German Economy Surges Ahead at Record Pace
THE GUARDIAN: Germany's 2.2% growth helps eurozone to outpace US / Every eurozone country except Greece now out of recession / Euro strengthens, with potential threat to Europe's competitiveness

Germany has seen strong demand for exports along with a recovery in construction drive growth higher than market expectations. Photograph: The Guardian
The German economy grew at its fastest pace in the second quarter since the country was reunified two decades ago, fuelling the strongest growth in the eurozone in more than two years.

Europe's largest economy powered ahead between April and June, growing by 2.2%, thanks to a recovery in construction and strong foreign demand for German goods, the federal statistical office, Destatis, reported today. This was well above market expectations of 1.4% growth. Growth in the first quarter was revised higher to 0.5% from 0.2%.

Germany's stellar performance helped the 16-member eurozone grow by 1% in the second quarter, the strongest growth rate since the first quarter of 2008 and a strong improvement on the 0.2% recorded for the first three months of this year. No detail is available yet, but exports, investments and a backlog of work in the construction sector after a harsh winter are expected to have been the main factors driving growth.

"After three difficult months of eurozone battering, today's numbers will help to heal the eurozone's wounds. For the first time since the second quarter of 2009, the eurozone outpaced the US economy," said Carsten Brzeski at ING.

America grew by around 0.6% in the second quarter of 2010, slower than earlier in the year.

Every eurozone country except Greece has now come out of recession. Only Greece experienced a sharp drop of 1.5%. The best performers were led by Germany, the Netherlands (0.9%), Austria (0.9%), Belgium (0.7%) and France (0.6%), while Spain (0.2%) and Portugal (0.2%) are still lagging behind. >>> Julia Kollewe | Friday, August 13, 2010

Eurozone GDP: What the Economists Say
THE GUARDIAN: Germany reported an impressive 2.2% growth in the second quarter today, the strongest since the country was reunified two decades ago. This helped fuel growth in the 16-member eurozone, which expanded by 1%, compared with just 0.2% in the first three months of the year. France expanded by 0.6% while Spain recorded lacklustre growth of 0.2%. Here is what economists made of today's figures. >>> | Friday, August 13, 2010

Britain Begins to Feel the Pain of Austerity Cuts
THE NEW YORK TIMES: LONDON — Last month, the British government abolished the U.K. Film Council, the Health Protection Agency and dozens of other groups that regulate, advise and distribute money in the arts, health care, industry and other areas.

It seemed shockingly abrupt, a mass execution without appeal. But it was just a tiny taste of what is to come.

Like a shipwrecked sailor on a starvation diet, the new British coalition government is preparing to shrink down to its bare bones as it cuts expenditures by $130 billion over the next five years and drastically scales back its responsibilities. The result, said the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a research group, will be “the longest, deepest sustained period of cuts to public services spending” since World War II.

Until recently, the cuts were just election talking points, inchoate warnings of a new age of austerity. But now the pain has begun. And as the government begins its abrupt retrenchment, the implications, complications and confusions in the process are beginning to emerge. >>> Sarah Lyall | Monday, August 09, 2010

Cuba to Relax State Control of the Economy
THE TELEGRAPH: Raul Castro has said that his government will scale back controls on small businesses, lay off unnecessary workers and allow more self-employment - significant steps in a country where the state dominates nearly every facet of the economy.

Fidel Castro (left) and brother Raul. Photo: The Telegraph
Cuba's president, however, quashed notions of a sweeping overhaul to the country's communist economic system in response to the financial crisis it is facing.

"With experience accumulated in more than 55 years of revolutionary struggle, it doesn't seem like we're doing too badly, nor that desperation or frustration have been our companions along the way," the president said.

Speaking in parliament, Castro said that authorities would "update the Cuban economic model," suggesting reforms could be on the horizon. Cuban officials plan to reduce state control of small businesses, authorize more Cubans to become self-employed and build a new tax structure that will compel state employees to contribute more. >>> | Monday, August 02, 2010

Raúl Castro to Allow Cubans More Private Sector Jobs
THE GUARDIAN: Leader says prohibitions on licences and commercialisation will be rolled back in effort to reduce 'bloated' state sector

More Cubans will be allowed to work for themselves and hire their own workers, the country's president has said, while ruling out wholesale reform of the communist economy.

Raúl Castro, who was speaking to parliament at the opening of its biannual session, said the steps were aimed at creating jobs as the government seeks to cut jobs from the public sector over the next five years.

About 95% of all Cubans work for the government and Castro suggested that as many as one in five state employees were redundant in what he called a "bloated" state sector.

Castro said those left out of work would be retrained or reassigned to other jobs but warned that few sectors would be immune to cuts. While sketchy, his comments signalled a liberalisation of the economy at a time of financial crisis. Raúl Castro took power from Fidel, first temporarily, then permanently, in July 2006. He has a reputation for being more pragmatic than his brother. >>> Mark Tran | Monday, August 02, 2010

NZZ ONLINE: Raul Castro will den Sozialismus zukunftsfähig machen: Kuba erlaubt Privatwirtschaft im Kleinen– Die kommunistische Führung in Kuba hat beschlossen, Kleinbetriebe mit Angestellten zuzulassen und den Staatsapparat verkleinern. Präsident Raul Castro will so das soziale System des Landes für die Zukunft erhalten. >>> sda/dpa | Montag, 02. August 2010

No Such Thing as a Free Lunch, Cuba Tells Its Workers
Cubans queue up to buy bread in Havana. Dire economic conditions mean that they could lose their ration books. Photograph: The Times
THE TIMES: Ever since the tumultuous birth of communist Cuba, the one perk thousands of workers have been able to count on over the decades is a hearty meal to sustain them through the toil of providing for the socialist motherland.

Today nearly a quarter of a million Cubans will discover that there is no such thing as a free lunch, when the Government closes work cafeterias to cut costs. The move is one of a series of reforms, brought in since Raúl Castro took over as President from his brother, Fidel, in 2006, and deigned to reduce the State’s involvement in Cubans’ daily lives.

Workers will receive a wage increase of 60 cents a day in compensation, or $18 (£13) a month — a substantial amount to add to the average monthly wage of $20.

Still, there are concerns among workers about the impact of the closures. “There aren’t enough cafés at the moment,” said Ada, 57, who works in a cafeteria for state employees restoring the old part of Havana.

“All these people looking for somewhere to eat — there isn’t enough food for so many people on their lunch hour.”

Cubans have been allowed to set up privately run snack shops since 1993 but the range of food on offer is still limited.

Among the options are small, doughy pizzas for 50 cents, or a box of fried rice for 60 cents. Juan, a 29-year-old architect, says that he will bring his lunch from home. “The only inconvenience is preparing it for yourself. But then it should be better than the food you get here.” He is pleased that he will not have to eat with construction workers any more. “It gets rid of the whole idea of the socialist cafeteria, where everyone is supposedly equal.” Continue reading and comment >>> Corrina Hayes, Havana | Wednesday, June 30, 2010

THE TIMES: Cubans united on need for change, says Roman Catholic cardinal Jaime Ortega: Cuba’s foremost Roman Catholic said that Cubans are growing impatient for change to address the island’s worst crisis in more than a decade. >>> James Bone, New York | Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Spending Fiesta Is Over for Spain
THE SUNDAY TIMES: The country threatens Europe with a new debt crisis as its once vibrant economy falters, inflicting a painful human toll

Job losses has already provoked protests and is likely to worsen. Photo: The Sunday Times
Each day Joaquim Vizcaino, a 26-year-old Madrid University graduate, goes on the internet to look for a job. In the past six months he has had only one day’s work, as a driver, and he is getting desperate.

His girlfriend Letizia pays the £600-a-month rent on their two-room flat in the sprawling suburbs of Madrid and has supported him since he lost a job in marketing. Now she is beginning to lose patience.

“She keeps on telling me to go out and get a job,” he said with a grin as he drove her car to a doctor’s surgery on Friday for blood tests to find out why he has been losing weight. It might be stress: “I can’t even get a job as a waiter.”

Spain’s 20% unemployment — it is double that among the 16 to 25-year-olds — is surpassed in Europe only by Lithuania’s and is inflicting a painful human toll on what was once called the “Iberian tiger”, one of the most vibrant and dynamic countries of the European Union.

“For many years we lived extremely well,” said Ramon Tamames, a distinguished professor of economics at Madrid University, referring to a decade of extraordinary growth fuelled by low-cost loans from Europe.

“They were some of the best years in Spain’s history,” he added. “Now the party is over.” Read on and comment >>> Matthew Campbell | Sunday, June 20, 2010

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Strauss-Kahn "très confiant" pour l'économie de l'Espagne à moyen terme
Dominique Strauss-Kahn et le premier ministre espagnol José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero lors d'une conférence de presse, vendredi 18 juin. Photo : Le Monde
LE MONDE: Le directeur général du Fonds monétaire international (FMI) Dominique Strauss-Kahn s'est déclaré vendredi "très confiant" dans les perspectives de l'économie espagnole à "moyen-long terme", après un entretien à Madrid avec José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn a estimé que l'Espagne se redresserait "à condition que les efforts qui doivent être faits soient faits". "Ce que je vois aujourd'hui, c'est que ces efforts sont en cours", a-t-il ajouté à propos des mesures de réduction des déficits publics et réformes structurelles annoncées par le gouvernement espagnol. >>> LeMonde.fr | Vendredi 18 Juin 2010

The New Poor: Blacks in Memphis Lose Decades of Economic Gains
THE NEW YORK TIMES: MEMPHIS — For two decades, Tyrone Banks was one of many African-Americans who saw his economic prospects brightening in this Mississippi River city.

A single father, he worked for FedEx and also as a custodian, built a handsome brick home, had a retirement account and put his eldest daughter through college.

Then the Great Recession rolled in like a fog bank. He refinanced his mortgage at a rate that adjusted sharply upward, and afterward he lost one of his jobs. Now Mr. Banks faces bankruptcy and foreclosure.

“I’m going to tell you the deal, plain-spoken: I’m a black man from the projects and I clean toilets and mop up for a living,” said Mr. Banks, a trim man who looks at least a decade younger than his 50 years. “I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished. But my whole life is backfiring.”

Not so long ago, Memphis, a city where a majority of the residents are black, was a symbol of a South where racial history no longer tightly constrained the choices of a rising black working and middle class. Now this city epitomizes something more grim: How rising unemployment and growing foreclosures in the recession have combined to destroy black wealth and income and erase two decades of slow progress. >>> Michael Powell | Sunday, May 30, 2010

Recession’s Toll on Black Wealth in Pictures >>>

Clegg: 'We Have Days to Deliver Fairness'

Nick Clegg Dismisses Tories and Labour on Economy

Chinese Economic Growth Surges Again
Shanghai, China. The country's economic growth is set to outstrip that of Japan. Photograph: The Guardian
THE GUARDIAN: China's economic growth surged to 11.9% in the first quarter, possibly giving Beijing room to allow its currency to rise, but analysts warned it faces growing pressure to cut back on stimulus policies and keep the world's third-largest economy from overheating.

The strong performance might allow a loosening of politically volatile currency controls by offsetting possible losses in export industries. Analysts expect Beijing to allow the yuan to rise some time this year, though President Hu Jintao and others have rejected US and other foreign pressure for a change, saying China will move at its own pace.

Inflation stayed low at 2.2%, below the government's target of 3% for the year, easing pressure for immediate interest rate hikes or other steps to cool the boom. But analysts said Beijing needs to act soon to head off mounting pressure for prices to rise.

"The tightrope is between pulling away stimulus which is still supporting the economy and tightening quickly enough to keep prices from getting out of control," said Tom Orlick, an analyst in Beijing for Stone & McCarthy Research Associates.

The latest data showed China is on the verge of overtaking Japan as the second-largest economy behind the United States. China's gross domestic product last year was $4.9tn (£3.2tn), just behind Japan's $5.1tn. Tokyo has yet to report first-quarter figures. >>> Agencies | Thursday, April 15, 2010

China Sells Petrol to Iran While Talking at UN about Sanctions
THE GUARDIAN: China argues the issue of Iran's uranium enrichment is not as urgent as Washington claims, and that there is still time for diplomacy

China has deepened economic ties with Iran, boosting direct sales of petrol to the Islamic republic as the Chinese government negotiates new sanctions at the UN security council, it has emerged.

Iran announced today at the UN discussions in New York that it has produced five kilograms of 20% enriched uranium, defying security council demands to stop enrichment. Iran says it needs the enriched uranium to make medically useful isotopes, but western governments fear the achievement will enable Tehran to develop the capacity to make weapons-grade fuel.

General James Cartwright, the vice chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said yesterday that Iran could build a bomb in a year, although it would probably take three to five years.

China has argued that the issue is not as urgent as Washington claims, and that there is still time for diplomacy.

A Chinese state oil company has sent two recent shipments of petrol to Iran, according to Reuters news agency. The sale by Chinaoil was the first by a Chinese company since January 2009 of refined oil products to Iran directly, rather than through intermediaries. Another Chinese company, Sinopec, is about to sell petrol to Iran for the first time in six years, filling a gap left by European and Russian firms that left the Iranian market amid fears of punitive action by Washington.

Iran-China trade has more than doubled to about $30 billion (£19.38m) over the past decade, fuelling Chinese reluctance to agree to sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme. >>> Julian Borger, diplomatic editor | Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Americans Have Lost Their Way
Rep. Paul Ryan, shown here in March, has proposed reductions in future Medicare and Social Security benefits for people under 55, a politically difficult idea. Photo: USA Today
USA TODAY: WASHINGTON — Erskine Bowles realized how tough his task will be leading President Obama's war on the federal budget deficit when he told his 90-year-old mother of his appointment.

She was proud of him. Then she said, "Don't mess with my Medicare."

It won't be the last threat Bowles gets this year as he directs an 18-member, bipartisan commission through an ocean of red ink that has never been deeper or more foreboding.

Under Obama's budget plan, the USA's debt in 2020 would be nearly the size of the entire economy then. Interest costs would be $900 billion, five times today's level.

The White House, Congress, budget experts and typical Americans are growing anxious about the nation's mounting debt, which is helping to fuel the rise of the anti-tax, anti-big government Tea Party movement.

Yet the only solutions capable of raising enough money are politically dangerous for the president and Congress: tax increases and major reductions in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Neither Democrats nor Republicans want to take the first step.

The debt hasn't stopped conservatives from saying tax increases should be off the table when the panel debates how to close Washington's budget gap — an estimated $1.5 trillion this year alone, equal to the entire federal budget in 1995. Nor has it stopped liberals from saying Medicare, Social Security and other entitlements must be protected.

Bowles, outgoing president of the University of North Carolina and a White House chief of staff under Bill Clinton, says neither taxes nor benefits can be off-limits.

"We can't do this without a lot of pain," he says. Nation's soaring deficit calls for painful choices >>> Richard Wolf, USA Today | Tuesday, April 13, 2010

"Not Even Jesus Could Reverse the Decline in the US"

WIKI: F. William Engdahl >>>

EU Draws Up Plans for Single 'Economic Government' to Prevent Crisis
THE TELEGRAPH: Germany and France have tabled controversial plans to create an "economic government of the European Union" to police financial policy across the continent.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the summit of European Union leaders in Brussels. Photo: The Telegraph
They have put Herman Van Rompuy, the EU President, in charge of a special task force to examine "all options possible" to prevent another crisis like the one caused by the Greek meltdown.

His mission will be to draw up a master-plan for the best way to oversee and enforce economic targets set in Brussels as a key part of a bail-out package for Greece.

The options he will consider include the creation of an "economic government" by the by the end of the year.

"We commit to promote a strong co-ordination of economic policies in Europe," said a draft text expected to be agreed by EU leaders last night.

"We consider that the European Council should become the economic government of the EU and we propose to increase its role in economic surveillance and the definition of the EU's growth strategy."

Gordon Brown was last night examining the wording of the statement to see whether it was restricted to eurozone members or has possible implications for British economic sovereignty.

Officials are concerned that the language calling for an "economic government" could be another attempt at a power-grab in the wake of the Lisbon Treaty. >>> Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Thursday, March 25, 2010

THE TELEGRAPH: EU backtracks on 'economic government plan': The European Union has backtracked on plans to create an "economic government of the European Union" following protests from Britain. >>> | Friday, March 26, 2010

ViewPoints: China, the New Dominant Economy?

The End of the Road for Barack Obama?
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama seems unable to face up to America's problems, writes Simon Heffer in New York.

The once mighty Detroit seems on the verge of being abandoned. Photo: The Telegraph
It is a universal political truth that administrations do not begin to fragment when things are going well: it only happens when they go badly, and those who think they know better begin to attack those who manifestly do not. The descent of Barack Obama's regime, characterised now by factionalism in the Democratic Party and talk of his being set to emulate Jimmy Carter as a one-term president, has been swift and precipitate. It was just 16 months ago that weeping men and women celebrated his victory over John McCain in the American presidential election. If they weep now, a year and six weeks into his rule, it is for different reasons.

Despite the efforts of some sections of opinion to talk the place up, America is mired in unhappiness, all the worse for the height from which Obamania has fallen. The economy remains troublesome. There is growth – a good last quarter suggested an annual rate of as high as six per cent, but that figure is probably not reliable – and the latest unemployment figures, last Friday, showed a levelling off. Yet 15 million Americans, or 9.7 per cent of the workforce, have no job. Many millions more are reduced to working part-time. Whole areas of the country, notably in the north and on the eastern seaboard, are industrial wastelands. The once mighty motor city of Detroit appears slowly to be being abandoned, becoming a Jurassic Park of the mid-20th century; unemployment among black people in Mr Obama's own city of Chicago is estimated at between 20 and 25 per cent. One senior black politician – a Democrat and a supporter of the President – told me of the wrath in his community that a black president appeared to be unable to solve the economic problem among his own people. Cities in the east such as Newark and Baltimore now have drug-dealing as their principal commercial activity: The Wire is only just fictional.

Last Thursday the House of Representatives passed a jobs Bill, costing $15 billion, which would give tax breaks to firms hiring new staff and, through state sponsorship of construction projects, create thousands of jobs too. The Senate is trying to approve a Bill that would provide a further $150 billion of tax incentives to employers. Yet there is a sense of desperation in the Administration, a sense that nothing can be as efficacious at the moment as a sticking plaster. Edward B Montgomery, deputy labour secretary in the Clinton administration, now spends his time on day trips to decaying towns that used to have a car industry, not so much advising them on how to do something else as facilitating those communities' access to federal funds. For a land without a welfare state, America starts to do an effective impersonation of a country with one. This massive state spending gives rise to accusations by Republicans, and people too angry even to be Republicans, that America is now controlled by "Leftists" and being turned into a socialist state. "Obama's big problem," a senior Democrat told me, "is that four times as many people watch Fox News as watch CNN." >>> Simon Heffer | Monday, March 08, 2010

Angela Merkel Alarmed by Worsening Credit Crisis
THE TELEGRAPH: The German government is rushing through a fresh package of measures to shore up ailing banks and prevent a second wave of the debt crisis suffocating large parts of manufacturing industry.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel: fears of new crisis. Photograph: The Telegraph
"We are in a very critical situation," said Chancellor Angela Merkel in her weekly radio address. "We are going to discuss with leaders of the financial institutions what can be done to head off a credit crunch."

The move comes days after the Bundesbank revealed that German banks face a further €90bn (£82bn) of likely write-downs over the next year.

Leaders of the new coalition are to meet industrialists and bankers tomorrow to thrash out an emergency plan. The proposals include a €10bn scheme to purchase toxic securities from banks. The idea is anathema in Germany and faces stiff opposition from Mrs Merkel's Bavarian and liberal partners.

The renewed sense urgency follows a flurry of warnings from economists and business groups over the risks of a credit contraction. >>> Ambrose Evans-Pritchard | Monday, November 30, 2009

New England Economy Could See Gay-marriage Boost
Gay marriage supporter Josh Drew shows off his wedding ring outside the Massachusetts State House in Boston November 9, 2006. Photo courtesy of Reuters
REUTERS: BOSTON - The expansion of legal gay marriage across New England could deliver an economic windfall by attracting a youthful "creative class" of workers to a region with an aging population.

In the past year, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine have joined Massachusetts, which in 2004 became the first U.S. state to allow same-sex weddings, in blessing gay and lesbian weddings.

That makes the region the first in the United States where same-sex couples can move from one state to another while retaining marriage benefits.

New arrivals include John Visser and Nick Keffer, who recently moved to Hartford, Connecticut, from Raleigh, North Carolina. They plan to wed later this month.

"The sole, only reason why we moved was because it was now legal for us to get married here," said Visser, 42. "No other reason whatsoever other than marriage equality. We were perfectly happy in North Carolina."

New England has long burnished an image of tolerance. Early European settlers in the 17th-century escaped religious persecution, although they imposed their own stern doctrines and sometimes expelled dissenters. Later, the region led the right for the abolition of black slavery.

Five out of the region's six states now endorse gay weddings after New Hampshire legalized same-sex marriage on Wednesday, leaving Rhode Island as the sole holdout.

The spread of gay marriage could serve as a recruiting tool for universities, health care companies and financial services firms that dominate the region's economy, experts said. >>> By Scott Malone | Thursday, June 04, 2009

Germany Contracts 6pc as Eurozone Bank Deposits Fall at Fastest Rate Since Depression
THE TELEGRAPH: Germany has slashed its growth forecast, admitting in an embarrassing volte-face that the economy will contract by 6pc this year in the worst recession of any major country in the Western world.

Economy minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said the slump was almost entirely due to the collapse of exports, insisting that a "global revival" will restore growth next year.

Even this may be too optimistic. The International Monetary Fund expects a further 1pc contraction in 2010. Left Party leader Oskar Lafontaine said Berlin seemed to be hoping and praying that other countries would "pull the German economy out of the mud", sitting on its hands as unemployment reaches 4.6m next year.

Professor Tim Congdon from International Monetary Research said company bank deposits in the eurozone have begun to contract at rates not seen since the early 1930s, threatening severe damage in coming months unless the European Central Bank shifts gears fast.

"It's a catastrophe. Company bank deposits have been falling at 1pc a month since December. It is what happened in the US during the Great Depression, and it is why we are seeing such a horrific recession in Europe now," he said. >>> By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard | Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Margaret Thatcher's Revolution 30 Years On
THE TELEGRAPH: Her successors ruined the prosperous Britain she created. Now we must strive to re-build it, says Edwina Currie.

We should value Margaret Thatcher for what she did, not what she was. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
She was a small, pretty woman with chintzy blouses and a nervous habit of clearing her throat. A stiff leather handbag hung like a weapon over her arm; if a wisp of hair escaped from the helmet of her coiffure, she fiddled with it anxiously. In mid-campaign, she was given a grubby calf to hold and didn't know what to do with it. Our first views of Margaret Thatcher weren't reassuring.

Yet it was la difference that underwrote her astonishing success. The unthinkable – a woman prime minister – had been made flesh. Suddenly anything seemed possible. I was a city councillor in Birmingham with two small children. I knew, with total certainty, that if she could do it, then so could I.

Mrs Thatcher learnt very quickly to turn her outsider status to advantage. Declaring that she didn't know much about economics but did understand a household budget was an election strategy of genius. It allied her with the victims of strikes and disruption, those who had to make ends meet, the "hard-working families" of modern parlance who had to put aside doubts if they were to vote for her. However bizarre it may seem to have a woman in charge, they reasoned, she talked sense and should be given a chance: she couldn't be worse than the men.

Within her first term the doubts vanished. The Iron Lady had seen off Galtieri and was preparing the same treatment for Scargill, so all one had to do was sound rather like her. I sailed into Parliament at my first attempt in 1983, one of 397 Tory MPs (some 200 more than now). It was not really a surprise to find myself the first maiden speaker of the new intake, treated as a representative of a new breed, and soon a minister.

It was a fantastic and terrifying experience. Come to a meeting not properly briefed and you'd be mincemeat, and rightly so. Get something right and she would praise you embarrassingly in public. With a blue-eyed stare that could turn men to stone, she would snap out orders and expect them delivered. Once, in a cold spell in January 1987, she insisted that no vagrant was to be found frozen to the pavements and I was given the job. We managed it, with the help of the charities and an open purse, a now-forgotten episode entirely to her credit; the Rough Sleepers initiative was the outcome. No inquiries, no reviews, no soundbites, no pointless legislation: just get on and do it. >>> Edwina Currie | Sunday, April 26, 2009

Simon Heffer: President Barack Obama: Perhaps He Can't Fix It...

THE TELEGRAPH: President Obama has been in power for just over 50 days, but already critics believe his plans to save America from disaster are doomed

Photo by Reuters courtesy of The Telegraph
Even in the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, New York knows how to throw a party. For most of yesterday hundreds of thousands of people made a sea of green that paraded up Fifth Avenue to mark St Patrick’s Day. Tens of thousands lined the street to watch them. The all-day party, fuelled by imports of Guinness and whiskey, seemed the more intensely engaged upon as an escape from omnipresent financial gloom.

Away from the party, the mood in America’s cultural and business capital is more firmly anchored in stark reality, and quite different from the euphoria that pervaded it when I was last here, on election day. President Obama still enjoys the popularity that comes with not being George Bush, especially in a city top-heavy with Democrats. But his initial response to the global calamity that he found on entering the Oval Office has not inspired popularity’s more sober elder brother, confidence. Large constituencies, notably business, are voicing their scepticism openly. The President’s much-vaunted $787 billion stimulus package is being widely interpreted, even by some of those (such as Warren Buffett, America’s second-richest man) who openly supported Mr Obama for the presidency, as a serious failure. And we are only just past the first 50 days.

Mr Obama is lucky that his Republican opponents in Congress are disorganised, incoherent and without ideas of their own. The White House branded Rush Limbaugh, the populist talk radio host, leader of the opposition, following an assault Limbaugh had made on the President’s neo-socialist policies. This remark was designed not just to humiliate elected Republicans for their impotence, but also to attempt to terrify the American public at the thought of a man widely seen as a demagogue and an extremist leading a main political movement. It should worry Mr Obama that while the former part of the strategy has hit home, the latter hasn’t. >>> Simon Heffer | Wednesday, March 18, 2009

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