Big conference on America’s debt mess today. I’m moderating a big chunk. Here is the rundown of a very interesting symposium thinking through the challenges of private debt overhang and the public debt debate. The bursting of the housing and credit bubbles has left the United States with a huge debt overhang.
President Obama has missed yet another chance to pressure Congress to end the self-inflicted damage of a “unilateral embargo” against Cuba and to take American foreign policy writ large in a new, more constructive direction.
Does anyone even remember that this was supposed to be about Osama bin Laden? How did we get into a full on war with the Taliban and thus in the middle of an Afghan Civil War in which neither side likes us much? The Obama administration has made a major mistake in allowing a sleight-of-hand…
The Obama administration today lightened travel and remittance restrictions for US-based relatives of Cuban citizens residing in Cuba. The limit on relatives is noted at “second cousins.” Hooray! — not. OK — it’s some progress. But this is progress that the Cuban-American right wing wanted.
The way that the nuclear weapons world works today is that if you are “trusted” by the US and Europe — you can overtly or covertly hold on to your nukes, particularly if a nation is not part of the non-proliferation regime. But if you aren’t trusted, you can’t have them under any circumstances.
I haven’t read Max Blumenthal‘s new book, Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party, just yet — but I had a good laugh when I just got these “early reviews” from The New Yorker‘s Hendrik Hertzberg and Ann Coulter — yes, that Ann.
I really enjoyed participating in this Schieffer series panel discussion titled “Understanding Japan’s Elections: What the Elections Mean for Asia and the United States” moderated by CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer.
Cato Institute foreign policy program Christopher Preble has a smart piece on the Partnership for a Secure America blog “Across the Aisle” today correctly noting that there is no bipartisan divide on US strategy in Afghanistan. Instead, there is a divide between “two bipartisan consensuses.
This is an eight minute exchange with retired 4-star General and former CENTCOM Commander and Israel/Palestine presidential envoy Anthony Zinni. It’s well worth watching.
Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He is one of the leading voices who warned early of the impending housing bubble — and his economic analysis, as measured by forecasts and then results, has been extremely impressive over the years.
