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DEAN BAKER
How World Leaders Can Reverse The Financial Slide |
The meeting this weekend of the G-7 world financial leaders provides an extraordinary opportunity to begin reversing an extraordinary period of extreme economic mismanagement. That meeting should focus on a coordinated financial and monetary policy to stem the immediate crisis. Meanwhile, the U.S. government should launch a coordinated fiscal stimulus program for Main Street. |
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| Dow Drops Below 8,000, Briefly |
| washingtonpost.com — U.S. stocks continued a relentless sell off at the opening bell as fears of global recession continue to overtake government efforts to address the financial crisis. The Dow Jones industrial average fell below 8,000, or 8 percent, a 682 point drop at the opening bell. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 fell 7 percent and the Nasdaq fell 6 percent. The market is headed toward eight days of losses as it faces deepening fears about the financial crisis and its spillover to other parts of the economy. Traders have consistently shrugged off drastic government efforts to address the problem, from a global rate cut to plans to buy toxic mortgage debt. |
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| IMF: World Economy to Slow |
| ap.google.com — The world economy will slow sharply this year and next, with the United States likely sliding into recession reflecting mounting damage from the most dangerous financial jolt in more than a half-century. The International Monetary Fund, in its World Economic Outlook, slashed growth projections for the global economy and predicted the United States — the epicenter of the financial meltdown — will continue to lose traction. "The world economy is now entering a major downturn in the face of the most dangerous shock in mature financial markets since the 1930s," the IMF said in its report. |
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| Pressure Builds for Global Solution |
| latimes.com — The way the current financial crisis spread around the world like a brush fire, outracing all efforts to contain it, underscored a painful reality: We have a global economy but nothing close to a global system for managing it. Now, as senior economic policymakers from the major developed nations meet , the question is whether the worst economic crisis since before World War II will open the door for a comprehensive, unified economic strategy. U.S. officials have been careful not to raise expectations for the so-called Group of 7 meeting. But pressure is building for that to change — both in response to this crisis and to head off potential crises in the future. |
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| Forecast for Global Oil Demand Cut |
| nytimes.com — Oil prices fell to their lowest level in more than a year, as the slowing global economy led the International Energy Agency to cut its forecast for global demand. The agency, which is based in Paris, said it was cutting its forecast for 2008 global demand by 240,000 barrels a day. It now estimates daily demand this year of about 86.5 million barrels, an increase of 0.5 percent from last year — the slowest growth in 15 years. It also cut its forecast for 2009 demand by 440,000 barrels a day, to 87.2 million barrels, an 0.8 percent increase over this year’s demand. |
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| U.S. Households Face 'Perfect Storm' |
| ft.com — Most economists believe that the crisis on Wall Street will push the U.S. into a full-blown recession later this year. With credit markets seizing up, it has become difficult for businesses, as well as state and local governments, to borrow money to fund operations. Many Americans' retirement savings have been severely dented by falling stock prices. Slightly more than 750,000 jobs have been lost since the start of the year and the rate of losses increased from an average of 75,000 a month to 159,000 in September. The combination of lost housing and equity wealth, lost jobs, lost access to credit and still high petrol prices adds up to what Richard Berner, the co-head of global economics at Morgan Stanley, calls a "perfect storm" for US households. |
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| North Korea Off Terrorism Blacklist? |
| usatoday.com — The Bush administration is nearing a decision to remove North Korea from a terrorism blacklist. U.S. officials said that no final decision had been made but diplomats briefed on the matter believe an announcement is imminent. The de-listing depends on North Korea agreeing to a plan to verify an account of its nuclear activity that it submitted over the summer. North Korea would be put back on the list if it doesn't comply with the plan and abandon nuclear arms. The move would be a last-ditch attempt to save a disarmament agreement that has frayed badly in recent months. Saving the deal and getting Pyongyang to follow through would also be a major foreign policy success for the administration in its waning months. |
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| Goverment Probes Contractor Over Payments |
| hosted.ap.org — Army criminal investigators are examining whether Combat Support Associates, a defense contractor that has earned more than $2 billion so far supporting U.S. troops in Iraq, overcharged the government. Combat Support Associates, based in Orange, Calif., performs vehicle maintenance, computer repairs and security work at Camp Doha, Camp Arifjan and other Army sites in Kuwait. Federal agents searched the company's offices in Kuwait in August. The investigation is among 168 by the Army Criminal Investigation Command related to contract fraud in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan since 2005. The Army said 95 of those cases are pending. In some cases, investigations were closed because there was too little evidence to support charges or because a company was absolved. Other cases have resulted in criminal charges. |
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| Economic Crisis Threatens Climate Commitments |
| guardian.co.uk — Leaders of E.U. countries plan to use the global financial crisis as an excuse to renege on climate change commitments, according to sources close to energy negotiations in Brussels. Papers seen by the Guardian suggest the E.U. council propose dropping the previous commitment to an automatic increase in emissions cuts if the world gets a major climate change agreement next year. It also intends to allow countries to avoid having to cut their own emissions by letting them purchase a large proportion of reductions from overseas. News of the European political leaders' moves comes as senior business figures and government advisers are urging politicians not to use the current financial crisis to abandon crucial investment in clean energy and efficiency to tackle climate change, cut costs and improve security. |
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| Climate Change Could Displace Millions |
| reuters.com — Environmental damage such as desertification or flooding caused by climate change could force millions of peoples from their homes in the next few decades, experts said. "All indicators show we are dealing with a major emerging global problem," said Janos Bogardi, director of the U.N. University's Institute on the Environment and Human Security in Bonn, Germany. "Experts estimate that by 2050 some 200 million people will be displaced by environmental problems, a number of people roughly equal to two-thirds of the United States today," the University said in a statement. Bogardi said present the number of environmental migrants could be between 25 million and 27 million. |
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ERIC RAUCHWAY
Can We Have a New Deal Without the New Dealers?
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| prospect.org — Can a massive government intervention in the economy work if it is being run by people who don't believe in government? |
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KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL
How the Oracle of Wall Street Was Silenced
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| thenation.com — More than a decade ago, a woman you've likely never heard of was the oracle whose warnings just might have averted the calamitous bust now engulfing the U.S. and global markets. Instead she was met with scorn, condescension and outright anger by former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and his deputy Lawrence Summers. |
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AMITABH PAL
A Reputation in Ruins — Deservedly So
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| progressive.org — So there is justice in the world. The biggest bubble blown in the recent past — Alan Greenspan's reputation — has finally been pricked. Greenspan's judgment was long thought to be infallible. Along with the markets, however, his standing has crumbled, too. |
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MICHAEL MOYNIHAN
Fear and Reason on Wall Street
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| ndnblog.org — As fear trumps reason and emotion rules, people in panics lose their ability to act rationally and instead move with the herd. However, the branch of economics known as game theory suggests that people acting entirely rationally can still cause a disaster. And this, more than just irrational panic, is the problem we face today. |
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PHILIP STEPHENS
Crisis Marks Out New Geopolitical Order
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| ft.com — The wreckage of the financial system holds up a mirror to the changing geopolitical balance. It offers advice, and a warning, as to what the west should make of the emerging global order. |
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EUGENE ROBINSON
Welcome to the Third World, America
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| truthdig.com — Is the United States destined to look and feel increasingly like a "developing country"? Is this the way it's going to be? I want to know if this is some kind of final reckoning for the way we've been living so far beyond our means. Is the bartender finally presenting us the bill for our tab? |
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MAGGIE MAHAR
Is Health Care a Right?
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| healthbeatblog.org — The idea of health care as a "right" is usually pitted against the idea of health care as a "privilege." Given that choice, I’ll circle "right" every time. |
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FRED WEIR
Russia's Monroe Doctrine
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| inthesetimes.com — Russia's concern is that NATO is creating new dividing lines designed to isolate Russia from the European community. Russians are afraid they'll wake up one morning and find themselves alone. |
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IAN MISHALOVE
Tales from the Tippers |
| The most important American election in recent memory will be here in less than 30 days. With deepening crises at home and abroad, millions of previously disengaged citizens are tuning in to try to make sense of it all.
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RICK PERLSTEIN
Ratpucking |
| Sarah Palin will drop the ceremonial first puck at the Philadelphia Fliers' season opener, and we liberals have been laughing at what a terrible idea this is: Philadelphia sports fans are notoriously crude and boorish. |
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| Fun with John Fund. |
| A week ago I made my second studio appearance on "Extension 720," Chicago radio legend Milt Rosenberg's evening panel discussion. The Wall Street Journal's John Fund was a call-in guest, propagandizing on the phony crisis fraud. |
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| Pro-Life Politics at Work |
| Guess the subject of the Weekly Standard article this line comes from. |
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Catastrophic Conservatism's Costs In Iraq
The fiasco in Iraq is a direct consequence of catastrophic conservatism. There are four key factors that led to the conservative failure in Iraq.
• Conservatives undercut government. They rushed our troops to war, but skimped on the government planning, diplomacy and expertise needed to get the job done effectively.
• Conservatives displaced experts with zealots. Instead of sending experts on reconstruction, conservatives recruited ideologues who spurned allies, shut down "hearts and minds," and lost control of the country.
• Conservatives forced risky privatization. They outsourced core government functions to private contractors whose profit motives compromised troop security, eroded Iraqi trust, siphoned away taxpayer money, and failed to deliver results.
• Conservatives stifled accountability. They supported ideology over effectiveness, and repeatedly blocked efforts to investigate the pervasive waste, fraud, incompetence and abuse sabotaging the U.S. mission in Iraq.
• Accountability, expertise, planning and good management are not partisan issues. But conservatives, blinded by their own ideological certitude, scorned even common sense.
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