Another reduction to the Federal Reserve’s funds rate, the interest banks charge each other on overnight loans, is all but certain to be announced tomorrow. The Fed’s funds rate is already near historical lows at 1.0% but most economists expect the Federal Reserve to cut the rate in half to 0.5%. Some economists are even pushing for a more aggressive three-quarters of a point reduction. Their argument is that such a cut might cushion some of the economic fallout and prevent a tailspin. Well, I think that’s already too late. I think I am sanguine when I say we’ll be lucky to lose only 750,000 jobs next year.
My sense is that a fed rate cut is spit in the ocean. Not that I am against the rate cut, it should be cut, but rather that the cut in and of itself isn’t likely to spur the American economy much less the global economy. The bitter truth is that we have reached the end of monetary policy as an instrument. To spur the economy, we really waiting on President Obama’s fiscal stimulus. Only a Keynesian style investment program is likely to soften the edges of the economic downturn.
Defectors from South Africa’s ruling African National Congress have come together to create the new Congress of the People party, COPE. They plan to contest in next years national election and hope to take away the ANC’s two thirds majority in parliament. Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith reports from Bloemfontein, where four thousand COPE members gathered to celebrate the creation of the party.
The fledgling Congress of the People already has 40 000 members, interim provincial co-ordinator Leonard Ramatlakane told 330 delegates at the party’s policy conference.
Some of the issues grappled with included ensuring food security, enhancing the education system, building a strong and effective criminal justice system, building stronger families, and changing the electoral system.
The conference was held at the Manzomthombo Senior Secondary School in Mfuleni on Saturday and attracted delegates from across the Western Cape.
Ramatlakane said the party, due to be formally launched in Bloemfontein on December 16, had thousands of volunteers offering their time and using their own money as they went about recruiting people.
This week leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean will meet in the Brazilian city of Salvador de Bahía for a Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Integration and Development. Apparently, it is causing consternation and concern among US foreign policy experts that the United States has been excluded from the gathering. From Bloomberg News:
Latin American and Caribbean leaders gathering in Brazil tomorrow will mark a historic occasion: a region-wide summit that excludes the United States.
Almost two centuries after President James Monroe declared Latin America a U.S. sphere of influence, the region is breaking away. From socialist-leaning Venezuela to market-friendly Brazil, governments are expanding military, economic and diplomatic ties with potential U.S. adversaries such as China, Russia and Iran.
“Monroe certainly would be rolling over in his grave,” says Julia Sweig, director of the Latin America program at the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington and author of the 2006 book “Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century.”
The U.S., she says, “is no longer the exclusive go-to power in the region, especially in South America, where U.S. economic ties are much less important.”
Since November, Russian warships have engaged in joint naval exercises with Venezuela, the first in the Caribbean since the Cold War; Chinese President Hu Jintao signed a free-trade agreement with Peru; and Brazil invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a state visit.
“While the U.S. remains aloof from a region it no longer sees as relevant to its strategic interests, other countries are making unprecedented, serious moves to fill the void,” says Luiz Felipe Lampreia, Brazil’s foreign minister from 1995 until 2001. “Countries in the region are more aware than ever that they live in a globalized, post-American world.”
“Our demand is that there be no civilian casualties in Afghanistan. We cannot win the fight against terrorism with airstrikes and battles in Afghanistan’s villages. This is our first and main demand, to stop civilian casualties.” — Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has demanded US President-elect Barack Obama end civilian casualties in Afghanistan. He made the demand after a report that US warplanes bombed a wedding party killing 37 people, including 23 children and 10 women that happened in a remote village in the southern province of Kandahar just six weeks ago. It was the third wedding party hit this year.
The US military said it is investigating the report, but a spokesman added that if innocent people were killed in the operation, the military apologizes and expresses condolences. Imagine their relief.
The latest figures from the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, taken a month ago, suggest that about 750 civilians have been killed by NATO forces this year. Most were killed in air strikes. We are trying to fight the Afghan war on the cheap and in the process not only bombing a country of rubble into further rubble, we are also in danger of turning the population of Afghanistan wholly against us. We are fighting this war largely from the air, after all, the Taliban doesn’t have a air force. We do this in part because we want to minimize our own level of casualties. But it’s wrong both morally and tactically.
t was 7.30 on a hot July morning when the plane came swooping low over the remote ravine. Below, a bridal party was making its way to the groom’s village in an area called Kamala, in the eastern province of Nangarhar, to prepare for the celebrations later that day.
The first bomb hit a large group of children who had run on ahead of the main procession. It killed most of them instantly.
A few minutes later, the plane returned and dropped another bomb, right in the centre of the group. This time the victims were almost all women. Somehow the bride and two girls survived but as they scrambled down the hillside, desperately trying to get away from the plane, a third bomb caught them. Hajj Khan was one of four elderly men escorting the bride’s party that day.
“We were walking, I was holding my grandson’s hand, then there was a loud noise and everything went white. When I opened my eyes, everybody was screaming. I was lying metres from where I had been, I was still holding my grandson’s hand but the rest of him was gone. I looked around and saw pieces of bodies everywhere. I couldn’t make out which part was which.”
Relatives from the groom’s village said it was impossible to identify the remains. They buried the 47 victims in 28 graves.
Stories like this are relatively common in today’s Afghanistan. More than 600 civilians have died in NATO and US air strikes this year. The number of innocents killed this way has almost doubled from last year, and tripled from the year before that. These attacks are weakening support for the Afghan government and turning more and more people against the foreign occupation of the country.
We need to fight this war with troops on the ground. There is no question that this will lead to higher numbers of our sons and daughters losing their lives but it will minimize the toll on the Afghan people. We also need to fight this war with roads, schools and clinics. We need to rebuild this country because it is the morally right thing to do.
The New York Times is reporting that Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg has decided that she would like to be considered for the US Senate vacancy left extant by the pending departure of Senator Hillary Clinton as she prepares to head the State Department.
Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of an American political dynasty, has decided to pursue the United States Senate seat being vacated by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.The decision came after a series of deeply personal and political conversations, in which Ms. Kennedy, whom friends describe as unflashy but determined, wrestled with whether to give up what has been a lifetime of avoiding the spotlight.
Kennedy made calls on Monday morning to alert political figures to her interest.
Gov. David A. Paterson of New York confirmed that she was interested in being appointed.
“She told me she was interested in the position,” Mr. Paterson said at a news conference. “She realized it wasnot a campaign, but she was talking to other people because she thought that a number of people, she felt, should know that she’s interested in the position. She’d like at some point to sit down andtell me what she thinks her qualifications are.”
As the world financial crisis is lowering consumers’ ability to buy, less goods are shipped, which means less work for dockworkers. In this segment from Al Jazeera, Mike Kirsch visits Long Beach, California, one of the largest commercial sea ports in the US where the economic slowdown is clearly visible.
In Tacoma, Washington, total container traffic will fall for the second straight year and the long-term projections don’t look good. The port’s container volume grew 56.6% from 2001 through 2006. From 2006 through 2011, port projections show, container volume will drop 13.8%.
There is one part of the port business that is thriving, leasing space for foreign automakers as inventories pile up. From Left Lane News:
The Port of Long Beach recently leased an additional 23 acres of car storage to Toyota, with Mercedes-Benz leasing an additional 20 acres.
But the inventory problem isn’t just unique to Toyota and Mercedes-Benz. Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Kia, Mazda and Volkswagen are all experiencing higher than usual inventories around the country, with most needing to lease extra storage space.
While some Americans still view the economic downturn as an excuse by the Big Three for lower auto sales, the slumping economy is clearly impacting all automakers equally. In fact, Toyota has been forced to cut Camry and Corolla production – two of the best-selling cars in the country – amid the market plunge.
When Adam Jackson got sick of loud noise and crime in his gritty Tenderloin neighborhood here in San Francisco, he pointed a webcam out his window and posted the recordings on YouTube and soon on a dedicated website, Adam’s Block. He’s gotten more than half a million hits. He’s also gotten death threats.
San Francisco’s Tenderloin has long been considered one of the city’s grittier neighborhoods, but now an intersection in that area is receiving new notoriety on the internet because of a web cam set up by a local resident to stream images live on the net.
Adam Jackson, the creator of the web site, held a fundraiser at Lefty O’Doul’s Monday night to try to raise money to get a better camera to show the world what happens outside his apartment window.
The site is called Adam’s Block. It documents 24-hours-a-day the activities that take place at the corner of Ellis and Taylor streets. From Street fights to break-ins to high-speed chases, it’s a gritty dose of reality from what Jackson calls the worst neighborhood in San Francisco.
In the short time the site has been up, he says it’s caught the attention of hundreds of thousands of viewers around the world.
One clip is called “K-O” and features a man being punched and knocked to the street and left laying in traffic. Another clip from Halloween shows dozens of bicyclists blocking the intersection as they ride through the tenderloin.
Another shows a man throwing his body against a bus. Yet another shows a man kicking a lady as she lies on the sidewalk. Adam says he wanted to show the world what was keeping him up at night.
He doesn’t watch every minute, but a lot of others who do are getting involved.
“I’ve had people in Idaho see cars being broken into and call the police,” said Jackson. “I’ve filled out two police reports now.
“The web camera has been up 5 1/2 weeks. San Francisco police say they just became aware of it last week. While none of the Adam’s Block videos have been used in court, officers say the presence of this and other cameras has an impact.
Adam’s camera captured a police chase where a car was dragging a police bicycle it had run over. He also caught a street fight and the following police response.
Many in the neighborhood have become aware that their actions could be videotaped. Police say crime at the corner has dropped in the last two weeks. But some say they don’t think the camera will make a big difference.
Adam’s quest to raise money ended Monday when someone donated a high-definition camera to use for the site. In the coming days, there will be two cameras and eventually a parabolic microphone aimed at that intersection. [KTVU.com]
The Tenderloin is a tough place and it’s dead in the center of San Francisco just three blocks west of Union Square. From Taylor Street it runs west until the Civic Center area around City Hall and Hastings College of Law. From Market it runs north up to Sutter Street. The urban blight is worse around Golden Gate and Jones Streets. Once filled with fashionable turn of the century apartment housings the area has long been runned down. On the margin, there has been improvement especially around our growing little Saigon and little Rangoon stretches of Larkin street.