GDP 3rd Quarter UP 3.5% but Unemployment Hits 10.2%

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Today, the government announced a surge in the national unemployment figure of 10.2% — which seriously underestimates the ‘effective unemployment’ rate of those who have stopped looking for work or who are undermployed. Leo Hindery issues these numbers regularly, and I will post them when I receive them.

Guest Post by Jon Weinberg: Sons of Afghanistan

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Jon Weinberg is a research intern at the New America Foundation/Middle East Task Force. Last week, Zalmay Khalilzad, former US Ambassador to the UN, and Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) spoke at RAND’s “Afghanistan: Basic Questions–Strategy Choices” conference. Both emphasized that key strategic choices must be considered before a decision on troops is made.

LIVE STREAM: Thinking Through Obama’s Asia Policy

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Launch in external player With President Obama off to Tokyo next week to kickoff his first trip to Asia as president, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is hosting a public forum today to discuss the administration’s policy options and challenges in the region.

No End In Sight. . .In Afghanistan

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(photo credit: Spencer Ackerman) US military crusade chronicler Spencer Ackerman has written a long, thoughtful treatment of the issues and players wrestling over the tough calls President Obama must soon make on America’s course in Afghanistan. It’s titled “The Decision” and appears in The National.

LIVE STREAM: Can Washington’s National Security Bureaucracy Work?

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How can Washington avoid merely moving from one crisis to the next and instead engage in forward looking, strategic policy-making? To address this question, the New America Foundation/American Strategy Program is hosting an event TODAY from 12:15pm – 1:45pm with James Locher, President & CEO of the Project on National Security Reform.

U.S. Continues to Show Limits in the Middle East

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Steve Clemons has discussed on this blog the importance of perceptions of power in international relations – and the immense harm that the Bush administration inflicted upon American interests by exposing America’s military, economic, and moral limits.