What a Socialist France Would Mean for America
Should the U.S. be (a) frightened, (b) neutral or (c) exuberant that a very moderate Socialist looks set to win the presidency in France when the second round of voting takes place May 6? If Francoise Hollande wins, Americans should…
Why Obama’s Iran Strategy is All Wrong
The good news: We now have a new set of talks on Iran’s nuclear program scheduled for mid April in Istanbul. The bad news: Washington and its allies have not prepared the ground for these talks. We are a negotiating…
Unthinkable: Conflict between Israel and Iran
The guessing game as to whether sanctions imposed last month against Iran for its nuclear program will work is over. They are already working. This past week the Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, struck a notably conciliatory tone as…
Euro Zone Debacle: This Week Could End the Crisis
This could well be the week the eurozone crisis advances toward a credible resolution. We have heard this before, so it is too soon to exhale, but if all goes according to plan, a way through Europe’s currency and economic…
U.S. China Policy: A Snake with Three Heads
It’s dismaying to consider that the world’s largest economy may not know what it’s doing when faced with the planet’s No. 2 economy (and one of the fastest growing). But three of Washington’s most recent moves toward mainland China—the security…
Why America Isn’t Headed for a ‘Lost Decade’
You have a country with a banking crisis that spreads to the financial markets. Then a puffy bubble in the real estate market pops. After that, there’s a persistent overhang of private-sector debt, and everyone starts deleveraging. This last renders…
Japan Snaps Back, Moody’s Drops Credit Rating. Huh?
This week Japan became the latest nation to get a downgrade from one of the rating agencies that seem to whizz around the world pronouncing this economy or that unworthy of its previous status. On Wednesday, Moody’s dropped Japan from…
Do’s and Don’ts of a Post Qaddafi U.S. Policy
“American aid, not American troops,” President Obama declared from a Martha’s Vineyard vacation house on Monday as news of Tripoli’s fall toinsurgent forces flowed in. In five simple words, the President described a fundamental turn in U.S. policy abroad – a…
America’s Dangerously Out-of-Date View of China
America’s sluggish insistence that China remains a security threat as opposed to a powerful economic reality is leading to lost opportunities. Not quite four decades after Nixon visited Mao, the U.S. is still reluctant to see an emergent China for…
Maybe We’re Not So Dependent on China
Central bankers are always secretive about what they do with their reserves, and China’s are no different. They’ve been hinting for years that they were tired of the risks associated with having too much of their hard-earned cash sitting in…
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