The World Last Week
[Ed: Another late one, apologies]
-Azerbaijan had another election. Another fraudulent, unfair election.
-China ordered another official recall of milk and milk products made before September 14th. Good job jumping right on top of this one. The world is so impressed by your timely concern.
-Another evacuation of Iraqi Christians occurred, this time in Mosul following the murder of twelve by Sunni Muslims.
-The United Arab Emirates are getting into the bank bail out action, pledging an additional $19 billion. Hey--if everybody else is doing it, why not have everybody else do it.
-Or you could just go the Russian route and stop customers from withdrawing funds, which is exactly what the Russian government did to those who were worried that Globex was going to collapse.
-Last weeks "face value" piece must've given Sheila Bair a feeling of power, as the head of America's FDIC decided to break ranks and openly criticize the American bail-out plan for not helping more homeowners avoid foreclosure.
-They had to add another digit to that "national debt clock" they have in New York. Not sure why.
-According to a bipartisan report, Sarah Palin did use all the powers of government at hand to get her sisters ex-husband fired from his job as an Alaskan state trooper. If true, totally unethical. That aside, I have a sister, and if some ex of hers had threatened her with violence, I think I would've enjoyed the opportunity of getting him fired from his job. Not saying that makes it okay--just saying it's yet another reason why I should never be elected governor of Alaska. I'm totally unethical. And dumb!
-Citigroup has decided that they want to fight Wells Fargo's acquisition of Wachovia, which has gone from an ugly prom date with consumption to a hottie with potential, yet one who still has consumption.
-Henry Paulson admitted that, like most Americans, he didn't find the prospect of investing $250 billion in the countries banks appetizing, but pointed out that it wasn't like most Americans had come up with a better plan. Also, his old football nickname is "The Hammer." Bring it.
Leaders
-In cursory fashion, it's been noted here that the Economist has been one of the few canaries screaming that the current economic crisis has been in the cards for years, but that doesn't do much to lessen what has to be one of the most unique op-eds they've published--namely, one that goes all the way back 165 years to talk about the principles that founded the magazine: economic liberty. (Originally they wrote extensively against protectionist corn laws, if you care.) The article itself exists for one reason, and that's to say that capitalism will, and must, survive whatever is to come as the economic crisis takes its toll. For a newspaper that prides itself on what is often derided as a detached, clinical tone, this is one of the most passionate articles I've seen it publish.
-Hey, I haven't seen the word "pusillanimity" dropped in--well, probably not since I read some Harold Bloom, he's just about the only person I can think of who keeps that one in their wheelhouse. It shows up here, in this pointed critique of the European Union's apparent decision to go ahead and negotiate a new trading partnership with Russia despite them still clearly occupying portions of Georgia. (And even though this specific article is a week old, the Russian military is still, under orders directly from Vladimir Putin, not permitting civilian EU observers into South Ossetia and Abkhazia.) While the trading partnerships with Russia are an obvious necessity for EU countries, as the majority of Europeans are unlikely to be willing to forcibly enter an energy crisis (which would ensue immediately without Russian oil), the lack of EU spine is, even from a kind standpoint, pathetic.
-Last week, I whined that the Economist had nothing to say about the current state of Zimbabwe, which is, as you probably are aware, "shitty." They don't print my letters, but they must read them spiritually, because here's an article that calls upon the age-old wisdom of Axl Rose, demanding that South Africa's new leaders "step into the ring." You can pretty much guess what they want--somebody to stand up to Mugabe--but that doesn't make the op-ed any less valuable. Here's the way I see it: you don't stop talking about putting a leash on Mugabe until it happens. The dude has gotten away with this shit for too long.
-Here's a long briefing piece about the Caucasus, one that actually quotes a lyric from that old Pavement song on that weirdly seminal anthology No Alternative, which at one point supplanted Appetite for Destruction as the CD that every white boy in high school had, despite it having a Sarah Mclachlan song on it. If you care to know about the countries that Russia may invade before they invade them, then hey: I'm your huckleberry.
Letters
-Although I quite like this old joke, brought to the letters column by Steve Brickle, I recognize that's because I'm a fucking nerd: "There are three kinds of economists: those that can count and those that can't." In all honesty though, not much comes close to trumping Lieutenant-Colonel Mark Brown, who writes in to say that a poorly attributed quote from a recent interview with Joseph Rouge led to a minor scandal in the US congressional and Defense Department offices. It's a nice wrist slap from a guy who could've been a lot meaner.
United States
-According to the Economist, as well as--well, probably any and everybody except John McCain's mother--Barack Obama won the last debate, which makes for a full sweep. However, the Economist points out that the third debate--like all the others preceding it--still failed to produce a cogent and succinct answer to the question of how the financial crisis and the ensuing bank bail-out will change all the new spending programs that both candidates continue to trumpet. Part of that is a mugs game--if John McCain does win, little of what he has to offer is capable of making it past what is quite clearly going to be a Democratic House and Senate--but it doesn't change the obvious truth that neither men ever tackled the question with any sort of depth or honesty. But then again, nobody probably expected them to--as the Economist acknowledged weeks ago, debates are a game of rhetoric.
-Here's some fact checking on recent statements by Obama and McCain. (Due to what I can only imagine is this articles personal politics, the McCain example is less controversial, but that's the way it goes with the Economist.)
Statement: Obama claims that John McCain "sold out" factory workers in Pennsylvania when the factory closed and the equipment was sent to China. (McCain had voted against cracking down on China's unfair trade practices.)
Fact: The factory made cathode ray tubes. Of course it closed down. It made cathode ray tubes. Also, the equipment that went to China? Spare machine parts. Also, the Chinese? Not making cathode ray tubes either.
Statement: McCain claimed that he stood up to Ronald Reagen over sending marines to Beirut.
Fact: That would have been quite a feat, because Reagen had already sent the marines to Lebanon before McCain was elected to Congress. (He did later vote against extending their deployment.)
-Lexington produced the most interesting American article in his itemized column about what John McCain would have to do to win, in that magic world where McCain's advisors (or any Presidential candidate in recent memory) were as smart as Lexington. First up, McCain should be focusing his negative attack ads on Barack Obama's lack of serious ties with American business, second, that it does no good for America to have single-party rule, especially when facing an economic climate that demands broad negotiation, third--and honestly, I think McCain is already doing this one enough (and it isn't working out for him) focus on Barack Obama's lack of experience standing up to the Democratic party. While the polls don't indicate that McCain will be President in his current lifetime, Lexington's article is still pretty jazzy stuff.
-The percentage of American wages that employers have to contribute for health insurance has gone up about 7% since 1960--half of that in the last decade alone--and it is estimated to go up another 6% next year. While "conventional economic theory" leads the argument that the expense shouldn't be one of major difference to commercial employers, as they've either got to pay employees or pay for insurance, the expanding relationship with a global economy (a global economy that doesn't pay anywhere near as much tax to support state health systems as America does) is beginning to shift the previous support that industry had given to the American health care system. It's a valuable article, this one--and it's an indication of yet another possible shift in a long-running portion of the American system being led by commerce. As was brought up in The Economist months ago, every major car manufacturer in the world is racing to bring both hybrid and full-electric cars to market, but not because of government sponsored tax rebates, glowering maverick politicians or golden tongued preachers of hopes. Simply because it's the smarter thing to do for business--and if the health insurance system in America changes as well, it looks like industry will be the ones responsible for that as well.
The Americas
-The people of Canada didn't give Stephen Harper a majority in parliament, but they didn't kick him and his Conservative party out of office. Him sticking around is exactly what the Economist wanted, so they seem pleasantly happy and would like to spend two pages telling you why. I can't tell you if that's worth your time, and I'm not going to gild the lily on this one: this is one boring article. Canadian local news must be really tragic.
-The economic crisis didn't strike Brazil and Mexico until October 6th, but when it did--it hit far harder then anyone expected. Within days, the value of the Brazilian real and Mexican peso plunged, and foreign investors began clearing the countries, selling whatever Latin American assets they had. While things have roughly stabilized for now, it's dependent on how long the governments will be capable of borrowing whether or not this was the worst they'll experience or not.
-After almost five years, 13 Caribbean countries (including Dominican Republic, Suriname & Guyana) finally finished negotiations with the European Union and approved the Economic Partnership Agreement. The EPA will guarantee that all Caribbean exports are duty-free to EU importers, in return, the Caribbean countries will have gotten rid of 87% of their own duties on EU imports by 2033. It's an interesting agreement, and although the article can only guess at the future ramifications, worth keeping an eye on.
Asia
-Conflict in Thailand between anti-government (and pro-monarchy) protesters and, well, whomever they can find on the streets to fight with continued. The government was finally able to get the police involved, only for them to be attacked by protesters. The end result--hospitalization on both sides--was then followed by public support from Queen Sirikit and Princess Chulabhorn for a dead protester, in stark contrast to a September death the royal family had ignored. After a bit of an outcry, the Queen extended some concern towards the injured police officers as well, but the intent of the royal family to sit on the sidelines and watch the violence continue was clear. This will not end well.
-Yes, the government of North Korea released some pictures of Kim Jong Il, standing in some kind of garden. (If it matters, his recent illness does not appear to have changed his bizarre appearance.) Almost immediately upon release, both South Korean and American spies released their botanical analysis, saying that the picture looks to be months old. The rest of the article is about how North Korea is finally off the "sponsor terrorism" list, due to them passing out some (though nowhere near all) details about their nuclear program. George Bush has, in a totally ironic moment of audaciousness, taken the credit for it as a "rare foreign policy success," when even the most jingofied American has to realize that any credit is due to the participation of the Chinese government in the negotiations, as well as the horrific rate of starvation that's become endemic across North Korea in recent months.
-Meanwhile, as the American presidential election rages on and the financial crisis continues to wreak havoc, Afghanistan continues it's prolific spiral downward into a blood soaked hell. (Okay, now that's some histrionic exaggeration.) Or maybe it isn't. Besides the Taliban and their allies utilizing the dual pronged approach of both suicide bombing and direct attack on American strongholds, the Americans and British have failed to build anything comparable to the Iraqi national army, instead propping up a meager Afghan police force with deputized bandits. Additional airborne slaughter of civilians, both Afghan and Pakistani alike, has served as the best insurgent recruitment platform possible. On top of that, the Dutch, the Canadians and, by many accounts, the British as well, have set in motion plans to abandon the conflict. A new plan is needed if this adventure is to continue--a new plan that is clearly being made to wait until the White House officially changes hands. As the Economist points out, that may be too long.
Middle East and Africa
-In the category which is news stories that rarely change, the champion of 2008 might be the West Bank--has any major development happened there since January? Here's the Economist's take on the coming struggle between possible prime minister Tzipi Livni and the Israeli settlers in the region. The number of settlements and settlers has grown exponentially while the government sat back, hoping the problem of illegally placed homes would solve itself through....hope? Blind optimism? Stupidity? Now, the conflict between an Israeli government and it's own citizens may finally be given the spotlight.
-After last weeks "let's all be positive about Africa" tea party, it's time once again to stick your face into the meat blender called the Congo and see how the other half lives. To be more specific, oh shit that's great, the Congo and Rwanda are driving lockstep down a highway towards full tilt war--and let's all remember that war in Africa makes Abu Gharib photography look like a toddler's tea party. Part of the cause can be nailed, Martin Luther style, to the door of the United Nations, who have shown no realistic sign that they'll be sending the agreed-upon thousands of peacekeepers to Darfur. The rest is pretty much back to the breakdown of January's peace deal which has resulted in a full scale war between Tutsi rebels and Congolese army. On top of that, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda continues to wander around picking fights wherever they can, something that's pretty much their modus operandi: they are, after all, made up of the exact same Hutu extremists that were behind the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. (Oh yeah. None of those guys ever went to jail or anything.) Nasty stuff. Thank goodness the world doesn't care unless there's a Don Cheadle movie to watch.
-There are two place-filler articles in the Middle East section this week, one that's time-intensive and the other that could be placed in just about any issue the Economist publishes this year. Nice build up, and here they are: a short, almost non-informative piece about the climax of Nigeria's durbar, a parade that just ended in the city of Kano, and the other, a background/current status piece on the island of Mauritius, which is about 1,100 miles off the coast of East Africa. Building off a history of sugar cane, they've survived the 2005 collapse of a hometown textile industry and continue to, as the magazine puts it, "confound the skeptics."
Europe
-Huge bank bail outs? Let's boil it down.
France will give forty billion Euros to fill up bank's empty coffers, as well as guarantee 320 billion euros in loans. The loans come with the allowance for the French government to control bosses' pay. Unlike America or Britain, French banks aren't immediately getting in line--they've only bailed out a small bank so far, and that was one that was half Belgian. (Of course, if you think Barack Obama is a socialist, then you probably have to look at France as--I don't know the history of communism. Come up with a extreme version of communism, like anarcho-syndicalism, and that's what some people probably think France is.)
Germany will guarantee 400 billion euros so that banks can loan to each other, and their immediate cash refill will top out at 80 billion euros. Germany is also serving up the most optimistic take on the whole crisis, listing all their deals as ending smack at the end of 2009. Unlikely, but hey. Hope is fun.
Italy is still dicking around, arguing that hedge funds should be abolished worldwide, that the World Bank and the IMF should be given a stronger hand in controlling global finance, and also calling for all men to wear christmas tree ornaments from their testicles. Well, maybe not the last one, but it's about as likely as the rest of their "ideas." Jesus, Italy. Do you even think before you open your mouth?
Spain is actually doing alright--no banks need bailing out so far. Of course, they don't have that far to go, since they are a Socialist-led country already, so it's not like nationalizing industry won't go over well. But behind the curtain of the future, take a look at the shrinking Spanish economy, the already-burst housing bubble and an explosive unemployment rate--and Spain starts looking pretty rough as well.
-German schools are bad, bad, bad, so bad that they could watch the fourth season of the Wire and pretty much think "God, that looks amazing, let's be more like that." The German people know this as well, which is definitely part of the reason for the above mentioned stance that the financial crisis will be over by 12/31/09--it has to be, because Germany's main problem after the repair of banks is going to be their complete lack of a working population with the ability to read or do simple mathematics. There's a lot of bold ideas in the offering--this article handles quite a few--but no indication that the conservative educators controlling the purse strings are taking it as seriously as they should.
-Italian schools aren't looking much better, but at least they are taking it totally seriously: the big plan on tap is to bring back the grembiuli, which is a smock. For kids to wear. Apparently, in Italy, when facing a problem with education that's partly due to a supreme rule by unions, part terrible test scores, and part a terrible payment structure for educators, the way the government responds is by making everybody dress like Plato. Genius.
Britain
-Not a lot in the British section this week, so let's deal quickly and move on, with a nod of respect: Scottish independence may be back on the cooker for a while, since Scotland is fiscally incapable of handling the cost of the bank bailouts by itself, Bagehot is quietly furious that Gordon Brown is reaping some positive public relations for his work in the financial crisis (god, Bagehot is pissed), and once again, it's time for another "dear God the worst is yet to come for the British economy" articles. As this financial crisis drags on, I continue to wonder when it's going to come that I open to this section and it's just a drawing of the London Parliament on fire, with Gordon Brown running around naked and cackling. The Economist seems to think that might be in the cards.
International
-Hey, when you get down worrying about the financial crisis, bloodshed in the Middle East, bloodshed in Iraq, bloodshed in Africa, Russian invasions, who you're going to cry to when your presidential candidate loses, who you're going to cry to when your presidential candidate wins but doesn't fix your gutters, make sure you carve out some time to be all concerned and stuff about the extinction of all different kinds of animals. Alternatively, get drunk and catch up on The Shield. Walt Goggins is blowing minds weekly.
-Okay, the basic premise of these rundowns is that I'm not very smart, which is totally true and not a put-on: I'm not very smart. So somebody who is--tell me why the Economist keep saying "jaw-jaw is better than war-war?" It's the third time I've seen the phrase come up in six months, and sure, I bet I could google it--hell, you can google anything. But that's cheating. What the hell does it mean? And one more thing: no more of these short, poorly thought out articles about religions talking to each other but not accomplishing anything. Either a long one or nothing.
Business
-How much longer can Carrefour, the world's second largest retailer, last? The board may fire their current chief executive, profits have fallen short of expectations for three years running and the share price has dropped by 50% since the beginning of the year. The only possible solution may be slashing prices, which Carrefour has never fully participated in doing, and even then, too much ground may have already been lost. It'll be interesting to see if "second largest retailer" puts it into the club of companies that must be saved for the economy to survive. If it doesn't, and it probably won't, there's a huge swath of industry, as well as all the employees, that will suffer.
-Negotiations of a possible merger between General Motors and Chrysler hit the news circuit, and everybody sits back and says "wow, let's all pretend it's 1988 and this is the most amazing thing ever." Then we all look at the calendar, all the cheap fuel-efficient cars that Toyota makes and realize that a merger between these two companies is like asking a 90 year old man to piggy back on a girl in a wheelchair. See you guys when you aren't a car company anymore! Extra ketchup, just put it in the bag.
-Russell Simmons has come up with a pre-paid charge card that is targeted at people who don't have a bank account, by most accounts, it seems to be doing well. As Simmons puts it, "This card is meant to get people laid, get them feeling dignity." That sounds a bit exploitative, doesn't it? Either way, it doesn't really mesh with the rest of this Face Value piece, one that goes a little too far into the hagiography category. Russell Simmons is a pretty successful guy, with a pretty lengthy career--something tells me that the Economist could've pushed for less of a puff piece. There's a lot of PR quotes here.
-Yahoo Japan suffered a major security breach over the summer, but didn't even attempt to address it until September. By then, around 1.5 million user names had been hacked and the accounts were used to counterfeit luxury items--and the people whose accounts were hacked were hit with the transaction fees. At first, Yahoo ordered the people to pay up, claiming that fraud had not occurred; now that they've had to admit it did, they'll have to reimburse for months of fraud.
Finance and Economics
-The section phones it in a bit, with another "here's what the world is doing" piece not really updated that much from last weeks, but there is a doom and gloom style prognostication about the future of consumer spending. Still, the sense that the newspaper's writers are recovering from last weeks near-20 article high is pretty apparent.
-So that no-real-value story about the possibility of a 2008 sequel to 1987's Wall Street, with the return of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, made it into the Finance and Economics section in the newspaper, and now I've continued the process of returning it to where it was born: on a blog-post, so we can all sigh and bring it up later during one of those "God, they'll make a sequel/remake/prequel out of anything, won't they" conversations.
-For those who read the New York Times editorial page on a regular basis, Paul Krugman is a familiar name--he's the guy who writes those twice-weekly columns about the Bush administration. He's also the Nobel prize winner for economics, an award he received on October 13th for his work on models of international trade and economic geography. Interestingly, both topics are the ones he had launched a project on the year after earning his doctorate. Impressive stuff, and if you've got any taste for the subject, this weeks Economics Focus (a column I rarely link to here, honestly) is pretty fascinating.
-Although the meat of this article is about the question of whether banks should pursue finance from private equity and sovereign wealth funds, what jumped out of me was finding out that, sometime in recent weeks, there was one of those bohemian grove style retreats in Dubai. Creepy. Did they kill hookers? That's what Grant Morrison had led me to believe they do at those things.
Science and Technology
-Guess what just might be smarter then a dog? A wolf! Damn straight, dog. Wolf beats dog, intelligence test style! You can read why if you want, but all I'll ever remember from this article is the basic Trivia Pursuit style knowledge that Dog equals Dumber Then Wolf.
-Certain types of food may hold a key in the combat against addiction to illegal drugs, which is--well, it's nice, I suppose. But then again, they also used to give alcoholics Karo syrup as a remedy, and that didn't work out very well in the long run. The idea of diet swapping, especially when the majority of the people struggling with crack problems are also impoverished and therefore unable to cook up a healthy four course meal of fish sprinkled with almonds alongside fresh leafy greens and various sundries, seems a bit--I don't know. You figure it out. This is just short-sighted, unless the major concern with addiction is helping the "people who have private chefs" contingent.
-Here's a flipside to all those articles that get published about "print being dead." (It is, but that's not what the article is about.) No, this is about all the new developments in using paper to make transistors and circuits--although they can't be miniaturized the same way silicon chip can, they can make simple disposable memory circuits far cheaper then their silicon brethren. So quit your crying, all you publishers. You can be in the technology business! (You still have to fire all your writers.)
Books and Arts
-The Economist went to the well and read the entire 976 page biography of Warren Buffet written by Alice Schroeder, and they've come back and said "hey, this thing wasn't long enough." More to the point, it was too "omigosh you guys Warren Buffet is really super smart and a totally nice guy" and less "detailed anaylsis of his investment record." In fact, the Economist goes so far as to recommend that, if you're interested in Buffet the intelligent investor, you should read his own collected essays and annual reports. Those, however, will not cover in great detail the massive amount of money that the man is giving to the Gates Foundation in charitable donation or background information on his marraige. So it's a mixed bag.
-Margaret Atwood, who most people know as the woman who won a Booker Prize for her book The Blind Assassin, has published a book transcribing her radio talks about the concept of debt, both financial and philosophical. The Economist recommends it with a bit of a caveat, the caveat being that they don't necessarily agree with some of her conclusions.
-Alexander Rose wrote a book called American Rifle: A Biography, and I'm pretty sure that there isn't a single person who can't judge a book called by that title as to whether or not they want to read it. It sounds like it might be sort of interesting, but something tells me that you'll probably find yourself enjoying a book about specific wars and such more then you would a book about the history of a country-specific gun. Which is what this is. And it's 512 pages.
-Milan Kundera may have once sent a friend of a friend off to torture and a 14 year stint in a labor camp when he was a young man. I guess that's The Unbearable Lightness Of Being An Untrustworthy Dick. No, but seriously, that's fucked up.
-Lastly, both these books sound pretty great--We Saw Spain Die: Foreign Correspondents in the Spanish Civil War and Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters who Revolutionized American Music--but American book buyers are only on track to receive one in hardcover. Guess which one!
Obituary: Jorg Haider
-And if you were trying to figure out what the inflammatory title of the post refers to, here it is, in all it's exaggerated glory. Jorg Haider was an Austrian politician who recently re-assumed the leadership of the Alliance for Austria's Future, a political party that had received 11% of the vote in September's recent election. To be abundantly clear: Jorg Haider wasn't a Nazi, tried and true. His father and mother were. Jorg had called Hitler's employment policies "orderly" in contrast to the modern Austrian governments. He'd spent vacation time with former SS officers. He was an unrepentant snake of a man, who built a political party and career exploiting the racism and ignorance of a few, and somehow--through whatever means he thought necessary--he achieved a decent proportion of electoral support. His death isn't a reason to cheer or celebrate; after all, it isn't like the 11% of Austrian voters who believed in this man have gone away, this man who's main political edge was the one he honed razor sharp, the one dedicated to fighting off the old Austrian phrase Uberfremdung, or "foreigner overrun." (That's an old school term favored by the Nazis and their ilk that he brought back into the public discourse.) Whatever those voters real concerns are, it's up to Austria to answer them without embracing, as Jorg Haider, did, the worst parts of humanity--fear, hatred, and intolerance.
But no, he wasn't a Nazi. He was just a racist asshole, with a lot more intelligence then morality, and he died last week in a drunken car wreck.
All artwork from the Economist unless otherwise noted below.
Christine took that pic of Sir Robert Peel encased in carbonite, the global electoral map is from the Economist website, the face of apathy from the pattaya mail, woman outside West Bank checkpoint from Newsweek , not going to credit a google image search for distilled water but will use this opportunity to say that the new coldplay album is unlistenable trash which I knew before I put it in but it's always nice to have pessimistic assholery reinforced, fx still owns the shield, surprisingly carrefour owns carrefour, the dallas observer came up with the hangover chart and I'd assume the USA network owns Werewolf at this point.
That "jaw-jaw" quote sounds familiar, but I have no idea where I've heard it. My guess, not having read the article or anything, is that it means it's better to talk than fight, diplomacy is better than war, yada yada yada. And since I was curious, I went ahead and googled it for you, and apparently it's a quote by Winston Churchill. Huh.
I know Margaret Atwood as the author of The Handmaid's Tale, although I still need to read that one. Actually, I think the only book of hers I've read is Oryx and Crake, but she has plenty more. I never knew she was an expert in debt and whatnot though.
Posted by: Matthew J. Brady | 2008.10.26 at 11:28
Churchill, of course. They love quoting him.
Posted by: Tucker Stone | 2008.10.26 at 11:34
I'm having a bad week, but I just wanted to say this article has been a bright spot. Thanks!
Posted by: Kenny | 2008.10.30 at 08:41