Obama’s Recovery?

With November’s election in the United States fast approaching, the Republican candidates seeking to challenge President Barack Obama claim that his policies have done nothing to support recovery from the recession that he inherited in January 2009. If anything, they claim, his fiscal stimulus, the bank bailouts, and U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s aggressive monetary policy made matters worse.Obama’s Democratic defenders counter that his policies staved off a second Great Depressio

Feb. 23, 2012

In Iraq, occupation by another name

Two recent reports appearing on the same day last week in The New York Times and The Washington Post illustrate U.S. intentions in Iraq. What they reveal is that despite the heralded “end” of U.S. participation in the war there, U.S. policy continues to depend on our security apparatus to influence Iraq, at the expense of Iraqis‘ sovereignty and dignity.The Times report informed us that the U.S. State Department decided to cut the U.S. embassy staff by 50 percent from its current 16,000 personne

Feb. 23, 2012

The Iranian Nuclear Threat Goes Global

The current drive to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear arsenal reflects two important, and interrelated, changes. From Israel’s perspective, these changes are to be welcomed, though its government must remain cautious about the country’s own role.The first change is the escalation of efforts by the United States and its Western allies to abort the Iranian regime’s nuclear quest. This was instigated in part by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s finding in November 2011 that Iran is ind

Feb. 23, 2012

Ways to revitalize Korean football

Korean football has been in a state of complacency for at least 10 years. Numerous examples of deceit and chicanery in Korean football have been unveiled recently. Korean football has neglected to develop infrastructure in communities and the K-league. Also, K-league players have been found to very frequently partake of match-fixing and illegal gambling. Moreover, the Korean Football Association has acted in ways that are entirely inscrutable to the general public. For instance, it recently repl

Feb. 23, 2012

Why Obama enjoys adulation among blacks

In his new book, “The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency,” Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy offers up the most sober (and sobering) assessment of Barack Obama’s grappling with race to date. The book looks at the big media events such as the controversy around Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the arrest of Henry Louis Gates and the forced resignation of Shirley Sherrod. But it is arguably at its most trenchant where it is most humble.An example of this occurs ea

Feb. 22, 2012

Greece risks suffering same fate as Argentina

NEWPORT BEACH ― Let me set the scene: an increasingly discredited economic policy approach gives rise to growing domestic social and political opposition, street protests and violence, disagreements among official creditors, and mounting concerns among private creditors about a disorderly default. In the midst of all of this, national leaders commit to more of the same harsh austerity measures that they have been unable to implement for two years. Official creditors express skepticism, in privat

Feb. 22, 2012

Facebook and China have too much in common to ‘like’

Mark Zuckerberg is pulling off a feat bigger than becoming the world’s richest 20-something: thriving in the cyber age even before “friending” the most populous nation and biggest Internet market. Facebook Inc.’s founder will soon have to “like” China, where his website is banned. A post-initial-public-offering Facebook will have shareholders demanding that it tap China’s 1.3 billion people, and now. Such is life when your business model is predicated on ever-growing ranks of users updating, sha

Feb. 22, 2012

A new agenda for European economic growth

BRUSSELS ― Austerity alone cannot solve Europe’s economic and financial crisis. Growth and jobs need to be promoted with equal zeal. European Union leaders now recognize this: kick-starting growth in 2012 was high on the agenda at the European Council’s meeting on January 30. But the big question remains: How?The need for immediate action is clear. The eurozone’s economy contracted in the last three months of 2011; even Germany’s shrank. The new year is looking grim. France is flat-lining (as is

Feb. 21, 2012

Asia’s development and importance of leadership

Asia’s development has been so successful that it has been labeled a “miracle.” However, if this is true for economic growth, the picture looks far less impressive if you look at other dimensions of economic development. A return of leadership is needed. Looking at Asia’s phenomenal economic growth figures since the second half of the 20th century, it becomes easy to understand why international observers have used the word “miracle.” From 1975 to 2000 East Asia grew faster than any other region

Feb. 21, 2012

Laudable but Misplaced: EU’s Aviation ETS Tax

The global aviation industry is still scratching its head while digesting the contents of the latest bid by Brussels to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Starting from Jan. 1, the EU included the aviation industry in its CO2 Emission Trading System and started imposing extra taxes on airliners. Actual payments will not take place until 2013, but the system is now up and running. A very laudable effort indeed, but here is the trick: This program of the EU applies to all foreign airlines as well, if

Feb. 21, 2012

Mixing Medicare and mudslinging in campaign

Don’t look now, but the 2012 election is turning into a national referendum on what to do about Medicare.Democrats want to run on the issue ― and to charge that Republican proposals to change Medicare into a voucher-based system would end the current guarantee of virtually unlimited health care for the elderly.The chairman of their House campaign committee, Rep. Steve Israel, D-New York, has told candidates to stress three issues: “Medicare, Medicare and Medicare.”At least some Republicans ― suc

Feb. 21, 2012

GOP extremists turn their attention to transportation bills

Both parties and both houses of Congress appear to have worked through their differences and are poised to extend a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits and avoid drastic cuts in reimbursement rates for physicians treating Medicare enrollees.The optimist thinks, “So Congress CAN deal with real problems, even in a campaign year.”The pessimist thinks, “The Republicans’ radical wing already lost this fight in December, and party leaders saw no reason to follow the fringe to a repeat defeat in

Feb. 21, 2012

The inferno in Honduras

The horrifying inferno that engulfed a prison in Honduras and claimed 355 lives or more didn‘t have to happen. In the months preceding this disaster, Honduran officials, beginning with President Porfirio Lobo, ignored multiple warnings that conditions at the jails were ripe for a calamity.One report by the United Nations said overcrowding was out of control by any standard. On any given date, 800 prisoners were confined in a facility built for 500. Those numbers, outrageous in themselves, were b

Feb. 21, 2012

A New European Growth Agenda

Austerity alone cannot solve Europe‘s economic and financial crisis. Growth and jobs need to be promoted with equal zeal. European Union leaders now recognize this: kick-starting growth in 2012 was high on the agenda at the European Council’s meeting on January 30. But the big question remains: How?The need for immediate action is clear. The eurozone’s economy contracted in the last three months of 2011; even Germany’s shrank. The new year is looking grim. France is flat-lining (as is Britain).

Feb. 21, 2012

Euro area leaders consider Greek exit at own peril

Leaders of the euro area’s wealthier nations are increasingly raising a provocative question: Might the common currency now be strong enough to end the bailout agony and let Greece go? The short answer is no. In fact, the euro area is probably more vulnerable to a Greek disaster than ever. Until recently, European officials dismissed the idea of Greece leaving the euro as unthinkable. They seemed to recognize that such a move would amount to mutually assured destruction. Aside from the horrendou

Feb. 20, 2012