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Jennifer Rubin on how California's optimism has been replaced by cynicism and regulation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/

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

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

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/