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The European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes has told a Dutch newspaper that the Euro would survive a Greek exit from the currency. The announcement comes during a strike endorsed by two of Greek’s largest public sector unions. The Greek government has been seeking foreign investment and additional funds from the IMF, EU and the ECB. [...]
Appearing alongside CIA Director David Petraeus before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last week, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said of Iran: “We don’t believe they’ve actually made the decision to go ahead with a nuclear weapon.” Before the hearing, as James Fallows of The Atlantic reports, Clapper released his “Worldwide Threat [...]
Today the President signed an executive order freezing all Iranian government assets held or traded in the U.S. This order is the latest in a series of sanctions that have been placed on Iran by the European community and the U.S. The new sanctions include blocks on the Iranian central bank. The move comes quickly [...]
Filed under: Economics, Foreign policy, Politics, World
It was reported today that Greece needs an extra 15 billion euros in order to bring its debt down to a workable level. Greece is currently in negotiations with private investors, which could end in a deal that could reduce the Greek debt burden by up to 100 billion euros. It was hoped that a [...]
U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul, Obama’s man in Moscow, who just took up his post, has received a rude reception. And understandably so. In 1992, McFaul was the representative in Russia of the National Democratic Institute, a U.S. government-funded agency whose mission is to promote democracy abroad. The NDI has been tied to color-coded or Orange [...]
Filed under: World
Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is talking sense. On the eve of her speech to Davos delegates Merkel has hinted that she will resist the IMF’s calls for a further 500 billion euro injection for bailout funds to struggling eurozone nations. In an interview with six European newspapers Merkel said, “It makes no sense if we [...]
Filed under: Decentralism, Economics, Europe, Politics, World
According to Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, 500 billion more euros in rescue funds are needed in order to avoid a “1930s moment” characterized by high inflation and unemployment. The comments come soon after talks between Greece and its creditors were adjourned on Friday. Considering last week’s downgrade of the Eurozone’s [...]
There has been more bad news out of Europe today. On top of the downgrades of several eurozone countries and the EFSF bailout fund, Germany today announced that it has lowered its growth forecasts for 2012 from 1% to 0.7%. Throughout the euro crisis Germany has been central to the bailouts of struggling countries, contributing [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, Economics, Politics, Trade, World
NEW YORK — America has come back, at least politically, to where it was in the far-off 1950s when Communist scares and the American fascism of Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy kept the republic in a state of fear and anxiety. “Reds under our beds” was the slogan in those days of paranoia and witch-hunting. Today, [...]
Filed under: Election, Foreign policy, Politics, World
Reports that members of the European Union (EU) were planning to impose an embargo on Iranian oil as part of a U.S.-led strategy to force Teheran to end its alleged nuclear military program should not have come as a major surprise. Iran has been developing surface-to-surface missiles with a maximum range of 2,000km, that equipped [...]