Featured Articles — March 26, 2009

March 26, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles, Presidents 

Interesting Takes From Home And Abroad:

Obama Points Back to the GOP’s Future By Karl Rove, The Wall Street Journal
Something powerful is stirring in the land, and it may not be good news for President Barack Obama, his agenda or the Democratic Party. Mr. Obama said Tuesday night his budget moves America “from an era of borrow and spend” to “save and invest.” But people are realizing he would add $9.3 trillion to the national debt, doubling it in six years and nearly tripling it in 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). How can that be “save and invest”?

The War on Drugs Is Idiotic By John Stossel, Real Clear Politics
Authorities raided Charlie Lynch’s California home. “They say, ‘Search warrant! Open the door, or we’re gonna tear it down!” Lynch told me for my ABC special “Bailouts and Bull”.

Springtime for New England Republicans? By Froma Harrop, Providence Journal
There was a time when New England sent lots of Republicans to Washington. These were fiscally conservative but socially liberal “Rockefeller Republicans,” also found in the Northwest, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. As the party turned socially conservative and fiscally reckless, many Yankees departed.

Re-emerging As an Emerging Market By Desmond Lachman, The Washington Post
Back in the spring of 1998, when Boris Yeltsin was still at Russia’s helm, I led a group of global investors to Moscow to find out firsthand where the Russian economy was headed.

Will Obama Match Bush for Fiscal Irresponsibility? By Mort Kondracke, Roll Call
A month ago, reflecting on George W. Bush’s near-doubling of the national debt, budget hawk David Walker told me that Bush was “the most fiscally irresponsible president in American history.

Dear A.I.G., I Quit! By Jack De Santis, The New York Times
Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit, sent this letter on Tuesday to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G.

Geithner Deals Wall Street a Can’t-Lose Hand By Margaret Carlson, Bloomberg
I feel like Rush Limbaugh now, because I really want certain people to fail: George W. Bush’s former economic adviser, Lawrence Lindsey, Nobel Prize-winning economists Paul Krugman and Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz. All of them say the U.S. Treasury’s plan to buy troubled bank assets will lead to rack and ruin. And when the trillion dollars to pay for it is gone, we won’t be able to afford the printing press to make more.

Washington’s Truth Deficit By Victor Davis Hanson, San Francisco Chronicle
In the last three months, we’ve been reduced to something like the ancient Athenian mob – with opportunistic politicians sometimes inciting, sometimes catering to an already angry public.

Baying for AIG Blood By Nicole Gelinas, City Journal
A year ago last week, the United States government saved Bear Stearns from bankruptcy, enticing JPMorgan Chase to buy the insolvent company with government guarantees. Fed and Treasury officials—and almost everyone else—argued that the step was necessary to prevent a systemic financial meltdown.

Deficit Dodge Ball By E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post
The debate on the budget is phony, the howling on deficits a charade. Few politicians want to acknowledge that if you really are concerned about long-term deficits, you have to support tax increases.

The Lessons of Camp David By Jehan Sadat, The Wall Street Journal
Thirty years ago today, Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter signed the Camp David Peace Accords. It was a culmination of a journey Anwar Sadat, my husband, began in October 1970 following the sudden death of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Within hours of Nasser’s funeral, my husband asked the U.S. ambassador to tell President Richard Nixon that Egypt was ready for peace.

Is China the New America? By Harold James, Foreign Policy
In the Great Depression, as in the current economic crisis, the downturn was particularly severe because of a lack of leadership in the international order. The dominant financial power of the 19th century, Britain, was financially exhausted by the First World War.

The G20 summit in London will be missing one great power. Guess who? Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian UK
When President Barack Obama comes to London next week, he will find one great power missing at the world’s summit table: Europe. Five of the 20 leaders at the G20 meeting will be Europeans, representing France, Germany, Britain, Italy and the EU, but the whole will be less than the sum of its parts. There will be plenty of Europeans but no Europe.

TV President is hosting a national talk show By Adam Boulton, Times UK
Unlike the British system, American democracy is conducted through exhaustive debate rather than government diktat.

GOP gloves off for budget brawl By Mike Allen and Victoria McGrane, Politico
House Republicans have begun unveiling detailed alternatives to President Barack Obama’s policies — a concerted effort to push back against Democratic efforts to label them “the Party of No.”

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