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James Pethokoukis posts on today’s central bank actions.
What just happened?
The world’s major central banks acted jointly on Wednesday to provide cheaper dollar liquidity to starved European banks facing a credit crunch as the euro zone’s sovereign debt crisis threatened to bring financial disaster. The surprise emergency move by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the central banks of Britain, Canada and Switzerland recalled coordinated action to steady global markets in the 2008 financial crisis. (via Reuters)
The move makes clear that regulators increasingly are concerned about the strain that the European debt crisis is placing on financial companies, which are facing increasing difficulty in borrowing through normal channels the money that they need to fund their operations and obligations. (via the NYTimes) …
Caroline Glick writes on our withdrawal from Iraq.
Next month, America’s long campaign in Iraq will come to an end with the departure of the last US forces from the country.
Amazingly, the approaching withdrawal date has fomented little discussion in the US. Few have weighed in on the likely consequences of President Barack Obama’s decision to withdraw on the US’s hard won gains in that country.
After some six thousand Americans gave their lives in the struggle for Iraq and hundreds of billions of dollars were spent on the war, it is quite amazing that its conclusion is being met with disinterested yawns.
The general stupor was broken last week with The Weekly Standard’s publication of an article titled, “Defeat in Iraq: President Obama’s decision to withdraw US troops is the mother of all disasters.”
The article was written by Frederick and Kimberly Kagan and Marisa Cochrane Sullivan.
The Kagans contributed to conceptualizing the US’s successful counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq, popularly known as “the surge,” that president George W. Bush implemented in 2007.
In their article, the Kagans and Sullivan explain the strategic implications of next month’s withdrawal. …
… The lion’s share of responsibility for this dismal state of affairs lies with former president Bush and his administration. While the Left didn’t want to fight or defeat the forces of radical Islam after September 11, the majority of Americans did. And by catering to the Left and refusing to identify the enemy, Bush adopted war-fighting tactics that discredited the war effort and demoralized and divided the American public, thus paving the way for Obama to be elected while running on a radical anti-war platform of retreat and appeasement.
Since Obama came into office, he has followed the Left’s ideological guidelines of ending the fight against and seeking to appease America’s worst enemies. This is why he has supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. This is why he turned a blind eye to the Islamists who dominated the opposition to Gaddafi. This is why he has sought to appease Iran and Syria. This is why he supports the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Syrian opposition. This is why he supports Turkey’s Islamist government. And this is why he is hostile to Israel.
And this is why come December 31, the US will withdraw in defeat from Iraq, and pro- American forces in the region and the US itself will reap the whirlwind of Washington’s irresponsibility.
There is a price to be paid for calling an enemy an enemy. But there is an even greater price to be paid for failing to do so.
Toby Harnden says the president’s dovish tone has caused problems.
Sitting in a bland conference room one evening last week, a focus group of seven Republican-leaning suburban voters from the crucial swing state of Virginia mused about America’s foreign policy in the light of the 2012 election.
A group of us were in a a darkened room next door observing through a one-way mirror. The candidate preferences of the seven broadly reflected national polls: two gung-ho for Newt Gingrich, two undecided and three for Mitt Romney, though none of them especially enthusiastic about it.
It was no shocker that they were down on President Barack Obama. What was surprising, though, was that all seven thought he was bringing troops back from Iraq and Afghanistan precipitately.
More broadly, there was a consensus that their president was ineffectual. “Obama is giving things away,” said a man who works as a mortgage broker and coaches Little League baseball. “If say we’ll be out of X county by Y date you’ve already weakened your bargaining power because they don’t know if you have will to fight.”
An Asian-American man, who was the best-versed on politics, said: “The President wants to be amiable but that doesn’t work in foreign policy. We’re not conveying strength we have.” What Americans were looking for, he ventured, was a switch “in tone” to “someone seeming to stand up for country, rallying for country, fighting for the country – whereas Obama’s trying to everyone as equals, trying to be fair”.
How can it be that a US commander-in-chief who ordered the killing of Osama bin Laden, has increased drone strikes in Pakistan sevenfold, arranged for Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen, to be taken out in Yemen and protected the American homeland from terrorist attack for three years is seen as weak? …
Forbes’ Sally Pipes welcomes Wal-Mart’s health care clinics.
Earlier this month, Wal-Mart dropped a bombshell on the health care industry. A memo from the retail giant obtained by National Public Radio revealed that the company would seek partners to help it “dramatically . . . lower the cost of health care . . . by becoming the largest provider of primary health care services in the nation.”
That’s great news for American consumers. Retail health clinics like those operated by Wal-Mart and its peers represent crucial components of our nation’s drive to expand access to affordable health care.
Wal-Mart already operates about 140 retail clinics. Nationwide, there are now more than 1,000 such clinics, where consumers can get a variety of treatments for common ailments like colds or ear infections for less than the cost of a visit to the doctor’s office.
Not everyone supports the rapid expansion of retail clinics. Some doctors, for instance, question whether the nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants that treat most patients at the clinics are equipped with the proper tools and skills to deliver high-quality care.
Their fears are generally unfounded. Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, a professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and RAND Institute researcher, examined the comparative quality of treatment at retail clinics in a 2009 study for Annals of Internal Medicine.
The results? …
WSJ Editors say goodbye Barney.
… Few House Members have made a bigger legislative mark, and arguably no one so expensively. Mr. Frank deserves to be forever remembered—and we’ll help everyone remember him—as the nation’s leading protector of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before their fall. For years Barney helped block meaningful reform of the mortgage giants while pushing an “affordable housing” agenda that helped to enlarge the subprime mortgage industry.
“I do think I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness that we have in OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] and OTS [Office of Thrift Supervision],” Mr. Frank said on September 25, 2003, in one of his many legendary rhetorical hits. “I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing.” The dice came up snake-eyes for the housing market and U.S. economy. …
Michael Graham is less polite.
Two generations ago, Will Rogers noted that the problem with Congress was that, when they told a joke, it became a law; and when they passed a law, it was a joke. And one of America’s biggest — and most expensive — political jokes has finally gotten to the punchline:
Barney Frank is leaving office at the end of his term. Maybe he just wants to spend more quality time with his pot-growing prostitute friends in the sub-prime lending business.
I apologize for the mean-spiritedness of that last comment. It’s particularly mean-spirited because it’s demonstrably true.
A sitting congressman re-elected after his boyfriend is busted for running a male prostitution ring out of the congressman’s condo? Amazing. Re-elected after it’s discovered another boyfriend helps run a major money-losing government agency “regulated” by the congressman’s committee? Astounding. But after a third boyfriend is busted for growing pot while you’re sitting on his front porch?
Words fail. Then again, so did the voters who kept this joke going. …
Late Night with Andrew Malcolm.
Leno: Some bad news. You have probably heard that the congressional Supercommmitee failed to solve the national deficit problem with $1.2 trillion in savings. The best idea the members could come up with was a bake sale.
Fallon: Well, President Obama is back now from another bunch of his trips. The last one he was in Asia where he got to see all kinds of stuff that he never sees at home, like jobs.