OLD BORDERS, NEW REALITIES

By Joe Klein, October 8 The next U.S. President will confront a Middle East that looks nothing like the past. Barack Obama told 60 minutes, “This is going to be a rock path,” referring to the turmoil in the Middle East. It was mainly caused by Europeans’ fantastic drawing of borderlines when they divided the Ottoman Empire. The lines produced the countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, and Israel. The lines were drawn after WWI regardless of the tribal and sectarian geography. The new President will have to face the unrealistic borderlines. Romney’s proposal to improve schools and justice systems in Arab countries showed that he is for a moment a plausible candidate. (109 words)

HEIRS OF REAGAN'S OPTIMISM

By Fareed Zakaria / September 17, 2012

Role reversal: Democrats are the ones celebrating America’s promise
 
Today the Republican Party seems to have a powerful nostalgia for an America that has gone away. Reagan was said to be three parts optimism and one part nostalgia. Bob Dole attacked those who believed the U.S. had improved over the past decades. Nostalgia is now commonplace on the right. Tea Party loves an America that is an abstraction or a memory. America today has changed. Many immigrants, liberated women and gays, myriad government programs, and open trade seem to scare the nostalgic Republicans. The Republican Party has an important message for America today, but to sell it, it should understand and appreciates today’s America. (105 words)

Britain Won the Games and Lost the Plot

 by Nick Cohen / August 13, 2012

Britain may look confident to the eyes of the Olympics spectators, but its leaders are clueless. The Games are going rather well, but a small incident illuminates the wider malaise. Once, Britain’s future seemed clear. It would abandon manufacturing and embrace services. However, the 2008 crash crushed old illusions and paralyzed the British political class. The City could never return to the wild days of the bubble. The “normal” is over and gone. The Olympic opening ceremony revealed that Britain had had a glorious millennium but that its future would be clueless, as the ceremony failed to show anything worth mentioning.

Greek Lessons in East Germany by Peter Gumbel

　　Could the restructuring of the former GDR show the way? 　　There are two analogies concerning the economic recovery of Greece. One is found in Argentina, which experienced an economic rebound. The other is the comparison with the former East Germany. Argentina’s recovery was led by exports of commodities. However, this does not apply to Greek because Greece does not have commodities. The GDR way—patience and rigor eventually pay off. German Chancellor Anglela Merkel’s dogged insistence will recover Greek economy if Greece is willing to accept top-to-bottom institutional reform in such points as a new tax code, propriety rights, and legal, social, and financial structures. Slashing labor costs is also needed to boost competitiveness. 104 words

Fiddling While Rome Burns

 Written by Stephan Faris (TIME May 14,2012)

   Italy’s failed politicians cling to power even as the country’s woes linger.

An Italian comedian Beppe Grillo is organizing nationwide protests against governmental corruption called “Go F Yourself” days. Italy’s politics has stagnated. Political parties change frequently through splits and mergers. Corruption scandals are competing for column inches. Public confidence in the political class is in the single digits. 11.6% of the workforce had given up looking for work. The official unemployment rate is 9.8%. However, maverick mayoral candidates in Milan and Florence have challenged their party hierarchies and won. The message should not be “button down,” but “open up.” 100 words

THE SAVIOR OF EUROPE

WORLDVIEW (March 5, 2012) by Fareed Zakaria

The Savior of Europe. Mario Draghi just bought his continent—and the rest of the world—some breathing room.

　　Because Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank, printed about $600 billion so that Europe’s banks would be able to borrow as much money as they wanted at the rate of 1%. Thanks to the printing, European stocks had their best January in nearly 15 years. Draghi’s action is not a new model because the Federal Reserve in U.S. did the same four years ago although it was criticized by many. Japan’s central bank also printed trillions of yen to stabilize the economy after the Great Tsunami in March. The fear of inflation is justified, but it will not happen at a time when unemployment is sky-high. If the lenders of last resort had not done it, we would be discussing how to get out of a global Great Depression.
(148 words)

IS HUGO CHAVEZ IN TERMINAL DECLINE?

ESSAY (March 19, 2012) by Jorge Castaneda

Venezuela’s influential President could lose re-election if voters believe he is dying. Although the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez underwent cancer surgery in Cuba, he is campaigning for the upcoming presidential election. We do not know what sort of cancer he is suffering from, but we do now know it is grave and recurrent. If he is seriously ill, the electorate may not believe he is capable of governing for another six years. This matters for the following three reasons: (1) Chaves’s role in relation to Cuba is crucial for Cuba because Cuba depends on Venezuelan oil and subsidies. (2) Chaves’s departure from the Latin American political scene would weaken pro-Chavez governments like Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua. (3) If Chavez is no longer president, Cuba, Iran, and Syria will lose a valuable and irreplaceable ally. (134 words)