letter is worth attention, both for its authors and its substance. The signatories include a who's who of former Communist Party propagandists, including Li Rui, the former private secretary to Mao Zedong, and retired top editors of the People's Daily (the party's mouthpiece), Xinhua (the official news agency) and the China Daily (the state-run English-language newspaper).
"Retired older officials can speak more loudly," says Xiao Qiang, editor of China Digital Times, a news site based at the University of California, Berkeley. "They can protect the middle-aged people who currently hold the same roles as editors and party propagandists by speaking for them." Mr. Xiao points out that the letter's "rhetoric on political reform is not very different from the language of the Charter 08 document," the freedom manifesto that sent Liu Xiaobo to jail and helped him win this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
The letter notes that the Chinese Constitution claims freedom of speech and the press, but this "formal avowal and concrete denial has become a scandalous mark." It cites a CNN interview earlier this month in which Premier Wen said, "Freedom of speech is indispensable for any nation," and points out the irony that these comments were blocked by domestic media.
"Even the premier of our country does not have freedom of speech or of the press," the party elders write. "If we endeavor to find those responsible, we are utterly incapable of putting our finger on a specific person. This is the work of invisible hands. For their own reasons, they violate our constitution, often ordering by telephone that the works of such and such a person cannot be published, or that such and such an event cannot be reported in the media.
"These invisible hands are our Central Propaganda Department. Right now the department is placed above the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and above the State Council. We would ask, what right does the Central Propaganda Department have to muzzle the speech of the premier? What right does it have to rob the people of our nation of their right to know what the premier has said?"
The party elders note that Britain gave its colony of Hong Kong more freedom than the Communist Party gives China: "The freedom of speech and freedom of the press given to residents of Hong Kong by the British authorities there was not empty, appearing only on paper. It was enacted and realized."
The letter writers appeal to Chinese nationalism: "In countries around the world, the development of the rule of law in news and publishing" long ago replaced censorship, and "this is greatly in the favor of the development of the humanities and natural sciences, and in promoting social harmony and historical progress." They note that "England did away with censorship in 1695. France abolished its censorship system in 1881." This means "our present system of censorship leaves news and book publishing in our country 315 years behind England and 129 years behind France."
By censoring news in recent years about toxic baby formula, the SARS virus and blood centers infected with AIDS, Beijing has encouraged cynicism by its citizens about its own government. Even the elite—even the premier—wonder about their own liberties.
The letter from the party elders reminds us that it's not just dissidents who dissent. "Although most of this letter's signers carried out the party's will during their careers," longtime China watcher and legal scholar Jerome Cohen says, "the letter provides immediate tangible evidence that at least a minority within the elite is bitter and disillusioned." Bao Pu, a Hong Kong-based book publisher whose father was an economic reform leader in Beijing, reports that more than 1,000 people so far have added their names to the letter.
The Communist Party will reform itself when its splits become too wide to cover over. For the outside world, the opportunity is to encourage the growing number of disillusioned cadres who understand that modern countries rely on a free flow of information, for ordinary citizens and their leaders alike.
The Ethanol Bailout - EPA does the industry another big favor
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304772804575558322880140784.html
Savagery in the East - How Stalin and then Hitler turned the borderlands of Eastern Europe into killing fields
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703794104575546611651621270.html
Buying the Senior Vote - Federal President wants $15 billion in checks for grandma
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304772804575558262251869720.html
Statement by Treasury Sec Geithner and Acting Director, Office of Management and Budget, on Budget Results for Fiscal Year 2010
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg911.htm
California's Cap-and-Trade War - The battle to repeal a self-destructive climate change law
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575535841904660332.html
White House Council on Women and Girls: A Battle that Takes Place Every Day
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/15/a-battle-takes-place-every-day
Why a Foreclosure Moratorium Is a Bad Idea - A special bankruptcy law could help borrowers while letting housing markets clear
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554050975475486.html
In China, Even the Premier Is Censored. By L. Gordon Crovitz
The Wall Street Journal, page A18, Oct 18, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554333040567148.html
From the outside, China can seem monolithic, run by Communist Party officials united by the prime directive of maintaining power. But every once in a while splits become visible and remind us that while China may now be the world's second-largest economy, there's a steep price for being a laggard when it comes to the free flow of information.
Consider Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. He has called for political reform several times in recent months, but censors have blocked domestic reporting of his comments. This led to an open letter from 23 well-known Communist Party elders calling for free speech. The letter was posted last week in a blog area of sina.com, one of the country's largest websites, and widely shared before being removed.
This letter is worth attention, both for its authors and its substance. The signatories include a who's who of former Communist Party propagandists, including Li Rui, the former private secretary to Mao Zedong, and retired top editors of the People's Daily (the party's mouthpiece), Xinhua (the official news agency) and the China Daily (the state-run English-language newspaper).
"Retired older officials can speak more loudly," says Xiao Qiang, editor of China Digital Times, a news site based at the University of California, Berkeley. "They can protect the middle-aged people who currently hold the same roles as editors and party propagandists by speaking for them." Mr. Xiao points out that the letter's "rhetoric on political reform is not very different from the language of the Charter 08 document," the freedom manifesto that sent Liu Xiaobo to jail and helped him win this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
The letter notes that the Chinese Constitution claims freedom of speech and the press, but this "formal avowal and concrete denial has become a scandalous mark." It cites a CNN interview earlier this month in which Premier Wen said, "Freedom of speech is indispensable for any nation," and points out the irony that these comments were blocked by domestic media.
"Even the premier of our country does not have freedom of speech or of the press," the party elders write. "If we endeavor to find those responsible, we are utterly incapable of putting our finger on a specific person. This is the work of invisible hands. For their own reasons, they violate our constitution, often ordering by telephone that the works of such and such a person cannot be published, or that such and such an event cannot be reported in the media.
"These invisible hands are our Central Propaganda Department. Right now the department is placed above the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and above the State Council. We would ask, what right does the Central Propaganda Department have to muzzle the speech of the premier? What right does it have to rob the people of our nation of their right to know what the premier has said?"
The party elders note that Britain gave its colony of Hong Kong more freedom than the Communist Party gives China: "The freedom of speech and freedom of the press given to residents of Hong Kong by the British authorities there was not empty, appearing only on paper. It was enacted and realized."
The letter writers appeal to Chinese nationalism: "In countries around the world, the development of the rule of law in news and publishing" long ago replaced censorship, and "this is greatly in the favor of the development of the humanities and natural sciences, and in promoting social harmony and historical progress." They note that "England did away with censorship in 1695. France abolished its censorship system in 1881." This means "our present system of censorship leaves news and book publishing in our country 315 years behind England and 129 years behind France."
By censoring news in recent years about toxic baby formula, the SARS virus and blood centers infected with AIDS, Beijing has encouraged cynicism by its citizens about its own government. Even the elite—even the premier—wonder about their own liberties.
The letter from the party elders reminds us that it's not just dissidents who dissent. "Although most of this letter's signers carried out the party's will during their careers," longtime China watcher and legal scholar Jerome Cohen says, "the letter provides immediate tangible evidence that at least a minority within the elite is bitter and disillusioned." Bao Pu, a Hong Kong-based book publisher whose father was an economic reform leader in Beijing, reports that more than 1,000 people so far have added their names to the letter.
The Communist Party will reform itself when its splits become too wide to cover over. For the outside world, the opportunity is to encourage the growing number of disillusioned cadres who understand that modern countries rely on a free flow of information, for ordinary citizens and their leaders alike.
The Ethanol Bailout - EPA does the industry another big favor
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304772804575558322880140784.html
Savagery in the East - How Stalin and then Hitler turned the borderlands of Eastern Europe into killing fields
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703794104575546611651621270.html
Buying the Senior Vote - Federal President wants $15 billion in checks for grandma
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304772804575558262251869720.html
Statement by Treasury Sec Geithner and Acting Director, Office of Management and Budget, on Budget Results for Fiscal Year 2010
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg911.htm
California's Cap-and-Trade War - The battle to repeal a self-destructive climate change law
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575535841904660332.html
White House Council on Women and Girls: A Battle that Takes Place Every Day
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/15/a-battle-takes-place-every-day
Why a Foreclosure Moratorium Is a Bad Idea - A special bankruptcy law could help borrowers while letting housing markets clear
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554050975475486.html
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Press Briefing
Oct 16, 2010
Boehner's K Street Cabinet
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/OFA/gGMzzK
Lies, Damn Lies and the ObamaCare Sales Pitch - The White House's ObamaCare defense is becoming even more frantic and desperate
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554273700857644.html
Urbanization Policy in an Uncertain Economy. By Allen L. Clark, Meril Dobrin Fujiki, and Mariko Davidson (eds.)
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/search-for-publications/browse-alphabetic-list-of-titles/?class_call=view&mode=view&pub_ID=3559
Christie Is Right About the Hudson River Big Dig - The money might be better spent on New Jersey's roads, which are rated among the worst in the nation
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548280684121298.html
The New START Treaty. By Marcie B. Ries, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance. Remarks by Delegation of the United States of America to the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly. New York City, October 15, 2010
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149534.htm
Arnold's Last Hurrah - A modest pension victory amid the overall triumph of Sacramento
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575539830526815218.html
Advanced Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Peaceful Uses Initiative
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/scp/fs/2010/149511.htm
Why Liberals Don't Get the Tea Party Movement. By Peter Berkowitz
Our universities haven't taught much political history for decades. No wonder so many progressives have disdain for the principles that animated the Federalist debates.
WSJ, Oct 16, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531913602803980.html
Highly educated people say the darndest things, these days particularly about the tea party movement. Vast numbers of other highly educated people read and hear these dubious pronouncements, smile knowingly, and nod their heads in agreement. University educations and advanced degrees notwithstanding, they lack a basic understanding of the contours of American constitutional government.
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman got the ball rolling in April 2009, just ahead of the first major tea party rallies on April 15, by falsely asserting that "the tea parties don't represent a spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment. They're AstroTurf (fake grass-roots) events."
Having learned next to nothing in the intervening 16 months about one of the most spectacular grass-roots political movements in American history, fellow Times columnist Frank Rich denied in August of this year that the tea party movement is "spontaneous and leaderless," insisting instead that it is the instrument of billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch.
Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne criticized the tea party as unrepresentative in two ways. It "constitutes a sliver of opinion on the extreme end of politics receiving attention out of all proportion with its numbers," he asserted last month. This was a step back from his rash prediction five months before that since it "represents a relatively small minority of Americans on the right end of politics," the tea party movement "will not determine the outcome of the 2010 elections."
In February, Mr. Dionne argued that the tea party was also unrepresentative because it reflected a political principle that lost out at America's founding and deserves to be permanently retired: "Anti-statism, a profound mistrust of power in Washington goes all the way back to the Anti-Federalists who opposed the Constitution itself because they saw it concentrating too much authority in the central government."
Mr. Dionne follows in the footsteps of progressive historian Richard Hofstadter, whose influential 1964 book "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" argued that Barry Goldwater and his supporters displayed a "style of mind" characterized by "heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy." Similarly, the "suspicion of government" that the tea party movement shares with the Anti-Federalists, Mr. Dionne maintained, "is not amenable to 'facts'" because "opposing government is a matter of principle."
To be sure, the tea party sports its share of clowns, kooks and creeps. And some of its favored candidates and loudest voices have made embarrassing statements and embraced reckless policies. This, however, does not distinguish the tea party movement from the competition.
Born in response to President Obama's self-declared desire to fundamentally change America, the tea party movement has made its central goals abundantly clear. Activists and the sizeable swath of voters who sympathize with them want to reduce the massively ballooning national debt, cut runaway federal spending, keep taxes in check, reinvigorate the economy, and block the expansion of the state into citizens' lives.
In other words, the tea party movement is inspired above all by a commitment to limited government. And that does distinguish it from the competition.
But far from reflecting a recurring pathology in our politics or the losing side in the debate over the Constitution, the devotion to limited government lies at the heart of the American experiment in liberal democracy. The Federalists who won ratification of the Constitution—most notably Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay—shared with their Anti-Federalist opponents the view that centralized power presented a formidable and abiding threat to the individual liberty that it was government's primary task to secure. They differed over how to deal with the threat.
The Anti-Federalists—including Patrick Henry, Samuel Bryan and Robert Yates—adopted the traditional view that liberty depended on state power exercised in close proximity to the people. The Federalists replied in Federalist 9 that the "science of politics," which had "received great improvement," showed that in an extended and properly structured republic liberty could be achieved and with greater security and stability.
This improved science of politics was based not on abstract theory or complex calculations but on what is referred to in Federalist 51 as "inventions of prudence" grounded in the reading of classic and modern authors, broad experience of self-government in the colonies, and acute observations about the imperfections and finer points of human nature. It taught that constitutionally enumerated powers; a separation, balance, and blending of these powers among branches of the federal government; and a distribution of powers between the federal and state governments would operate to leave substantial authority to the states while both preventing abuses by the federal government and providing it with the energy needed to defend liberty.
Whether members have read much or little of The Federalist, the tea party movement's focus on keeping government within bounds and answerable to the people reflects the devotion to limited government embodied in the Constitution. One reason this is poorly understood among our best educated citizens is that American politics is poorly taught at the universities that credentialed them. Indeed, even as the tea party calls for the return to constitutional basics, our universities neglect The Federalist and its classic exposition of constitutional principles.
For the better part of two generations, the best political science departments have concentrated on equipping students with skills for performing empirical research and teaching mathematical models that purport to describe political affairs. Meanwhile, leading history departments have emphasized social history and issues of race, class and gender at the expense of constitutional history, diplomatic history and military history.
Neither professors of political science nor of history have made a priority of instructing students in the founding principles of American constitutional government. Nor have they taught about the contest between the progressive vision and the conservative vision that has characterized American politics since Woodrow Wilson (then a political scientist at Princeton) helped launch the progressive movement in the late 19th century by arguing that the Constitution had become obsolete and hindered democratic reform.
Then there are the proliferating classes in practical ethics and moral reasoning. These expose students to hypothetical conundrums involving individuals in surreal circumstances suddenly facing life and death decisions, or present contentious public policy questions and explore the range of respectable progressive opinions for resolving them. Such exercises may sharpen students' ability to argue. They do little to teach about self-government.
They certainly do not teach about the virtues, or qualities of mind and character, that enable citizens to shoulder their political responsibilities and prosper amidst the opportunities and uncertainties that freedom brings. Nor do they teach the beliefs, practices and associations that foster such virtues and those that endanger them.
Those who doubt that the failings of higher education in America have political consequences need only reflect on the quality of progressive commentary on the tea party movement. Our universities have produced two generations of highly educated people who seem unable to recognize the spirited defense of fundamental American principles, even when it takes place for more than a year and a half right in front of their noses.
Mr. Berkowitz is a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution.
Remarks to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Women's Entrepreneurship Summit
http://www.state.gov/s/gwi/rls/rem/2010/149525.htm
What Bernanke Didn't Say - The dollar? Someone else's problem
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554220786642124.html
Debt-For-Nature Agreement to Conserve Costa Rica’s Forests
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg908.htm
Currency Chaos: Where Do We Go From Here? - Mundell: 'The most important initiative you could take to improve the world economy would be to stabilize the dollar-euro rate'
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552481963474898.html
Federal President's Weekly Address: Washington Republicans "Rewarding Corporations That Create Jobs and Profits Overseas"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/16/weekly-address-president-obama-washington-republicans-rewarding-corporat
A Real Vaccine Scare - Lawsuits, autism and the Supreme Court
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548470924781864.html
Adrian Fenty and Michelle Rhee: We fought for D.C. schools. Now it's up to you.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/15/AR2010101502701.html
Myron Scholes on Whether QE2 Will Work
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/10/15/guest-contribution-myron-scholes-on-whether-qe2-will-work/
Boehner's K Street Cabinet
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/OFA/gGMzzK
Lies, Damn Lies and the ObamaCare Sales Pitch - The White House's ObamaCare defense is becoming even more frantic and desperate
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554273700857644.html
Urbanization Policy in an Uncertain Economy. By Allen L. Clark, Meril Dobrin Fujiki, and Mariko Davidson (eds.)
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/search-for-publications/browse-alphabetic-list-of-titles/?class_call=view&mode=view&pub_ID=3559
Christie Is Right About the Hudson River Big Dig - The money might be better spent on New Jersey's roads, which are rated among the worst in the nation
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548280684121298.html
The New START Treaty. By Marcie B. Ries, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance. Remarks by Delegation of the United States of America to the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly. New York City, October 15, 2010
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149534.htm
Arnold's Last Hurrah - A modest pension victory amid the overall triumph of Sacramento
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575539830526815218.html
Advanced Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Peaceful Uses Initiative
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/scp/fs/2010/149511.htm
Why Liberals Don't Get the Tea Party Movement. By Peter Berkowitz
Our universities haven't taught much political history for decades. No wonder so many progressives have disdain for the principles that animated the Federalist debates.
WSJ, Oct 16, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531913602803980.html
Highly educated people say the darndest things, these days particularly about the tea party movement. Vast numbers of other highly educated people read and hear these dubious pronouncements, smile knowingly, and nod their heads in agreement. University educations and advanced degrees notwithstanding, they lack a basic understanding of the contours of American constitutional government.
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman got the ball rolling in April 2009, just ahead of the first major tea party rallies on April 15, by falsely asserting that "the tea parties don't represent a spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment. They're AstroTurf (fake grass-roots) events."
Having learned next to nothing in the intervening 16 months about one of the most spectacular grass-roots political movements in American history, fellow Times columnist Frank Rich denied in August of this year that the tea party movement is "spontaneous and leaderless," insisting instead that it is the instrument of billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch.
Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne criticized the tea party as unrepresentative in two ways. It "constitutes a sliver of opinion on the extreme end of politics receiving attention out of all proportion with its numbers," he asserted last month. This was a step back from his rash prediction five months before that since it "represents a relatively small minority of Americans on the right end of politics," the tea party movement "will not determine the outcome of the 2010 elections."
In February, Mr. Dionne argued that the tea party was also unrepresentative because it reflected a political principle that lost out at America's founding and deserves to be permanently retired: "Anti-statism, a profound mistrust of power in Washington goes all the way back to the Anti-Federalists who opposed the Constitution itself because they saw it concentrating too much authority in the central government."
Mr. Dionne follows in the footsteps of progressive historian Richard Hofstadter, whose influential 1964 book "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" argued that Barry Goldwater and his supporters displayed a "style of mind" characterized by "heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy." Similarly, the "suspicion of government" that the tea party movement shares with the Anti-Federalists, Mr. Dionne maintained, "is not amenable to 'facts'" because "opposing government is a matter of principle."
To be sure, the tea party sports its share of clowns, kooks and creeps. And some of its favored candidates and loudest voices have made embarrassing statements and embraced reckless policies. This, however, does not distinguish the tea party movement from the competition.
Born in response to President Obama's self-declared desire to fundamentally change America, the tea party movement has made its central goals abundantly clear. Activists and the sizeable swath of voters who sympathize with them want to reduce the massively ballooning national debt, cut runaway federal spending, keep taxes in check, reinvigorate the economy, and block the expansion of the state into citizens' lives.
In other words, the tea party movement is inspired above all by a commitment to limited government. And that does distinguish it from the competition.
But far from reflecting a recurring pathology in our politics or the losing side in the debate over the Constitution, the devotion to limited government lies at the heart of the American experiment in liberal democracy. The Federalists who won ratification of the Constitution—most notably Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay—shared with their Anti-Federalist opponents the view that centralized power presented a formidable and abiding threat to the individual liberty that it was government's primary task to secure. They differed over how to deal with the threat.
The Anti-Federalists—including Patrick Henry, Samuel Bryan and Robert Yates—adopted the traditional view that liberty depended on state power exercised in close proximity to the people. The Federalists replied in Federalist 9 that the "science of politics," which had "received great improvement," showed that in an extended and properly structured republic liberty could be achieved and with greater security and stability.
This improved science of politics was based not on abstract theory or complex calculations but on what is referred to in Federalist 51 as "inventions of prudence" grounded in the reading of classic and modern authors, broad experience of self-government in the colonies, and acute observations about the imperfections and finer points of human nature. It taught that constitutionally enumerated powers; a separation, balance, and blending of these powers among branches of the federal government; and a distribution of powers between the federal and state governments would operate to leave substantial authority to the states while both preventing abuses by the federal government and providing it with the energy needed to defend liberty.
Whether members have read much or little of The Federalist, the tea party movement's focus on keeping government within bounds and answerable to the people reflects the devotion to limited government embodied in the Constitution. One reason this is poorly understood among our best educated citizens is that American politics is poorly taught at the universities that credentialed them. Indeed, even as the tea party calls for the return to constitutional basics, our universities neglect The Federalist and its classic exposition of constitutional principles.
For the better part of two generations, the best political science departments have concentrated on equipping students with skills for performing empirical research and teaching mathematical models that purport to describe political affairs. Meanwhile, leading history departments have emphasized social history and issues of race, class and gender at the expense of constitutional history, diplomatic history and military history.
Neither professors of political science nor of history have made a priority of instructing students in the founding principles of American constitutional government. Nor have they taught about the contest between the progressive vision and the conservative vision that has characterized American politics since Woodrow Wilson (then a political scientist at Princeton) helped launch the progressive movement in the late 19th century by arguing that the Constitution had become obsolete and hindered democratic reform.
Then there are the proliferating classes in practical ethics and moral reasoning. These expose students to hypothetical conundrums involving individuals in surreal circumstances suddenly facing life and death decisions, or present contentious public policy questions and explore the range of respectable progressive opinions for resolving them. Such exercises may sharpen students' ability to argue. They do little to teach about self-government.
They certainly do not teach about the virtues, or qualities of mind and character, that enable citizens to shoulder their political responsibilities and prosper amidst the opportunities and uncertainties that freedom brings. Nor do they teach the beliefs, practices and associations that foster such virtues and those that endanger them.
Those who doubt that the failings of higher education in America have political consequences need only reflect on the quality of progressive commentary on the tea party movement. Our universities have produced two generations of highly educated people who seem unable to recognize the spirited defense of fundamental American principles, even when it takes place for more than a year and a half right in front of their noses.
Mr. Berkowitz is a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution.
Remarks to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Women's Entrepreneurship Summit
http://www.state.gov/s/gwi/rls/rem/2010/149525.htm
What Bernanke Didn't Say - The dollar? Someone else's problem
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554220786642124.html
Debt-For-Nature Agreement to Conserve Costa Rica’s Forests
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg908.htm
Currency Chaos: Where Do We Go From Here? - Mundell: 'The most important initiative you could take to improve the world economy would be to stabilize the dollar-euro rate'
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552481963474898.html
Federal President's Weekly Address: Washington Republicans "Rewarding Corporations That Create Jobs and Profits Overseas"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/16/weekly-address-president-obama-washington-republicans-rewarding-corporat
A Real Vaccine Scare - Lawsuits, autism and the Supreme Court
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548470924781864.html
Adrian Fenty and Michelle Rhee: We fought for D.C. schools. Now it's up to you.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/15/AR2010101502701.html
Myron Scholes on Whether QE2 Will Work
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/10/15/guest-contribution-myron-scholes-on-whether-qe2-will-work/
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Press Briefing
Oct 15, 2010
State Dept: Advancing Sustainable Agriculture Through the Committee on World Food Security
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/agriculture_committee_food_security
Poll conducted by the Democratic-leaning firm of Penn, Schoen & Berland: 44% of likely voters in districts "say the Democratic Party is more dominated by its extreme elements," 37% say the same about the GOP http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552190679905162.html
In The NYT Magazine: Education of a President
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/magazine/17obama-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Voters on ObamaCare: Informed and Opposed - A new poll shows that opposition to the individual mandate is intense
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673604575549700366382866.html
The U.S. National Space Policy, International Cooperation and the Pursuit of TCBMs
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149491.htm
The Education of Barney Frank - The benefits of a competitive election
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552371822314694.html
THE PATH TO GLOBAL RECOVERY: A CONVERSATION WITH THE TREASURY SECRETARY TIMOTHY GEITHNER
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/events/2010/1006_global_recovery/20100610_geithner.pdf
ObamaCare in Court - A Florida judge allows the major state lawsuit to proceed to trial
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552490899677152.html
The U.S.-European Relationship: Global Challenges and International Economic Architecture
http://www.state.gov/e/rls/rmk/2010/149421.htm
Liberalism and Public Works - Entitlement politics leaves little money for roads and tunnels
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548382097688038.html
Re: The Geopolitics of Emotion
http://themoornextdoor.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/re-the-geopolitics-of-emotion/
Stop Bashing Business, Mr. President - If we tried to start The Home Depot today, it's a stone cold certainty that it would never have gotten off the ground
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552080488297188.html
US Pledges Additional $1 Million to Help Displaced Afghans in Pakistan and Their Host Communities
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/10/149481.htm
Republicans appear poised for major gains in the Midwest, a region dominated by the president in 2008
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575547922554350844.html
State Dept: Advancing Sustainable Agriculture Through the Committee on World Food Security
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/agriculture_committee_food_security
Poll conducted by the Democratic-leaning firm of Penn, Schoen & Berland: 44% of likely voters in districts "say the Democratic Party is more dominated by its extreme elements," 37% say the same about the GOP http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552190679905162.html
In The NYT Magazine: Education of a President
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/magazine/17obama-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Voters on ObamaCare: Informed and Opposed - A new poll shows that opposition to the individual mandate is intense
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673604575549700366382866.html
The U.S. National Space Policy, International Cooperation and the Pursuit of TCBMs
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149491.htm
The Education of Barney Frank - The benefits of a competitive election
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552371822314694.html
THE PATH TO GLOBAL RECOVERY: A CONVERSATION WITH THE TREASURY SECRETARY TIMOTHY GEITHNER
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/events/2010/1006_global_recovery/20100610_geithner.pdf
ObamaCare in Court - A Florida judge allows the major state lawsuit to proceed to trial
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552490899677152.html
The U.S.-European Relationship: Global Challenges and International Economic Architecture
http://www.state.gov/e/rls/rmk/2010/149421.htm
Liberalism and Public Works - Entitlement politics leaves little money for roads and tunnels
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548382097688038.html
Re: The Geopolitics of Emotion
http://themoornextdoor.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/re-the-geopolitics-of-emotion/
Stop Bashing Business, Mr. President - If we tried to start The Home Depot today, it's a stone cold certainty that it would never have gotten off the ground
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552080488297188.html
US Pledges Additional $1 Million to Help Displaced Afghans in Pakistan and Their Host Communities
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/10/149481.htm
Republicans appear poised for major gains in the Midwest, a region dominated by the president in 2008
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575547922554350844.html
Press Briefing
Oct 15, 2010
Organizing for America: See the Progress in Your Community
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/joshcohen/gGMzkf
China’s Auto Boom and Oil Strategy
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/14/chinas-auto-boom-and-oil-strategy/
Democrats: Moving America Forward
http://progress.democrats.org/
Side Effects: How Government Micromanagement Could Discourage Access to Some Preventive Services
http://fixhealthcarepolicy.com/research/side-effects-how-government-micromanagement-could-discourage-access-to-some-preventive-services
Organizing for America: See the Progress in Your Community
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/joshcohen/gGMzkf
China’s Auto Boom and Oil Strategy
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/14/chinas-auto-boom-and-oil-strategy/
Democrats: Moving America Forward
http://progress.democrats.org/
Side Effects: How Government Micromanagement Could Discourage Access to Some Preventive Services
http://fixhealthcarepolicy.com/research/side-effects-how-government-micromanagement-could-discourage-access-to-some-preventive-services
Press Briefing
Oct 14, 2010
Culture Evolves Slowly, Falls Apart Quickly
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/evolution-of-culture/
White House - What Health Reform Means for African Americans
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/13/what-health-reform-means-african-americans
The Peace Prize's Subversive Potential - The Soviet Union faced pressure after Andrei Sakharov won the Nobel in 1975. Now it's China's turn.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548443161394272.html
Sec Clinton: Townterview with Students, Women Leaders, and Members of Civil Society
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/10/149411.htm
Education Reform Setback - Washington, D.C. shows its maverick schools chancellor the door
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673604575550113203121580.html
Under Secretary Maria Otero Highlights New Partnership on Safe Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Education for Schools in Developing Countries
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/10/149413.htm
The Election Gong Show - Federal President fails to speak up against antitrade, anti-China campaigning.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548082194712758.html
White House - What You Missed: Tuesday Talk with Elizabeth Warren
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/13/what-you-missed-tuesday-talk-with-elizabeth-warren
How to Reform ObamaCare Starting Now - States should steer the mandated health-insurance exchanges in a pro-market direction and dare Washington to stop them
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575521770685906984.html
Press Roundtable at U.S. Embassy in Cairo
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/rm/2010/149382.htm
The president says secret foreign money might steal the election. He's not even fooling the New York Times
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673604575550180126192598.html
Transatlantic Missile Defense: Looking to the NATO Lisbon Summit
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149360.htm
Susan Dunn has written an engaging story of bare - knuck led political treachery that pits a president at the peak of his popularity against entrenched congressional leaders who didn't like where he was taking the country and their party. FDR tried to use the power of the White House, and his personality, to run his opponents out of the Democratic Party. He failed miserably.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532371905049074.html
Culture Evolves Slowly, Falls Apart Quickly
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/evolution-of-culture/
White House - What Health Reform Means for African Americans
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/13/what-health-reform-means-african-americans
The Peace Prize's Subversive Potential - The Soviet Union faced pressure after Andrei Sakharov won the Nobel in 1975. Now it's China's turn.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548443161394272.html
Sec Clinton: Townterview with Students, Women Leaders, and Members of Civil Society
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/10/149411.htm
Education Reform Setback - Washington, D.C. shows its maverick schools chancellor the door
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673604575550113203121580.html
Under Secretary Maria Otero Highlights New Partnership on Safe Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Education for Schools in Developing Countries
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/10/149413.htm
The Election Gong Show - Federal President fails to speak up against antitrade, anti-China campaigning.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548082194712758.html
White House - What You Missed: Tuesday Talk with Elizabeth Warren
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/13/what-you-missed-tuesday-talk-with-elizabeth-warren
How to Reform ObamaCare Starting Now - States should steer the mandated health-insurance exchanges in a pro-market direction and dare Washington to stop them
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575521770685906984.html
Press Roundtable at U.S. Embassy in Cairo
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/rm/2010/149382.htm
The president says secret foreign money might steal the election. He's not even fooling the New York Times
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673604575550180126192598.html
Transatlantic Missile Defense: Looking to the NATO Lisbon Summit
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149360.htm
Susan Dunn has written an engaging story of bare - knuck led political treachery that pits a president at the peak of his popularity against entrenched congressional leaders who didn't like where he was taking the country and their party. FDR tried to use the power of the White House, and his personality, to run his opponents out of the Democratic Party. He failed miserably.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532371905049074.html
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Press Briefing
Oct 13, 2010
Abducted and Tortured for Reporting the News — 'This is the consequence of writing against the government,' my captors said
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703794104575545914180906100.html
A new CNN poll shows that people are becoming more nostalgic for the Bush years
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548130895975438.html
Under Secretary Brainard Remarks at the Institute of International Bankers' Regulatory Dialogue with Government Officials
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg903.htm
How to avoid another Alan Hevesi: turn defined benefit retirement plans into 401(k)-style defined contribution plans
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575540292781704692.html
Four Governors on How to Cut Spending - How they are coping and how they plan to save money in the future
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520221102889934.html
Liberating the Gulf - But a drilling ban persists by other means
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548454110320976.html
Organizing for America's John Pyrch: Step 2
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/johnpyrch/gGMz2N
A Growth Agenda for America - An economy grows through increased production, which is financed by capital or savings. Congress can encourage this process with the right tax reform.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548172409030684.html
Final paper on supervisory colleges issued by the Basel Committee
http://www.bis.org/press/p101012.htm
Political Target Practice - A case study in what Democrats really mean by campaign 'disclosure' http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538402294440806.html
Vote 2010 Update with Michelle Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVF6c01fqys
The 2010 Spending Record - In two years, a 21.4% increase
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703358504575544351734226956.html
Secretary Clinton Travel Diary: Sec Clinton Dedicates New Embassy Compound and Robert C. Frasure Street
http://bit.ly/96Ioh0
Obama and the Politics of Outsourcing - For every job outsourced to Bangalore, nearly two jobs are created in Buffalo or other American cities
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575537983245805688.html
Activists Have Nothing to Say to Grand Jury | By Elizabeth DiNovella
http://t.co/pRZuEVh
Europe the Intolerant - The continent's progressive image is a fabrication of the American liberal mind
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575537950006608746.html
President Obama: Attend a Vote 2010 House Party
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws-l38SSqg8
Obamacare vs. the Rule of Law
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/07/obamacare-vs-the-rule-of-law
David Plouffe Obama Campaign Update: October 12, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD_Ck5g1pmE
Hope and Change - The politics of uplift and inspiration, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703794104575546470217381134.html
U.S. Positions at the Annual Meeting of the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149293.htm
Boehner's 'Plan B' for ObamaCare - Hearings can be used to sell market-friendly fixes
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703794104575546230578804328.html
Are Humans Genetically Disposed to Be Statists?
http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/are-humans-genetically-disposed-to-be-statists
Pakistan Is Not America's Enemy - A sustained U.S.-Pakistani partnership after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan could have produced a very different history than the one we wrestle with today
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703358504575544092642205742.html
If You Cant Beat Them, Silence Them
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/11/morning-bell-if-you-cant-beat-them-silence-them
Abducted and Tortured for Reporting the News — 'This is the consequence of writing against the government,' my captors said
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703794104575545914180906100.html
A new CNN poll shows that people are becoming more nostalgic for the Bush years
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548130895975438.html
Under Secretary Brainard Remarks at the Institute of International Bankers' Regulatory Dialogue with Government Officials
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg903.htm
How to avoid another Alan Hevesi: turn defined benefit retirement plans into 401(k)-style defined contribution plans
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575540292781704692.html
Four Governors on How to Cut Spending - How they are coping and how they plan to save money in the future
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520221102889934.html
Liberating the Gulf - But a drilling ban persists by other means
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548454110320976.html
Organizing for America's John Pyrch: Step 2
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/johnpyrch/gGMz2N
A Growth Agenda for America - An economy grows through increased production, which is financed by capital or savings. Congress can encourage this process with the right tax reform.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548172409030684.html
Final paper on supervisory colleges issued by the Basel Committee
http://www.bis.org/press/p101012.htm
Political Target Practice - A case study in what Democrats really mean by campaign 'disclosure' http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538402294440806.html
Vote 2010 Update with Michelle Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVF6c01fqys
The 2010 Spending Record - In two years, a 21.4% increase
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703358504575544351734226956.html
Secretary Clinton Travel Diary: Sec Clinton Dedicates New Embassy Compound and Robert C. Frasure Street
http://bit.ly/96Ioh0
Obama and the Politics of Outsourcing - For every job outsourced to Bangalore, nearly two jobs are created in Buffalo or other American cities
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575537983245805688.html
Activists Have Nothing to Say to Grand Jury | By Elizabeth DiNovella
http://t.co/pRZuEVh
Europe the Intolerant - The continent's progressive image is a fabrication of the American liberal mind
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575537950006608746.html
President Obama: Attend a Vote 2010 House Party
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws-l38SSqg8
Obamacare vs. the Rule of Law
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/07/obamacare-vs-the-rule-of-law
David Plouffe Obama Campaign Update: October 12, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD_Ck5g1pmE
Hope and Change - The politics of uplift and inspiration, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703794104575546470217381134.html
U.S. Positions at the Annual Meeting of the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149293.htm
Boehner's 'Plan B' for ObamaCare - Hearings can be used to sell market-friendly fixes
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703794104575546230578804328.html
Are Humans Genetically Disposed to Be Statists?
http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/are-humans-genetically-disposed-to-be-statists
Pakistan Is Not America's Enemy - A sustained U.S.-Pakistani partnership after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan could have produced a very different history than the one we wrestle with today
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703358504575544092642205742.html
If You Cant Beat Them, Silence Them
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/11/morning-bell-if-you-cant-beat-them-silence-them
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Press Briefing
Oct 11, 2010
White House blog post on the struggles of LGBT youth
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/09/it-gets-better
The Fed Compounds Its Mistakes - Talk of increasing inflation to reduce unemployment is dangerous and unnecessary
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538532260290528.html
USAID Assistance in Pakistan
http://blogs.state.gov/ap/index.php/site/entry/usaid_assistance_in_pakistan
Shootout at the EPA Corral - Texas takes aim at the White House's illegal carbon rules
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538834180153298.html
The Economics of Drug Violence - Competition in the narcotics trade is preferable to monopolistic syndicates
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575540502615107046.html
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: In Holland, Free Speech on Trial
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575539872944767984.html
Remarks at Afghanistan Minerals Roadshow
http://www.state.gov/e/rls/rmk/2010/149240.htm
Shutting Up Business - Democrats unleash the IRS and Justice on donors to their political opponents
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536370151720874.html
Enduring Leadership: Marshall's Legacy For American Public Diplomacy in the 21st Century
http://www.state.gov/r/remarks/2010/149208.htm
MIRACLE: California’s Air Becomes 340% Cleaner Overnight
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/08/miracle-california%E2%80%99s-air-becomes-340-cleaner-overnight/
Geithner in Sunday's Washington Post: ‘Five Myths about Tarp’
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg900.htm
Afghanistan must embrace women's rights
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/08/AR2010100806343.html
Remarks to the International Youth Foundation's 20th Anniversary Reception
http://www.state.gov/g/149203.htm
A Nobel Vision of a Better China - With Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, China's pro-democracy movement may finally have found its leader
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575539513894444800.html
Technology = Salvation - An early investor in Facebook on the subprime crisis and why American ingenuity has hit a dead end
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575537882643165738.html
The Politics of Foreclosure - Washington's latest obstacle to a housing market recovery
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538440995389092.html
White House blog post on the struggles of LGBT youth
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/09/it-gets-better
The Fed Compounds Its Mistakes - Talk of increasing inflation to reduce unemployment is dangerous and unnecessary
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538532260290528.html
USAID Assistance in Pakistan
http://blogs.state.gov/ap/index.php/site/entry/usaid_assistance_in_pakistan
Shootout at the EPA Corral - Texas takes aim at the White House's illegal carbon rules
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538834180153298.html
The Economics of Drug Violence - Competition in the narcotics trade is preferable to monopolistic syndicates
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575540502615107046.html
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: In Holland, Free Speech on Trial
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575539872944767984.html
Remarks at Afghanistan Minerals Roadshow
http://www.state.gov/e/rls/rmk/2010/149240.htm
Shutting Up Business - Democrats unleash the IRS and Justice on donors to their political opponents
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536370151720874.html
Enduring Leadership: Marshall's Legacy For American Public Diplomacy in the 21st Century
http://www.state.gov/r/remarks/2010/149208.htm
MIRACLE: California’s Air Becomes 340% Cleaner Overnight
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/08/miracle-california%E2%80%99s-air-becomes-340-cleaner-overnight/
Geithner in Sunday's Washington Post: ‘Five Myths about Tarp’
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg900.htm
Afghanistan must embrace women's rights
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/08/AR2010100806343.html
Remarks to the International Youth Foundation's 20th Anniversary Reception
http://www.state.gov/g/149203.htm
A Nobel Vision of a Better China - With Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, China's pro-democracy movement may finally have found its leader
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575539513894444800.html
Technology = Salvation - An early investor in Facebook on the subprime crisis and why American ingenuity has hit a dead end
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575537882643165738.html
The Politics of Foreclosure - Washington's latest obstacle to a housing market recovery
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538440995389092.html
Friday, October 8, 2010
Press Briefing
Oct 08, 2010
The Employment Situation in September
http://goo.gl/fb/RwtVK
Tibetans Find Freedom in Exile - Since the Dalai Lama's expulsion in 1959, India has become home to at least 120,000
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703843804575534372072487894.html
New Patterns of Investment in the Global Economy: Implications for U.S. Leadership
http://www.state.gov/e/rls/rmk/2010/149187.htm
The U.S. Will Lose a China Trade War - Washington can't afford a weak-dollar policy. The only thing standing between the U.S. and a Greek-style sovereign debt crisis is the dollar's status as the global currency.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703843804575534423508502744.html
Update: U.S. Response to Pakistan's Flooding Disaster
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/10/149190.htm
Missed Trade Opportunity - The European Union capitalizes on U.S. protectionism -- South Korea Free Trade Agreement
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536972846474404.html
Community of Democracies Informal Ministerial Meeting
http://www.state.gov/g/149154.htm
The 'Limited Inflationists' - Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his QE Street Band
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575535791390597042.html
Remarks at the Trygve Lie Symposium on Business and Human Rights
http://www.state.gov/g/149150.htm
Murdoch: Unless we measure success by how children perform, we'll have higher standards for pop stars than public schools
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538080168519658.html
How to Contain Radical Islam: Lessons from South Asia
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/search-for-publications/browse-alphabetic-list-of-titles/?class_call=view&pub_ID=3565&mode=view
How a Bagram Detainee Foiled the Euro Terror Plot - The plan was disrupted because we were lucky enough to have the key witness in detention. It's a shame we didn't try to extract similar intelligence from Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536502486233766.html
Using Functional Populations to Create More Realistic Simulations
http://www.idga.org/article.cfm?externalid=3294
Revolt of the Accountants - Washington is turning America into Paperwork Nation
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538502008810226.html
Remarks for Launch of Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health
http://www.state.gov/g/149152.htm
Obama's Energy-Policy Goals Versus China's
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/07/obama%e2%80%99s-energy-policy-goals-versus-china%e2%80%99s/
China's Ambitions in the South China Sea
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/apb071.pdf
Side Effects: Obamacare Compels More Employers to Dump Coverage
http://fixhealthcarepolicy.com/in-the-news/side-effects-obamacare-compels-more-employers-to-dump-coverage
The Protectionist Instinct - Political support for free trade is a remarkable achievement of civic education—one threatened by our weak economy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531720311339894.html
Will Growing Government Debt Undermine the American Dream? The Implications of Mounting Federal Debt and Spending for the Debt-Paying Generation
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/09/Will-Growing-Government-Debt-Undermine-the-American-Dream
The Employment Situation in September
http://goo.gl/fb/RwtVK
Tibetans Find Freedom in Exile - Since the Dalai Lama's expulsion in 1959, India has become home to at least 120,000
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703843804575534372072487894.html
New Patterns of Investment in the Global Economy: Implications for U.S. Leadership
http://www.state.gov/e/rls/rmk/2010/149187.htm
The U.S. Will Lose a China Trade War - Washington can't afford a weak-dollar policy. The only thing standing between the U.S. and a Greek-style sovereign debt crisis is the dollar's status as the global currency.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703843804575534423508502744.html
Update: U.S. Response to Pakistan's Flooding Disaster
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/10/149190.htm
Missed Trade Opportunity - The European Union capitalizes on U.S. protectionism -- South Korea Free Trade Agreement
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536972846474404.html
Community of Democracies Informal Ministerial Meeting
http://www.state.gov/g/149154.htm
The 'Limited Inflationists' - Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his QE Street Band
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575535791390597042.html
Remarks at the Trygve Lie Symposium on Business and Human Rights
http://www.state.gov/g/149150.htm
Murdoch: Unless we measure success by how children perform, we'll have higher standards for pop stars than public schools
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538080168519658.html
How to Contain Radical Islam: Lessons from South Asia
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/search-for-publications/browse-alphabetic-list-of-titles/?class_call=view&pub_ID=3565&mode=view
How a Bagram Detainee Foiled the Euro Terror Plot - The plan was disrupted because we were lucky enough to have the key witness in detention. It's a shame we didn't try to extract similar intelligence from Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536502486233766.html
Using Functional Populations to Create More Realistic Simulations
http://www.idga.org/article.cfm?externalid=3294
Revolt of the Accountants - Washington is turning America into Paperwork Nation
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538502008810226.html
Remarks for Launch of Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health
http://www.state.gov/g/149152.htm
Obama's Energy-Policy Goals Versus China's
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/07/obama%e2%80%99s-energy-policy-goals-versus-china%e2%80%99s/
China's Ambitions in the South China Sea
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/apb071.pdf
Side Effects: Obamacare Compels More Employers to Dump Coverage
http://fixhealthcarepolicy.com/in-the-news/side-effects-obamacare-compels-more-employers-to-dump-coverage
The Protectionist Instinct - Political support for free trade is a remarkable achievement of civic education—one threatened by our weak economy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531720311339894.html
Will Growing Government Debt Undermine the American Dream? The Implications of Mounting Federal Debt and Spending for the Debt-Paying Generation
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/09/Will-Growing-Government-Debt-Undermine-the-American-Dream
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Press Briefing
Oct 07, 2010
The Obama Administration's Support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/10/149074.htm
Geithner's 'Cooperation' - Dollar devaluation is not economic leadership
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536453177817206.html
Secretary of Treasury Timothy F. Geithner Remarks at the Brookings Institution
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg894.htm
Toward a New American Century - Immigration reform, investments in human capital, and a saner housing policy can help restore U.S. economic leadership
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531894174441102.html
Fighting Back Against Arbitrary Government Rule
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/06/morning-bell-fighting-back-against-arbitrary-government-rule
ObamaCare and the Election - The GOP needs to raise the health-care stakes in 2010, and beyond
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703843804575534072299141554.html
The Obama Administration's Support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/10/149074.htm
Geithner's 'Cooperation' - Dollar devaluation is not economic leadership
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536453177817206.html
Secretary of Treasury Timothy F. Geithner Remarks at the Brookings Institution
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg894.htm
Toward a New American Century - Immigration reform, investments in human capital, and a saner housing policy can help restore U.S. economic leadership
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531894174441102.html
Fighting Back Against Arbitrary Government Rule
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/06/morning-bell-fighting-back-against-arbitrary-government-rule
ObamaCare and the Election - The GOP needs to raise the health-care stakes in 2010, and beyond
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703843804575534072299141554.html
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Press Briefing
Oct 06, 2010
The Coming Golden Age of Television - TV networks and video programming are among the only traditional media to grow since the advent of the Internet
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704380504575530461209634820.html
The Demilitarization of Europe - Our NATO allies aren't spending enough to be credible security partners anymore
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531722614613144.html
Of Scoundrels and Speech - The First Amendment protects even jerks
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532221786782014.html
Undiplomatic Hold-Ups - Boxer and Brownback vs. U.S. interests
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575521831759579778.html
UNHCR Roundtable on Asylum-Seekers and Refugees Seeking Protection on Account of Their Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
http://www.state.gov/g/prm/rls/rmks/2010/149000.htm
Pax Americana and the New Iraq - Iraq's Shiites, especially, have a healthy fear of Iran and a desire to keep Persian power at bay
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703843804575534131136793708.html
Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets Mary J. Miller Remarks before the Future Industry Association Treasury and Rates Conference
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg890.htm
The Soul of the Spending Machine - Republicans need new rules to aid their policy priorities
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532410134909310.html
61st Session of the UNHCR Executive Committee - U.S. Government Plenary Statement
http://www.state.gov/g/prm/rls/rmks/2010/148629.htm
Why praise violent, misogynistic hip-hop stars?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575526401852413266.html
Remarks by Delegation of the United States of America to the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149010.htm
The Private Sector Can Improve Infrastructure with Privatization not a Bank
http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2010/0929_infrastructure_privatization_winston.aspx
Serendipitous Connections - Innovation occurs when ideas from different people bang against each other
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531790397679612.html
How Handwriting Trains the Brain - Forming Letters Is Key to Learning, Memory, Ideas
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531932754922518.html
The Coming Golden Age of Television - TV networks and video programming are among the only traditional media to grow since the advent of the Internet
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704380504575530461209634820.html
The Demilitarization of Europe - Our NATO allies aren't spending enough to be credible security partners anymore
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531722614613144.html
Of Scoundrels and Speech - The First Amendment protects even jerks
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532221786782014.html
Undiplomatic Hold-Ups - Boxer and Brownback vs. U.S. interests
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575521831759579778.html
UNHCR Roundtable on Asylum-Seekers and Refugees Seeking Protection on Account of Their Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
http://www.state.gov/g/prm/rls/rmks/2010/149000.htm
Pax Americana and the New Iraq - Iraq's Shiites, especially, have a healthy fear of Iran and a desire to keep Persian power at bay
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703843804575534131136793708.html
Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets Mary J. Miller Remarks before the Future Industry Association Treasury and Rates Conference
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg890.htm
The Soul of the Spending Machine - Republicans need new rules to aid their policy priorities
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532410134909310.html
61st Session of the UNHCR Executive Committee - U.S. Government Plenary Statement
http://www.state.gov/g/prm/rls/rmks/2010/148629.htm
Why praise violent, misogynistic hip-hop stars?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575526401852413266.html
Remarks by Delegation of the United States of America to the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149010.htm
The Private Sector Can Improve Infrastructure with Privatization not a Bank
http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2010/0929_infrastructure_privatization_winston.aspx
Serendipitous Connections - Innovation occurs when ideas from different people bang against each other
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531790397679612.html
How Handwriting Trains the Brain - Forming Letters Is Key to Learning, Memory, Ideas
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531932754922518.html
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Press Briefing
Oct 05, 2010
Readers Write: Healthy Children Need Healthy Parents
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entries/readers_write_health/
Jennifer Rubin on how California's optimism has been replaced by cynicism and regulation
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532410472662810.html
Truth in the Time of Putinism - Kremlin critics fear assassination and kangaroo courts
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575526041067013892.html
Obama Tactics Rebound on Rahm - Rahm runs into a Chicago roadblock
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532120616441014.html
President Obama Meets with Economic Recovery Advisory Board
http://goo.gl/fb/rsIUB
Hating 'Superman' - Teachers unions are on the moral defensive
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520160925291820.html
White House Women's Entrepreneurship Conference: Closing Session
http://goo.gl/fb/cXaDQ
Manchin vs. Obama(Care) - A West Virginia Democrat tries to get elected
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520360188448950.html
White House Press Briefing
http://goo.gl/fb/UIQES
The 'Pay for Delay' Rap - The drug industry, the FTC and overzealous antitrust
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703447004575449511811622220.html
President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board Meeting
http://goo.gl/fb/GTWOw
Speak Up on D.C. Schools, Mr. President - The president remains silent about the fate of Michelle Rhee, the successful chancellor of public schools in the nation's capital
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532293014870442.html
White House Women's Entrepreneurship Conference: Opening Session
http://goo.gl/fb/3JktB
The Bill Gates Income Tax - If Washington's most famous billionaires are really worried about their state's finances, they'd write personal checks to the government and leave everyone else alone
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520241519315372.html
New START: Security Through 21st-Century Verification
http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2010_09/Gottemoeller
The Red Dragon’s Carbon Footprint
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/04/the-red-dragons-carbon-footprint/
Readers Write: Healthy Children Need Healthy Parents
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entries/readers_write_health/
Jennifer Rubin on how California's optimism has been replaced by cynicism and regulation
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532410472662810.html
Truth in the Time of Putinism - Kremlin critics fear assassination and kangaroo courts
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575526041067013892.html
Obama Tactics Rebound on Rahm - Rahm runs into a Chicago roadblock
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532120616441014.html
President Obama Meets with Economic Recovery Advisory Board
http://goo.gl/fb/rsIUB
Hating 'Superman' - Teachers unions are on the moral defensive
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520160925291820.html
White House Women's Entrepreneurship Conference: Closing Session
http://goo.gl/fb/cXaDQ
Manchin vs. Obama(Care) - A West Virginia Democrat tries to get elected
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520360188448950.html
White House Press Briefing
http://goo.gl/fb/UIQES
The 'Pay for Delay' Rap - The drug industry, the FTC and overzealous antitrust
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703447004575449511811622220.html
President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board Meeting
http://goo.gl/fb/GTWOw
Speak Up on D.C. Schools, Mr. President - The president remains silent about the fate of Michelle Rhee, the successful chancellor of public schools in the nation's capital
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532293014870442.html
White House Women's Entrepreneurship Conference: Opening Session
http://goo.gl/fb/3JktB
The Bill Gates Income Tax - If Washington's most famous billionaires are really worried about their state's finances, they'd write personal checks to the government and leave everyone else alone
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520241519315372.html
New START: Security Through 21st-Century Verification
http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2010_09/Gottemoeller
The Red Dragon’s Carbon Footprint
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/04/the-red-dragons-carbon-footprint/
Monday, October 4, 2010
Press Briefing
Oct 03, 2010
Will Obama's foreign policy follow his new democracy rhetoric?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/03/AR2010100303382.html
From Wikinomics to the Tea Party - Government is the institution most obviously frozen in the pre-Web era
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575525940019780582.html
The case for ambulance service fees
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/03/AR2010100303622.html
Adam Smith - A mind that ranged over politics, law and ethics—and produced the definitive defense of free markets
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575518151286879946.html
Right call on the Black Panthers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/03/AR2010100303620.html
Target: Ireland - Europe tries to beat the Republic into tax submission
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703465504575528013807144380.html
White House - Building Skills for America’s Future
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/04/building-skills-america-s-future
Leahy's Supreme Tie-Breakers - A plan for liberal Justices to come out of retirement
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575524023517652614.html
Helping More Women-Owned Small Businesses Compete for Federal Contracts
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/04/helping-more-women-owned-small-businesses-compete-federal-contracts
'Essential' Bailouts - Under Dodd-Frank, some creditors are more equal than others
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575524232993529218.html
National Cyber Security Awareness Month Kicks Off
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/01/national-cyber-security-awareness-month-kicks
The Lap Dog Coalition - Blue Dog Democrats voted with Nancy Pelosi 80% of the time on economic issues
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575526061943295810.html
Statement by the President on the Occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Reunification of East and West Germany
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/02/statement-president-occasion-20th-anniversary-reunification-east-and-wes
Historian Victor Davis Hanson writes that the American university is the most politically intolerant and monolithic institution in the country
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575526090709113292.html
The White House Women’s Entrepreneurship Conference
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/01/white-house-women-s-entrepreneurship-conference
The Trade and Tax Doomsday Clocks
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575521822940983434.html
U.S. Stabilization Capabilities: Lessons Learned From Kyrgyzstan
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/stabilization_kyrgyzstan
Peace Doesn't Keep Itself - Defense spending has increased at a much lower rate than domestic spending in recent years and is not the cause of soaring deficits
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575524763315951380.html
Enough With the Low Interest Rates! - Fed policy punishes savers without making credit more readily available
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575517940057210022.html
The Obama Experts vs. the Rule of Law
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/04/morning-bell-the-obama-experts-vs-the-rule-of-law
George Washington was a genius and a titan, but it was politics, not war, at which he excelled
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520061512222160.html
Alien Tort Victory - Business can't be held liable for overseas human rights abuses
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989304575503703623437096.html
IMF: Shaping the New Financial System
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/spn/2010/spn1015.pdf
Press release: http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10376.htm
School Reform Rainmakers - John Walton had the right idea for education donors
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522302370477856.html
Weekly Address: Solar Power & a Clean Energy Economy
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/02/weekly-address-solar-power-a-clean-energy-economy
China's Aggressive New Diplomacy - Beijing drives its neighbors into the arms of the U.S.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575523710432896610.html
Will Obama's foreign policy follow his new democracy rhetoric?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/03/AR2010100303382.html
From Wikinomics to the Tea Party - Government is the institution most obviously frozen in the pre-Web era
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575525940019780582.html
The case for ambulance service fees
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/03/AR2010100303622.html
Adam Smith - A mind that ranged over politics, law and ethics—and produced the definitive defense of free markets
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575518151286879946.html
Right call on the Black Panthers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/03/AR2010100303620.html
Target: Ireland - Europe tries to beat the Republic into tax submission
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703465504575528013807144380.html
White House - Building Skills for America’s Future
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/04/building-skills-america-s-future
Leahy's Supreme Tie-Breakers - A plan for liberal Justices to come out of retirement
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575524023517652614.html
Helping More Women-Owned Small Businesses Compete for Federal Contracts
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/04/helping-more-women-owned-small-businesses-compete-federal-contracts
'Essential' Bailouts - Under Dodd-Frank, some creditors are more equal than others
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575524232993529218.html
National Cyber Security Awareness Month Kicks Off
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/01/national-cyber-security-awareness-month-kicks
The Lap Dog Coalition - Blue Dog Democrats voted with Nancy Pelosi 80% of the time on economic issues
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575526061943295810.html
Statement by the President on the Occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Reunification of East and West Germany
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/02/statement-president-occasion-20th-anniversary-reunification-east-and-wes
Historian Victor Davis Hanson writes that the American university is the most politically intolerant and monolithic institution in the country
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575526090709113292.html
The White House Women’s Entrepreneurship Conference
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/01/white-house-women-s-entrepreneurship-conference
The Trade and Tax Doomsday Clocks
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575521822940983434.html
U.S. Stabilization Capabilities: Lessons Learned From Kyrgyzstan
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/stabilization_kyrgyzstan
Peace Doesn't Keep Itself - Defense spending has increased at a much lower rate than domestic spending in recent years and is not the cause of soaring deficits
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575524763315951380.html
Enough With the Low Interest Rates! - Fed policy punishes savers without making credit more readily available
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575517940057210022.html
The Obama Experts vs. the Rule of Law
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/04/morning-bell-the-obama-experts-vs-the-rule-of-law
George Washington was a genius and a titan, but it was politics, not war, at which he excelled
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520061512222160.html
Alien Tort Victory - Business can't be held liable for overseas human rights abuses
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989304575503703623437096.html
IMF: Shaping the New Financial System
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/spn/2010/spn1015.pdf
Press release: http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10376.htm
School Reform Rainmakers - John Walton had the right idea for education donors
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522302370477856.html
Weekly Address: Solar Power & a Clean Energy Economy
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/02/weekly-address-solar-power-a-clean-energy-economy
China's Aggressive New Diplomacy - Beijing drives its neighbors into the arms of the U.S.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575523710432896610.html
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Press Briefing
Oct 02, 2010
Implementing the National Space Policy: Opportunities and Challenges
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/147461.htm
San Franciscans Try to Take Back Their Streets - Even the liberal mayor is backing an initiative that would make public spaces safe again from the homeless industry and young thuggish vagrants
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522461338661360.html
New Executive Order Targeting Iranian Officials Responsible for or Complicit in Serious Human Rights Abuses
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/09/148345.htm
'Things Could Get Pretty Messy' - The man who would be the next House majority leader talks about the GOP agenda and working with Obama
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575524114269305180.html
White House: A Living-Room Discussion with Middle Class Families
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/28/a-living-room-discussion-with-middle-class-families
MSCs a viable alternative?
http://www.marsecreview.com/?p=376
Rebuilding Together: Europe and the United States after the Global Financial Crisis
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg875.htm
Healthamburglar - McDonald's meets ObamaCare
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575523980464573518.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Comparative counterinsurgency in Yemen
http://www.gloria-center.org/meria/2010/09/novak.html
Our Afghanistan mission diverts us from meeting China’s naval challenge
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-222855-109-our-afghanistan-mission-diverts-us-from-meeting-chinas-naval-challenge.html
White House White Board: CEA Chair Austan Goolsbee Explains the Tax Cut Fight
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/29/white-house-white-board-cea-chair-austan-goolsbee-explains-tax-cut-fight
The 'Spillover' Fallacy: Islamic Militants in Central Asia
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/6558/the-spillover-fallacy-islamic-militants-in-central-asia
Scientists conclude current guidelines on BPA are safe
http://www.webmd.boots.com/news/20101001/scientists-conclude-current-guidelines-on-bpa-are-safe
Critical questions regarding the role of foreign fighters in Shabaab
http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2010/09/critical_questions_regarding_t.php
Implementing the National Space Policy: Opportunities and Challenges
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/147461.htm
San Franciscans Try to Take Back Their Streets - Even the liberal mayor is backing an initiative that would make public spaces safe again from the homeless industry and young thuggish vagrants
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522461338661360.html
New Executive Order Targeting Iranian Officials Responsible for or Complicit in Serious Human Rights Abuses
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/09/148345.htm
'Things Could Get Pretty Messy' - The man who would be the next House majority leader talks about the GOP agenda and working with Obama
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575524114269305180.html
White House: A Living-Room Discussion with Middle Class Families
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/28/a-living-room-discussion-with-middle-class-families
MSCs a viable alternative?
http://www.marsecreview.com/?p=376
Rebuilding Together: Europe and the United States after the Global Financial Crisis
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg875.htm
Healthamburglar - McDonald's meets ObamaCare
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575523980464573518.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Comparative counterinsurgency in Yemen
http://www.gloria-center.org/meria/2010/09/novak.html
Our Afghanistan mission diverts us from meeting China’s naval challenge
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-222855-109-our-afghanistan-mission-diverts-us-from-meeting-chinas-naval-challenge.html
White House White Board: CEA Chair Austan Goolsbee Explains the Tax Cut Fight
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/29/white-house-white-board-cea-chair-austan-goolsbee-explains-tax-cut-fight
The 'Spillover' Fallacy: Islamic Militants in Central Asia
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/6558/the-spillover-fallacy-islamic-militants-in-central-asia
Scientists conclude current guidelines on BPA are safe
http://www.webmd.boots.com/news/20101001/scientists-conclude-current-guidelines-on-bpa-are-safe
Critical questions regarding the role of foreign fighters in Shabaab
http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2010/09/critical_questions_regarding_t.php
Friday, October 1, 2010
Press Briefing
Oct 01, 2010
Warren op-ed: It's Time To Simplify Financial Regulation - Can customers easily understand the product? Regulators should be focused on that questionhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522062731420330.html
Black Churches and the Prosperity Gospel - Depending on miracles as a financial strategy is a dangerous way to live
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522202425314706.html
Companies Reducing Energy-related Business with Iran
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/09/148458.htm
Former Bush White House staffer Peter Wehner on ObamaCare and the New Republic's Jonathan Chait
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575518313840463750.html
Two Cheers for the New Bank Capital Standards - Why do we still rely on the rating agencies, and why are we still allowing Lehman Brothers levels of leverage?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704523604575511813933977160.html
Remarks at Vital Voices of Asia Women's Summit
http://www.state.gov/s/gwi/rls/rem/2010/148457.htm
Beggar the World - Monetary instability is a threat to the global recovery
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575523822949744704.html
Russ Feingold: ‘The Conscience of the Senate and Wisconsin’s Strongest Advocate’
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/ericasagrans/gGMzhV
Echoes of the Great Depression. By Phil Gramm
As in the 1930s, policy uncertainty and hostility to business have retarded recovery. At least this time around the political price for economic failure promises to be swift.
WSJ, Oct 01, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522351201224286.html
[Excerpts:]
This may not be your grandfather's Great Depression, but many aspects of today's situation would remind him of the 1930s. If the recession that officially ended a year ago feels uncomfortably surreal to you yet familiar to him, it's probably because the recovery went missing.
During the average recovery since World War II, gross domestic product (GDP) surpassed the pre-recession high five quarters after the recession began. It has never taken longer than seven quarters. Yet today, after 11 quarters, GDP is still below what it was in the fourth quarter of 2007. The economy is growing at only about a third of the rate of previous postwar recoveries from major recessions.
Obama administration officials such as Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have argued that without their policies the economy would be worse, and we might have fallen "off a cliff." While this assertion cannot be tested, we can compare the recent experience of other countries to our own.
[Change in total employment, 2007 compared to Q2-2010 http://sg.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AM322_gramm_NS_20100930175224.gif]
The chart nearby compares total 2007 employment levels in the United States, the United Kingdom, the 16 euro zone countries, the G-7 countries and all OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries with those of the second quarter of 2010. There are 4.6% fewer people employed in the U.S. today than at the start of the recession. Euro zone countries have lost 1.7% of their jobs. Total employment in the U.K. is down 0.6%, G-7 average employment is down 2.4%, and OECD employment has fallen 1.9%.
This simple comparison suggests two things. First, that American economic policy has been less effective in increasing employment than the policies of other developed nations. Second, that if there was a cliff out there, no country fell off. Those that suffered the most were the most profligate, such as Greece, and their problems can't be blamed on the financial crisis. While the most recent quarterly growth figures are just a snapshot in time, it is hardly encouraging that economic growth in the U.S. (1.7%) is lower than in the euro zone (4%), U.K. (4.8%), G-7 (2.8%) and OECD (2%).
Most striking about these comparisons is their similarity to the U.S. experience in the Great Depression. Using data from the League of Nations' World Economic Survey, we can look at unemployment in developed nations between 1929 and the end of 1938. Ten years after the stock market crash, total employment in the U.S. was still almost 20% below the pre-Depression level. The decline in France was similar. But in the U.K. and Italy, total employment was up 10% and 12%, respectively. Industrial production on average in the six most developed countries was almost 16% above their 1929 levels by the end of 1938, but industrial production had declined by 20% in the U.S.
Today's lagging growth and persistent high unemployment are reminiscent of the 1930s, perhaps because in no other period of American history has our government followed policies as similar to those of the Great Depression era. Federal debt by the end of 1938 was almost 150% above the 1929 level. Federal spending grew by 77% from 1932 to 1934 as the New Deal was implemented—unprecedented for peacetime.
Still the economy did not take off. Winston Churchill gave a contemporary evaluation of the Roosevelt policy by observing, in the April 24, 1935, Daily Mail, "Nearly two thousand millions Sterling have been poured out to prime the pump of prosperity; but prosperity has not begun to flow."
The top individual income tax rate rose from 24% to 63% to 79% during the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations. Corporate rates were increased to 15% from 11%, and when private businesses did not invest, Congress imposed a 27% undistributed profits tax.
In 1929, the U.S. government collected $1.1 billion in total income taxes; by 1935 collections had fallen to $527 million. In 1929, individual income taxes accounted for 38% of government revenues, corporate taxes accounted for 43%, and excise taxes for 19%. By 1939, individual income taxes made up only 26% of federal revenues, corporate income taxes made up 29%, and excise taxes made up 45%.
When Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau suggested to President Roosevelt that the administration cut income tax rates in 1939, Roosevelt, apparently concerned about the possible effect of deficit-financed tax cuts on interest rates, asked, "You are willing to pay usury in order to get recovery?" Morgenthau said that he responded, "Yes sir." The president disagreed.
The Roosevelt administration also conducted a seven-year populist tirade against private business, which FDR denounced as the province of "economic royalists" and "malefactors of great wealth." The war on business and wealth was so traumatic that the League of Nations' 1939 World Economic Survey attributed part of the poor U.S. economic performance to it: "The relations between the leaders of business and the Administration were uneasy, and this uneasiness accentuated the unwillingness of private enterprise to embark on further projects of capital expenditure which might have helped to sustain the economy."
Churchill, who was generally guarded when criticizing New Deal policies, could not hold back. "The disposition to hunt down rich men as if they were noxious beasts," he noted in "Great Contemporaries" (1939), is "a very attractive sport." But "confidence is shaken and enterprise chilled, and the unemployed queue up at the soup kitchens or march out to the public works with ever growing expense to the taxpayer and nothing more appetizing to take home to their families than the leg or wing of what was once a millionaire. . . It is indispensable to the wealth of nations and to the wage and life standards of labour, that capital and credit should be honoured and cherished partners in the economic system. . . ."
The regulatory burden exploded during the Roosevelt administration, not just through the creation of new government agencies but through an extraordinary barrage of executive orders—more than all subsequent presidents through Bill Clinton combined. Then, as now, uncertainty reigned. As the textile innovator Lammot du Pont complained in 1937, "Uncertainty rules the tax situation, the labor situation, the monetary situation, and practically every legal condition under which industry must operate."
Henry Morgenthau summarized the policy failure to the House Ways and Means Committee in April 1939: "Now, gentleman, we have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work . . . I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started . . . and an enormous debt, to boot."
Despite the striking similarities between then and now, there is one major difference: Roosevelt's policies remained popular even as the economy faltered. The magnitude of the Depression, with its lack of stabilizers and safety nets, traumatized Americans and undermined their confidence in the economic system. This induced voters, as historians would later do, to judge Roosevelt not on his results but on his intentions.
Today, however, the Obama program appears to be failing politically as well as in the marketplace. The trauma of the financial crisis did not approach that of the Great Depression, and Americans do not appear to have lost faith in our economic system or come to see government as the savior. While progressivism gave the New Deal its intellectual foundations, history today is driven by the freedom tide that produced our economic revival in the 1980s and '90s and still drives economic liberalization in China and India.
Finally, we should not underestimate that this administration faces stronger and more united congressional opposition than FDR ever faced. The House and Senate Republican leadership has far surpassed all expectations of a minority party.
[...]
Mr. Gramm is a former U.S. senator from Texas and former professor of economics at Texas A&M University.
Treasury Announces Further Sales of Citigroup Securities and Cumulative Return to Taxpayers of $41.6 Billion
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg887.htm
U.S. Imposes Offshore Drilling Moratorium, but Other Countries Fail to Follow
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/09/30/u-s-imposes-offshore-drilling-moratorium-but-other-countries-fail-to-follow/
Warren op-ed: It's Time To Simplify Financial Regulation - Can customers easily understand the product? Regulators should be focused on that questionhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522062731420330.html
Black Churches and the Prosperity Gospel - Depending on miracles as a financial strategy is a dangerous way to live
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522202425314706.html
Companies Reducing Energy-related Business with Iran
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/09/148458.htm
Former Bush White House staffer Peter Wehner on ObamaCare and the New Republic's Jonathan Chait
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575518313840463750.html
Two Cheers for the New Bank Capital Standards - Why do we still rely on the rating agencies, and why are we still allowing Lehman Brothers levels of leverage?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704523604575511813933977160.html
Remarks at Vital Voices of Asia Women's Summit
http://www.state.gov/s/gwi/rls/rem/2010/148457.htm
Beggar the World - Monetary instability is a threat to the global recovery
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575523822949744704.html
Russ Feingold: ‘The Conscience of the Senate and Wisconsin’s Strongest Advocate’
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/ericasagrans/gGMzhV
Echoes of the Great Depression. By Phil Gramm
As in the 1930s, policy uncertainty and hostility to business have retarded recovery. At least this time around the political price for economic failure promises to be swift.
WSJ, Oct 01, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522351201224286.html
[Excerpts:]
This may not be your grandfather's Great Depression, but many aspects of today's situation would remind him of the 1930s. If the recession that officially ended a year ago feels uncomfortably surreal to you yet familiar to him, it's probably because the recovery went missing.
During the average recovery since World War II, gross domestic product (GDP) surpassed the pre-recession high five quarters after the recession began. It has never taken longer than seven quarters. Yet today, after 11 quarters, GDP is still below what it was in the fourth quarter of 2007. The economy is growing at only about a third of the rate of previous postwar recoveries from major recessions.
Obama administration officials such as Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have argued that without their policies the economy would be worse, and we might have fallen "off a cliff." While this assertion cannot be tested, we can compare the recent experience of other countries to our own.
[Change in total employment, 2007 compared to Q2-2010 http://sg.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AM322_gramm_NS_20100930175224.gif]
The chart nearby compares total 2007 employment levels in the United States, the United Kingdom, the 16 euro zone countries, the G-7 countries and all OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries with those of the second quarter of 2010. There are 4.6% fewer people employed in the U.S. today than at the start of the recession. Euro zone countries have lost 1.7% of their jobs. Total employment in the U.K. is down 0.6%, G-7 average employment is down 2.4%, and OECD employment has fallen 1.9%.
This simple comparison suggests two things. First, that American economic policy has been less effective in increasing employment than the policies of other developed nations. Second, that if there was a cliff out there, no country fell off. Those that suffered the most were the most profligate, such as Greece, and their problems can't be blamed on the financial crisis. While the most recent quarterly growth figures are just a snapshot in time, it is hardly encouraging that economic growth in the U.S. (1.7%) is lower than in the euro zone (4%), U.K. (4.8%), G-7 (2.8%) and OECD (2%).
Most striking about these comparisons is their similarity to the U.S. experience in the Great Depression. Using data from the League of Nations' World Economic Survey, we can look at unemployment in developed nations between 1929 and the end of 1938. Ten years after the stock market crash, total employment in the U.S. was still almost 20% below the pre-Depression level. The decline in France was similar. But in the U.K. and Italy, total employment was up 10% and 12%, respectively. Industrial production on average in the six most developed countries was almost 16% above their 1929 levels by the end of 1938, but industrial production had declined by 20% in the U.S.
Today's lagging growth and persistent high unemployment are reminiscent of the 1930s, perhaps because in no other period of American history has our government followed policies as similar to those of the Great Depression era. Federal debt by the end of 1938 was almost 150% above the 1929 level. Federal spending grew by 77% from 1932 to 1934 as the New Deal was implemented—unprecedented for peacetime.
Still the economy did not take off. Winston Churchill gave a contemporary evaluation of the Roosevelt policy by observing, in the April 24, 1935, Daily Mail, "Nearly two thousand millions Sterling have been poured out to prime the pump of prosperity; but prosperity has not begun to flow."
The top individual income tax rate rose from 24% to 63% to 79% during the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations. Corporate rates were increased to 15% from 11%, and when private businesses did not invest, Congress imposed a 27% undistributed profits tax.
In 1929, the U.S. government collected $1.1 billion in total income taxes; by 1935 collections had fallen to $527 million. In 1929, individual income taxes accounted for 38% of government revenues, corporate taxes accounted for 43%, and excise taxes for 19%. By 1939, individual income taxes made up only 26% of federal revenues, corporate income taxes made up 29%, and excise taxes made up 45%.
When Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau suggested to President Roosevelt that the administration cut income tax rates in 1939, Roosevelt, apparently concerned about the possible effect of deficit-financed tax cuts on interest rates, asked, "You are willing to pay usury in order to get recovery?" Morgenthau said that he responded, "Yes sir." The president disagreed.
The Roosevelt administration also conducted a seven-year populist tirade against private business, which FDR denounced as the province of "economic royalists" and "malefactors of great wealth." The war on business and wealth was so traumatic that the League of Nations' 1939 World Economic Survey attributed part of the poor U.S. economic performance to it: "The relations between the leaders of business and the Administration were uneasy, and this uneasiness accentuated the unwillingness of private enterprise to embark on further projects of capital expenditure which might have helped to sustain the economy."
Churchill, who was generally guarded when criticizing New Deal policies, could not hold back. "The disposition to hunt down rich men as if they were noxious beasts," he noted in "Great Contemporaries" (1939), is "a very attractive sport." But "confidence is shaken and enterprise chilled, and the unemployed queue up at the soup kitchens or march out to the public works with ever growing expense to the taxpayer and nothing more appetizing to take home to their families than the leg or wing of what was once a millionaire. . . It is indispensable to the wealth of nations and to the wage and life standards of labour, that capital and credit should be honoured and cherished partners in the economic system. . . ."
The regulatory burden exploded during the Roosevelt administration, not just through the creation of new government agencies but through an extraordinary barrage of executive orders—more than all subsequent presidents through Bill Clinton combined. Then, as now, uncertainty reigned. As the textile innovator Lammot du Pont complained in 1937, "Uncertainty rules the tax situation, the labor situation, the monetary situation, and practically every legal condition under which industry must operate."
Henry Morgenthau summarized the policy failure to the House Ways and Means Committee in April 1939: "Now, gentleman, we have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work . . . I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started . . . and an enormous debt, to boot."
Despite the striking similarities between then and now, there is one major difference: Roosevelt's policies remained popular even as the economy faltered. The magnitude of the Depression, with its lack of stabilizers and safety nets, traumatized Americans and undermined their confidence in the economic system. This induced voters, as historians would later do, to judge Roosevelt not on his results but on his intentions.
Today, however, the Obama program appears to be failing politically as well as in the marketplace. The trauma of the financial crisis did not approach that of the Great Depression, and Americans do not appear to have lost faith in our economic system or come to see government as the savior. While progressivism gave the New Deal its intellectual foundations, history today is driven by the freedom tide that produced our economic revival in the 1980s and '90s and still drives economic liberalization in China and India.
Finally, we should not underestimate that this administration faces stronger and more united congressional opposition than FDR ever faced. The House and Senate Republican leadership has far surpassed all expectations of a minority party.
[...]
Mr. Gramm is a former U.S. senator from Texas and former professor of economics at Texas A&M University.
Treasury Announces Further Sales of Citigroup Securities and Cumulative Return to Taxpayers of $41.6 Billion
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg887.htm
U.S. Imposes Offshore Drilling Moratorium, but Other Countries Fail to Follow
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/09/30/u-s-imposes-offshore-drilling-moratorium-but-other-countries-fail-to-follow/
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Press Briefing
Sep 30, 2010
Reforming Government: Congressional Republicans Haven't Changed & Can't Bring the Change We Need
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/30/reforming-government-congressional-republicans-havent-changed-cant-bring-change-we-n
Grading the Governors - A new Cato Institute report on the fiscal best and worst
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522123526567594.html
Assistant Sec for International Markets and Development Marisa Lago Introductory Comments for Eurofi Panel Discussion of "Prospects of future G-20 discussions and Expected impacts for the EU"
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg879.htm
Why Congressional intelligence is an oxymoron
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522202579025986.html
Treasury Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin Written Testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on "Implementing the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act"
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg881.htm
McDonald's May Drop Health Plan - the law ripples through the real world
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703431604575522413101063070.html
Distrust in U.S. Media Edges Up to Record High
http://www.gallup.com/poll/143267/Distrust-Media-Edges-Record-High.aspx
Conservatives: The Bipartisan Fight Against the Obama Tax Hikes
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/30/morning-bell-the-bipartisan-fight-against-the-obama-tax-hikes
Statement by the President on the House Approval of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/29/statement-president-house-approval-james-zadroga-911-health-and-compensa
In Elizabeth Warren We Trust? - The unaccountable head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has repeatedly used shoddy data to push policies she favors
By Todd Zywicki
WSJ, Sep 30, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704523604575512060220672440.html
The Obama administration has promised that the Federal Reserve's new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be independent from politics, a model of regulatory expertise grounded in sound data and economics. Naming Harvard Law Prof. Elizabeth Warren as de facto agency head undermines both goals.
By appointing another White House czar to avoid Senate confirmation, the administration politicized the powerful new bureaucracy from its birth. And by appointing an individual with a track record of using questionable research to advance policy ends, it has jeopardized the second goal as well.
Consider Ms. Warren's much-ballyhooed study on the alleged link among health problems, medical expenses and personal bankruptcy filings. Published in the February 2005 issue of Health Affairs, the report was timed to head off bipartisan bankruptcy legislation that was enacted later that year. Ms. Warren and her co-authors claimed that "at least" 46% of personal bankruptcy filings in 2001 (the year from they collected the data) were the result of "medical causes," and that this represented a 23-fold increase over 20 years.
Both conclusions are extremely suspect. First, the study provided an implausibly broad definition of "medical bankruptcy"—including any filer who reported uncontrolled gambling, drug or alcohol addiction, or the birth or adoption of a child.
Equally dubious, the authors classified a bankruptcy as having a "major medical cause" if the individual had accumulated more than $1,000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses (uncovered by insurance) over the course of two years prior to filing—regardless of income, and even if the debtor did not cite illness or injury among the reasons for bankruptcy.
In 2001, average per capita out-of-pocket medical expenses were $683. During the two-year period Ms. Warren and her co-authors studied, in other words, Americans spent an average of $1,366 on uninsured medical expenses, or 30% more than their threshold definition of a "major medical cause." There was no larger context for their threshold figure: A debtor with $1,001 in uncovered medical expenses and $50,000 on a Saks card would constitute a "medical bankruptcy" in their study.
The claim of a 23-fold increase in medical bankruptcies was based on a comparison of their 2001 data with Ms. Warren's research in a 1981 study—which appears to count only those who self-reported as having filed bankruptcy for medical reasons. This is a completely different and much narrower definition of "medical bankruptcy" than the one she used 20 years later, and obviously inflates the increase.
In contrast to Ms. Warren's studies, a battery of analysis, including research done by the Department of Justice's Executive Office of the United States Trustee (which oversees the administration of bankruptcy cases), and by Daniel Dranove and Michael Millenson of Northwestern University, concluded that fewer than 20% of bankruptcies are caused by health problems or medical expenses.
Last year Ms. Warren and her co-authors were back with an even more dramatic study, in the American Journal of Medicine, timed to promote President Obama's health-care reform law. Drawing on 2007 filings, the authors concluded that 62% of bankruptcy filings were the result of medical issues and that the odds that a bankruptcy had a medical cause had doubled between just 2001 and 2007. This study was also flawed.
After Congress made it harder for people to skip out on their debts in 2005, the number of bankruptcy filings plummeted. In 2001, the year Ms. Warren used for the first study, there were 1,452,030 personal bankruptcy filings; in 2007 there were 822,590. Even if we are to accept the methodologies of the two studies for the sake of argument, there were 670,838 "medical bankruptcies" in 2001 and 510,828 medical bankruptcies in 2007—a drop of 160,000 per year. Yet Ms. Warren's article nowhere acknowledges that the absolute number of bankruptcies and purported medical bankruptcies declined.
Concerns about Ms. Warren's presentation and interpretation of data have been longstanding. As I wrote in these pages in August 2007, her book "The Two-Income Trap" willfully ignores the obvious in her own data: that spiraling taxes—and not living expenses—were a major cause of middle class financial woes.
Similarly, reports of the Congressional Oversight Panel of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)—a panel of which she was chair—uniformly treated home foreclosures as the result of bank fraud and the bullying of helpless homeowners. Fraud and bullying there was, but her panel consistently ignored the many foreclosures that have resulted from a homeowner's strategic decision to walk away from a house whose value has fallen below the amount still owed on the mortgage. Economists and housing analysts widely agree that a substantial number of defaults occur for this reason. That reality is largely absent from the TARP panel's reports.
The head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is one of the most powerful bureaucratic positions ever created in the American political system. It can regulate or ban almost every consumer credit product in the country, yet it is beyond Congress's power of the purse because its budget is guaranteed as a percentage of the Fed's annual revenues. Under normal circumstances, the Senate would have the opportunity to ask Ms. Warren to explain the way in which she has sometimes interpreted data in her research before entrusting her with control of the agency.
By doing an end-run around the confirmation process, the Obama administration has eliminated our opportunity to find out. And by installing the head of the agency as an assistant to the president inside the White House, it has insulated her from meaningful congressional oversight.
Mr. Zywicki teaches bankruptcy and contracts at the George Mason University School of Law, and is the co-editor of the University of Chicago's Supreme Court Economic Review.
Update: U.S. Response to Pakistan's Flooding Disaster
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/09/148403.htm
Democrats and the Health-Reform Albatross - By making so many misleading claims, the president created an army of opposition
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522073624475054.html
IMF: Global Financial Stability Report
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/gfsr/2010/02/index.htm
The Protectionist Threat of Another Great Depression
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/29/morning-bell-the-protectionist-threat-of-another-great-depression
Reforming Government: Congressional Republicans Haven't Changed & Can't Bring the Change We Need
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/30/reforming-government-congressional-republicans-havent-changed-cant-bring-change-we-n
Grading the Governors - A new Cato Institute report on the fiscal best and worst
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522123526567594.html
Assistant Sec for International Markets and Development Marisa Lago Introductory Comments for Eurofi Panel Discussion of "Prospects of future G-20 discussions and Expected impacts for the EU"
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg879.htm
Why Congressional intelligence is an oxymoron
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522202579025986.html
Treasury Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin Written Testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on "Implementing the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act"
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg881.htm
McDonald's May Drop Health Plan - the law ripples through the real world
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703431604575522413101063070.html
Distrust in U.S. Media Edges Up to Record High
http://www.gallup.com/poll/143267/Distrust-Media-Edges-Record-High.aspx
Conservatives: The Bipartisan Fight Against the Obama Tax Hikes
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/30/morning-bell-the-bipartisan-fight-against-the-obama-tax-hikes
Statement by the President on the House Approval of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/29/statement-president-house-approval-james-zadroga-911-health-and-compensa
In Elizabeth Warren We Trust? - The unaccountable head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has repeatedly used shoddy data to push policies she favors
By Todd Zywicki
WSJ, Sep 30, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704523604575512060220672440.html
The Obama administration has promised that the Federal Reserve's new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be independent from politics, a model of regulatory expertise grounded in sound data and economics. Naming Harvard Law Prof. Elizabeth Warren as de facto agency head undermines both goals.
By appointing another White House czar to avoid Senate confirmation, the administration politicized the powerful new bureaucracy from its birth. And by appointing an individual with a track record of using questionable research to advance policy ends, it has jeopardized the second goal as well.
Consider Ms. Warren's much-ballyhooed study on the alleged link among health problems, medical expenses and personal bankruptcy filings. Published in the February 2005 issue of Health Affairs, the report was timed to head off bipartisan bankruptcy legislation that was enacted later that year. Ms. Warren and her co-authors claimed that "at least" 46% of personal bankruptcy filings in 2001 (the year from they collected the data) were the result of "medical causes," and that this represented a 23-fold increase over 20 years.
Both conclusions are extremely suspect. First, the study provided an implausibly broad definition of "medical bankruptcy"—including any filer who reported uncontrolled gambling, drug or alcohol addiction, or the birth or adoption of a child.
Equally dubious, the authors classified a bankruptcy as having a "major medical cause" if the individual had accumulated more than $1,000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses (uncovered by insurance) over the course of two years prior to filing—regardless of income, and even if the debtor did not cite illness or injury among the reasons for bankruptcy.
In 2001, average per capita out-of-pocket medical expenses were $683. During the two-year period Ms. Warren and her co-authors studied, in other words, Americans spent an average of $1,366 on uninsured medical expenses, or 30% more than their threshold definition of a "major medical cause." There was no larger context for their threshold figure: A debtor with $1,001 in uncovered medical expenses and $50,000 on a Saks card would constitute a "medical bankruptcy" in their study.
The claim of a 23-fold increase in medical bankruptcies was based on a comparison of their 2001 data with Ms. Warren's research in a 1981 study—which appears to count only those who self-reported as having filed bankruptcy for medical reasons. This is a completely different and much narrower definition of "medical bankruptcy" than the one she used 20 years later, and obviously inflates the increase.
In contrast to Ms. Warren's studies, a battery of analysis, including research done by the Department of Justice's Executive Office of the United States Trustee (which oversees the administration of bankruptcy cases), and by Daniel Dranove and Michael Millenson of Northwestern University, concluded that fewer than 20% of bankruptcies are caused by health problems or medical expenses.
Last year Ms. Warren and her co-authors were back with an even more dramatic study, in the American Journal of Medicine, timed to promote President Obama's health-care reform law. Drawing on 2007 filings, the authors concluded that 62% of bankruptcy filings were the result of medical issues and that the odds that a bankruptcy had a medical cause had doubled between just 2001 and 2007. This study was also flawed.
After Congress made it harder for people to skip out on their debts in 2005, the number of bankruptcy filings plummeted. In 2001, the year Ms. Warren used for the first study, there were 1,452,030 personal bankruptcy filings; in 2007 there were 822,590. Even if we are to accept the methodologies of the two studies for the sake of argument, there were 670,838 "medical bankruptcies" in 2001 and 510,828 medical bankruptcies in 2007—a drop of 160,000 per year. Yet Ms. Warren's article nowhere acknowledges that the absolute number of bankruptcies and purported medical bankruptcies declined.
Concerns about Ms. Warren's presentation and interpretation of data have been longstanding. As I wrote in these pages in August 2007, her book "The Two-Income Trap" willfully ignores the obvious in her own data: that spiraling taxes—and not living expenses—were a major cause of middle class financial woes.
Similarly, reports of the Congressional Oversight Panel of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)—a panel of which she was chair—uniformly treated home foreclosures as the result of bank fraud and the bullying of helpless homeowners. Fraud and bullying there was, but her panel consistently ignored the many foreclosures that have resulted from a homeowner's strategic decision to walk away from a house whose value has fallen below the amount still owed on the mortgage. Economists and housing analysts widely agree that a substantial number of defaults occur for this reason. That reality is largely absent from the TARP panel's reports.
The head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is one of the most powerful bureaucratic positions ever created in the American political system. It can regulate or ban almost every consumer credit product in the country, yet it is beyond Congress's power of the purse because its budget is guaranteed as a percentage of the Fed's annual revenues. Under normal circumstances, the Senate would have the opportunity to ask Ms. Warren to explain the way in which she has sometimes interpreted data in her research before entrusting her with control of the agency.
By doing an end-run around the confirmation process, the Obama administration has eliminated our opportunity to find out. And by installing the head of the agency as an assistant to the president inside the White House, it has insulated her from meaningful congressional oversight.
Mr. Zywicki teaches bankruptcy and contracts at the George Mason University School of Law, and is the co-editor of the University of Chicago's Supreme Court Economic Review.
Update: U.S. Response to Pakistan's Flooding Disaster
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/09/148403.htm
Democrats and the Health-Reform Albatross - By making so many misleading claims, the president created an army of opposition
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522073624475054.html
IMF: Global Financial Stability Report
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/gfsr/2010/02/index.htm
The Protectionist Threat of Another Great Depression
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/29/morning-bell-the-protectionist-threat-of-another-great-depression
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Press Briefing
Sep 29, 2010
Bangladesh, 'Basket Case' No More - Pakistan could learn about economic growth and confronting terrorism from its former eastern province
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575519330896471058.html
Barack Obama: Defender of State Secrets - The president has launched more leak prosecutions than all his predecessors combined. By Gabriel Schoenfeld
WSJ, Sep 29, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575519671706217584.html
'My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government," Barack Obama pledged to the nation when he took office. Things haven't quite worked out as the president promised.
Consider the fate of leakers of secret information—"whistleblowers" is the celebratory term employed by some in the press—at the hands of the Obama Justice Department. In December 2009, an FBI contract linguist pleaded guilty to passing classified information to a blogger. Shortly thereafter he was sentenced to 20 months in jail. This April, a high-ranking National Security Agency official was charged under the espionage statutes for passing secrets to a reporter at the Baltimore Sun. In August, a State Department contractor was indicted for passing secrets about North Korea to Fox News. On top of all of this, the military has charged a young army intelligence officer with the unauthorized transmission of national defense information. He is widely presumed to be the source of the huge trove of classified document published by WikiLeaks, the infamous online bulletin board for secrets.
Whatever one makes of the merits of any of these cases, the astonishing fact remains that in all of prior American history charges have only been brought in three instances for leaking classified information. In his first 21 months in office, President Obama has launched more such prosecutions than in all preceding administrations combined.
Then we have the Obama administration's invocation of the state secrets privilege in court—a practice for which the Bush administration was roundly criticized by the left. In a series of high-profile terrorism cases, the Justice Department has asked judges to toss out those in which secret information would be disclosed.
Most recently, it has invoked the privilege in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born cleric who resides in Yemen and is implicated in numerous terrorist attacks. "It strains credulity to argue that our laws require the government to disclose to an active, operational terrorist any information about how, when and where we fight terrorism," a Justice Department spokesman commented last week.
George W. Bush was slammed unrelentingly for engaging, in the words of John Podesta—Bill Clinton's former chief of staff and the founder of the liberal Center for American Progress—in a "prolonged assault on open government in the name of national security." These same voices are turning on the Obama administration in tones more plaintive than withering.
There is "real doubt," writes Ken Gude, a national-security expert at Mr. Podesta's think tank, "that the Obama administration will live up to its commitment to usher in a new era of transparency." Already last year, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero lamented that Mr. Obama has "disappointingly reneged" on some of his promises to be more open. "This is not change. This is definitely more of the same."
If it is indeed more of the same, it is worth asking why. Mr. Obama has discovered, as much as he may wish it otherwise, that he is a war president. And like his predecessor, he is not only a war president: He is presiding over a particular kind of war in Afghanistan and in the broader war against Islamic terrorists where intelligence is more critical than ever.
The effectiveness of our intelligence tools—from the interrogation of captured enemy combatants to the capabilities of satellite reconnaissance systems—remains overwhelmingly dependent on their clandestine nature. It is not an overstatement to say that secrecy today is one of the most critical tools of national defense.
Leaks of counterterrorism secrets to the press, and disclosure of counterterrorism techniques and procedures in courtrooms, can imperil the war effort. We are thus faced squarely with the abiding tension between liberty and security. The U.S. government, under successive administrations, has been struggling to find the proper balance.
Now that they're going after the Obama administration for its alleged unwarranted secrecy, the carping civil-libertarian critics are acquiring the virtue of consistency. Perhaps they can serve a useful purpose in guarding against government excesses. But one thing's certain: The more voluble they become, the more apparent it also becomes that Mr. Obama is doing the right thing.
Mr. Schoenfeld, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and resident scholar at the Witherspoon Institute, is the author of "Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media, and the Rule of Law" (Norton, 2010).
The President on Our Veterans - Choosing Priorities in Albuquerque
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/28/president-our-veterans-choosing-priorities-albuquerque
Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks Are Suspended. So What? - What matters is growth and state-building in the West Bank. Yet the Obama administration is still fixated on settlements.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575519781120433248.html
Multilateral Engagement in Action
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/multilateral_engagement_in_action
Department of Disinformation - Sebelius tells a North Carolina fairy tale
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520000041860936.html
Helping Bangladeshis Achieve Food Security
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/bangladeshis_food_security
The Pelosi-Reid Deficits - Blame Congress, not presidents Bush or Obama, for our perilous fiscal situation
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575519784046288058.html
U.S. Strongly Condemns Stoning Of Woman in Orakzai, Pakistan
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/09/148302.htm
Blaming the Voters - Democrats embrace the Chris Farley school of political motivation
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520044037709702.html
Thinking beyond Kopassus: Why US Security Assistance to Indonesia Needs Recalibrating
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/search-for-publications/browse-alphabetic-list-of-titles/?class_call=view&mode=view&pub_ID=3553
The Litigious Legacy of Kelo - Eminent domain abuse and Justice Kennedy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575517931099633878.html
State Dept: Unstinting Resolve
http://blogs.state.gov/sudan/index.php/site/entry/unstinting_resolve
China's Next Leap Forward - The jump from middle-income to rich status is much harder to achieve than the ascent from poverty. But there are plenty of reasons to believe China's growth prospects remain strong.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575517950869853586.html
Bangladesh, 'Basket Case' No More - Pakistan could learn about economic growth and confronting terrorism from its former eastern province
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575519330896471058.html
Barack Obama: Defender of State Secrets - The president has launched more leak prosecutions than all his predecessors combined. By Gabriel Schoenfeld
WSJ, Sep 29, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575519671706217584.html
'My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government," Barack Obama pledged to the nation when he took office. Things haven't quite worked out as the president promised.
Consider the fate of leakers of secret information—"whistleblowers" is the celebratory term employed by some in the press—at the hands of the Obama Justice Department. In December 2009, an FBI contract linguist pleaded guilty to passing classified information to a blogger. Shortly thereafter he was sentenced to 20 months in jail. This April, a high-ranking National Security Agency official was charged under the espionage statutes for passing secrets to a reporter at the Baltimore Sun. In August, a State Department contractor was indicted for passing secrets about North Korea to Fox News. On top of all of this, the military has charged a young army intelligence officer with the unauthorized transmission of national defense information. He is widely presumed to be the source of the huge trove of classified document published by WikiLeaks, the infamous online bulletin board for secrets.
Whatever one makes of the merits of any of these cases, the astonishing fact remains that in all of prior American history charges have only been brought in three instances for leaking classified information. In his first 21 months in office, President Obama has launched more such prosecutions than in all preceding administrations combined.
Then we have the Obama administration's invocation of the state secrets privilege in court—a practice for which the Bush administration was roundly criticized by the left. In a series of high-profile terrorism cases, the Justice Department has asked judges to toss out those in which secret information would be disclosed.
Most recently, it has invoked the privilege in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born cleric who resides in Yemen and is implicated in numerous terrorist attacks. "It strains credulity to argue that our laws require the government to disclose to an active, operational terrorist any information about how, when and where we fight terrorism," a Justice Department spokesman commented last week.
George W. Bush was slammed unrelentingly for engaging, in the words of John Podesta—Bill Clinton's former chief of staff and the founder of the liberal Center for American Progress—in a "prolonged assault on open government in the name of national security." These same voices are turning on the Obama administration in tones more plaintive than withering.
There is "real doubt," writes Ken Gude, a national-security expert at Mr. Podesta's think tank, "that the Obama administration will live up to its commitment to usher in a new era of transparency." Already last year, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero lamented that Mr. Obama has "disappointingly reneged" on some of his promises to be more open. "This is not change. This is definitely more of the same."
If it is indeed more of the same, it is worth asking why. Mr. Obama has discovered, as much as he may wish it otherwise, that he is a war president. And like his predecessor, he is not only a war president: He is presiding over a particular kind of war in Afghanistan and in the broader war against Islamic terrorists where intelligence is more critical than ever.
The effectiveness of our intelligence tools—from the interrogation of captured enemy combatants to the capabilities of satellite reconnaissance systems—remains overwhelmingly dependent on their clandestine nature. It is not an overstatement to say that secrecy today is one of the most critical tools of national defense.
Leaks of counterterrorism secrets to the press, and disclosure of counterterrorism techniques and procedures in courtrooms, can imperil the war effort. We are thus faced squarely with the abiding tension between liberty and security. The U.S. government, under successive administrations, has been struggling to find the proper balance.
Now that they're going after the Obama administration for its alleged unwarranted secrecy, the carping civil-libertarian critics are acquiring the virtue of consistency. Perhaps they can serve a useful purpose in guarding against government excesses. But one thing's certain: The more voluble they become, the more apparent it also becomes that Mr. Obama is doing the right thing.
Mr. Schoenfeld, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and resident scholar at the Witherspoon Institute, is the author of "Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media, and the Rule of Law" (Norton, 2010).
The President on Our Veterans - Choosing Priorities in Albuquerque
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/28/president-our-veterans-choosing-priorities-albuquerque
Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks Are Suspended. So What? - What matters is growth and state-building in the West Bank. Yet the Obama administration is still fixated on settlements.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575519781120433248.html
Multilateral Engagement in Action
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/multilateral_engagement_in_action
Department of Disinformation - Sebelius tells a North Carolina fairy tale
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520000041860936.html
Helping Bangladeshis Achieve Food Security
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/bangladeshis_food_security
The Pelosi-Reid Deficits - Blame Congress, not presidents Bush or Obama, for our perilous fiscal situation
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575519784046288058.html
U.S. Strongly Condemns Stoning Of Woman in Orakzai, Pakistan
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/09/148302.htm
Blaming the Voters - Democrats embrace the Chris Farley school of political motivation
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520044037709702.html
Thinking beyond Kopassus: Why US Security Assistance to Indonesia Needs Recalibrating
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/search-for-publications/browse-alphabetic-list-of-titles/?class_call=view&mode=view&pub_ID=3553
The Litigious Legacy of Kelo - Eminent domain abuse and Justice Kennedy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575517931099633878.html
State Dept: Unstinting Resolve
http://blogs.state.gov/sudan/index.php/site/entry/unstinting_resolve
China's Next Leap Forward - The jump from middle-income to rich status is much harder to achieve than the ascent from poverty. But there are plenty of reasons to believe China's growth prospects remain strong.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575517950869853586.html
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