...The Crisis of Crimea and Ukraine Key Lessons for President Obama from Presidents Reagan and Clinton [pic] SOURCE: AP/Greg Gibson President Bill Clinton reads a statement at the conclusion of the NATO 50th anniversary summit, Sunday April 25, 1999, in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington. By Rudy deLeon and Aarthi Gunasekaran | May 14, 2014 In the past two months, the Crimea and Ukraine crisis has grown. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian militia are engaged in a back and forth standoff in eastern Ukraine, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened that the conflict “essentially puts the nation on the brink of civil war.” The United States has been at the forefront of building international support for Ukraine, and the Obama administration continues to assemble Western support. However, efforts to reach a diplomatic settlement, or at least to reduce immediate tensions, are still in progress. As the Obama administration prepares its next steps in response to Russia in Ukraine, it can examine lessons from two other administrations in times of crisis. First, the Reagan administration’s reaction in 1983 to the Soviet downing of a civilian Korean airliner and its response to the terrorist attack against U.S. Marines on a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. Second, the Clinton administration’s initiative to proactively expand and deepen partnerships in Europe during the 1990s through its Partnership for Peace. President...
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...stop, with the spoon halfway between the bowl and my mouth. I then find myself thinking: 1 J. Bradford DeLong This cannot be real. This has to be some horrible mistake, some dystopian alternate timeline--like that Star Trek episode with the transporter malfunction and evil-Spock-with-a-beard... And then I stare unproductively at the wall for a while as I try to piece together how exactly we got here. What I Was Saying Two Years Ago Last week I went back and looked at all of my talks from the fall and winter of 2008. Back then I was ringing changes on three themes: 1. We are in substantial trouble: the collapse of the housing bubble triggered a mortgagefinance crisis that snowballed into a general financial crisis and a flight to safety that would, if unchecked, produce the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression itself. 2. Normal stabilizing monetary policy tools cannot help us any more. The standard policy moves we use to stabilize demand and production 2 J. Bradford DeLong and prevent or cushion downturns have already been used to the full and cannot help us any more. 3. Nevertheless, we are going to get out of this with only minor damage to the economy, for we do have (a) the technocratic knowledge, (b) the policy tools, and (c) the political will to escape from the trap. And I was very...
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...POLICY AND ANALYSIS Name Course Tutor Date President George W. Bush’s and President Obama’s economic policy The US economy had experienced a series of depression in the past years but it was worst hit by the major terrorist attack of the September 11, 2011 that not only shook the nation but also the world at large. The realities of the recession started hitting the nation officially in December 2007, signaled by the collapse of the housing market and subsequent losses on mortgage related financial assets which in turn resulted to great stress and significant turbulence in the financial markets. All this resulted to an overall fall in the broader economic activity. In an attempt to respond to the worsening economic conditions, the administration lowered the federal funds rate by half the percentage point and as the crisis intensified, Bush’s government instituted the federal tax cuts on all the tax payers (Palley, 2011). The recession came to an end in June 2009 but the resultant economic weakness continued to be experienced in the nation with significant high rates of unemployment levels. There were severe job losses, a fall in family incomes and a rise in poverty levels which impacted negatively on the social life of many Americans. The economic environment also suffered severe losses in terms of drastic fall in investments due to uncertainties in the economy’s future. The adverse effects and subsequent fall in the trading activities led to significant falls in the nation’s...
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...has the Obama administration departed from traditional Democratic values and policies? The 2015 state of the union address, Barack Obama had stated ‘after a breakthrough year for America, our economy is growing and creating jobs…shrinking deficits…things like childcare and sick leave and equal pay; things like lower mortgage premieres and a higher minimum wage- these ideas will make a meaningful difference in the lives of millions of families. Like any Democratic President, Barack Obama had commented on traditional aspects of the Democratic Party, however there are parts of Obamas administration that has departed from some traditional Democratic values and policies. These will be explained further. Firstly, signs that Obama has not departed from key traditional Democrat values and policies is Obamas intervention in the economy to promote growth. In the recent state of the union address, Obama had mentioned the economy and its growth several times, which portrayed how important the president had found this issue; sounding finally like the president that his liberal supporters want him to be. Traditionally, the Democrats believe in building a stronger economy by raising the minimum wage, giving equal pay for equal work, and reforming student loan debt. This is highlighted by Obama, with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, most commonly referred to as the ‘stimulus bill’. The bill was a direct response to the economic crisis and at the urging of Obama. The act...
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...t Economic System suited for handling natural disasters. When trying to determine which economic system would be best suited for handling a crisis of epic proportions such as a hurricane, blizzard, flood; and forest fire. One must first seek to understand the difference between the economic systems. One must also have a complete understanding of each systems strengths and weakness that may be prevalent in the circumstance that would surround such a crisis. It is my understanding that a free market system promotes the production and sales of goods and services with little to no help from any government agency. It allows for the supply and demand of its services to dictate its prices. So with lack of government control and government enforced pricing it allows for a vast range of freedoms, but as with anything it also has its drawbacks. In a market system they have the freedom to create products and services they feel consumers want. They are not relying on the government agency telling them when the public needs a new product. It is then in the hands of the consumer to decide if the product or service will survive. Now we add in market failures, failures such as the great depression in the 1930’s and the real estate crash in 2008 these all stemmed from highly leveraged assets and little government intervention and those seeking short term, quick profits over slow gains over time aided by loose credit. In a free market they are also largely motivated by profit. It is my opinion...
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...Commanding the Heights: the Battle of Ideas This essay starts with an introduction of the documentary Commanding the Heights: the Battle of Ideas made by PBS, then conducts the analysis on the two competing economic ideas of Keyes vs. Hayek, and finally presents a detailed illustration of their impacts on the America’s economic policies since 1980. Introduction The PBS-made documentary ‘Commanding the Heights’ is to promote better understanding of globalization, economic development and world trade, featured with specific examples of different countries and interviews with related parties. Episode One "The Battle of Ideas," gives an overview of the battle between two major competing ideas about the world economy over the course of last century. On the one hand, the English economist Keynes believes in the ‘planned economy’ and advocates the government intervention to mitigate the risk during economic recession or depression; On the other hand, the Australian economist Hayek favors the free market mechanism and believes in minimum government intervention as market will eventually take care of itself and the prices system is at the heart of what makes a functioning economy work. The episode tracks the root of these ideas and explains how the world moved toward the government controlled economy during the 20th century in a chronological order summarized as below. The Russian Revolution in 1917 marked the beginning of communism economy, in which government is very important...
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...Obama administration pushes banks to make home loans to people with weaker credit Now it is difficult for most of the Americans to get a home loan, because the banks are extremely cautious when they are considering offering a loan to someone due to the financial crisis of 2008. However, Recently, the Obama administration asks banks to make home loans to borrowers with weaker credits. They are doing this in order to help young people looking to buy their first homes and individuals with credit records weakened by the recession. And it is more important to promote the economic recovery. (Goldfarb, 2013) Administration officials are trying to get banks to lend to a wider range of borrowers by taking advantage of taxpayer-backed programs. Federal Housing Administration and the Obama White House are working to develop new policies to make clear to banks that they will not face legal or financial recriminations if loans that conform to the program’s standards later default. Also, they are encouraging lenders to use more subjective judgment in determining whether to offer a loan, such as looking at a borrower’s overall savings. (Goldfarb, 2013) The skeptics argue that we should learn from recession in 2008. Risky lending will sow the seeds of other house bubble and credit crisis. Looking at the recession that happened in 2008, the primary reason of this recession was the house bubble, which led to credit crisis. There are several primary causes of the house bubble: (i) Low...
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...ide JobInside Job (Sony Pictures Classics). Produced, written and directed by Charles Ferguson. Review by Marsha Feinland Inside Job provides a comprehensible lesson on the current economic crisis and an entertaining expose of the slimy players behind it. The movie starts in Iceland. A formerly prosperous population suddenly lost its wealth, income and job base when the economy collapsed. The government had privatized the banks and deregulated industry, allowing speculators to finance risky operations with questionable loans. The example is jarring, but we never find out how or why a seemingly rational people allowed the government and some nefarious entrepreneurs to destroy their lives. The movie provides more historical background for the crisis in this country. The premise is that it all began in the 1980's with deregulation of the banks under Ronald Reagan's presidency. The disastrous result was the Savings and Loan debacle and subsequent bailout. The banks stepped up their debauchery under the Clinton administration. Clinton put Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers in charge of the economy, letting the business school-investment banking cabal call the shots. And shoot they did. By now most of us know that under Clinton, congress passed the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act which repealed Glass–Steagall. That legislation had maintained a firewall between banks and insurance companies. What is interesting is that it was repealed after Citigroup, a bank, had already acquired Travelers...
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...marked by the collapse of the Soviet Union, was the beginning of an unprecedented geopolitical scenario in modern times, namely the existence of a lone superpower nation which easily dominated the other countries of the world in terms of military strength and international economic and political influence. With this never-before-seen position of power in the modern, globalized world came the heightened importance of American foreign policy decisions, and the world waited to see how the US would react to being thrust abruptly into this role of the unipole of world power. The first test of US foreign policy as the sole superpower would actually come before the official dissolution of the USSR (though it had been in steep economic decline for some time), when Saddam Hussein lead the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. US President George H. W. Bush would place this conflict into perspective for the countries now looking to the US for leadership in his address to a joint session of Congress and the nation on September 11, 1990, and it was then that he most famously claimed that the US would strive to establish and protect the concept of a New World Order (NWO): “We stand today at a unique and extraordinary moment. The crisis in the Persian Gulf, as grave as it is, also offers a rare opportunity to move toward an historic period of cooperation. Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective -- a new world order -- can emerge: a new era -- freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the...
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...Meeting of minds: logo for the IMFWorld bank events beginning in Tokyo today Bloomberg Inside » Growth glitches FT specialists report from the eurozone, China, the US and the UK Pages 2, 3 If Obama wins . . . or Romney Some differences seem more symbolic than real Page 4 Cash conundrum The IMF and World Bank have plenty of money but face new challenges Page 5 A threat of double-dip recession is stalking the world economy. Advanced economies are struggling to raise insipid growth rates, while the fast-growing emerging economies cannot maintain their previous momentum. If anything goes wrong – and there are known potential shocks in the coming months – the risk is rising of a dangerous economic slide. The Brookings Institution-Financial Times Tracking Indices for the Global Economic Recovery shows a steep drop in 2012 so far, leading professor Eswar Prasad of Brookings to describe the global economy as “on the ropes”. In the International Monetary Fund’s twice-yearly World Economic Outlook, published this week, Olivier Blanchard, the fund’s chief economist, said the world economy was hamstrung by uncertainty, which was pre- venting companies from investing and households from spending. “Worries about the ability of European policymakers to control the euro crisis and worries about the failure to date of US policymakers to agree on a fiscal plan surely play an important role, but one that is hard to nail down,” he said. The renewed concern about the health of...
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...WHO WILL YOU CHOOSE? In order for an American citizen to become president of the United States, he or she must gain votes from the general public. President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney must go through months of campaigning to get the votes necessary to win each state. Some Americans believe that the public makes the decision for presidency long before the campaigns start, and others believe that the campaigns are necessary to gain votes for a President. A campaign in itself is not necessary to influence the public's decision. The focus is whether the campaign has the influential power to change the opinions of American citizens. During the campaign period, national conventions, and presidential debates, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney discussed why both are qualified and best fit to become President of the United States. Many topics such as education, foreign policy issues, health care, and economy and trade are elaborated during the campaigning period, the conventions, and the debates. According to multiple media sources such as CNN and Fox News, the 2012 presidential election is in a dead heat. Governor Romney revealed qualities that would make him a good President. Governor Romney’s economic policy is what a fragile America needs and his ability to recognize the danger of the growing debt. Governor Romney possesses great knowledge of the current budget mess and yet has an optimistic view of America’s future. That is the change I want for...
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...President Barack Hussein Obama President Barack Obama is one of the most exciting presidential election candidates in many years. It was just as much a strikingly symbolic moment in the evolution of the nation’s fraught racial history, a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just two years ago. President Obama is a historical figure in American History because, he became the first successful African-American to become President, and he impacted society in a positive way. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961, to Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann Dunham. His parents were divorced when he was only two and the absence of his father greatly affected him. After high school, Obama studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York, graduating in 1983 with a degree in political science. He then entered Harvard Law School in 1988. The next year, he met Michelle Robinson, an associate at Sidley & Austin law firm in Chicago. On October 3, 1992, he and Michelle were married. They moved to Kenwood, on Chicago's South Side, and welcomed two daughters: Malia born 1998 and Sasha born 2001. In February 2007, Obama made headlines when he announced his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. He was locked in a tight battle with former first lady and then, U.S. Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton. On June 3, 2008, however, Obama became the presumptive nominee for the Democratic party...
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...the globe. Citizens of several foreign countries are rather green-eyed when it comes to the way our American government is set up. The United States government possesses a republic that is directly self-governed, over all the people, for all the people, by all the people. Recently however, circumstances have taken a turn and our country is facing one of the worst economic predicaments since the Great Depression. As the country takes a turn for a plummet, members of society find themselves pointing fingers at our government and the foundation of our republic, the constitution. Now the economy has improved to some extent under the presence of President Obama; however, the progress has been far more sluggish than anticipated by the general public, and the national debt, which was unapparent not too long ago, has managed to surpass 16 trillion dollars. With such a big toll over its shoulders, our country is facing an economic burden that is projected to keep mounting. As our citizens stand by and observe the government take on all its issues, a question leaves a great number of individuals puzzled: is our administration broken? As plausible modifications arouse the minds of many entities, bringing changes to the United States government would simply result in controversy for the simple reason that the constitution has been implemented for over 200 years. In fact, the United States has grown remarkably since our Founding Fathers have instilled our constitution, and it has managed...
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...Analysis of Funding Levels for the U.S. Government And Department of Education Week 4: Case Analysis: U.S. Budget Public Administration 581: Governmental Budgeting and Finance Introduction In 2009, Barack Obama took office as the 44th President of the United States. In February that same year, President Obama signed a stimulus bill into law that included tax cuts and a safety net of spending and appropriations for projects in our nation. When President Obama took office, he was faced with experts stating that this is the “worst U.S. economy since the Great Depression” (CNN U.S. 2009). Several documents that incorporate 2009 funding levels for the U.S. Government and the Department of Education, will attempt to identify trends for the years 2009 to 2011 in regards to outlays and receipts along with the GDP relationship. The following articles will be analyzed; The Budget Message of the President, Restoring Responsibility, Rescuing the Economy and Reviving Job Creation and Laying A New Foundation For Economic Growth. When analyzing this articles, we will look at what progress has the country made during this past year, what issues are we facing as we move forward, what is the economic situation and what significant issues and initiatives are discussed in these articles. One other piece of document that will be analyzed is the Department of Education. When we look at the Department of Education, we need to know what departments mission...
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...Root Causes of the 2008-2009 Economic Crisis Pol 201 For this paper I will look into the 2008- 2009 Economic Crisis. There were many factors that contributed to the crisis; I will focus on what may have led to the downturn of the economy and some of the policies implemented by key actors responsible for turning our economy around. I will also look at those who have changed monetary or fiscal policy, and laws governing business since the collapse. I will also give my thoughts on whether these changes will actually be successful on turning things around for the better of our economy. The economic collapse of 2008 has affected so many people across the nation. With the current unemployment rate at 8.2 percent, (less than .5 percent away from where it was the first year of the Great Depression) many people have lost their homes due to not being able to pay high mortgage costs. Everyone knows at least one family who has been affected by the collapse. Some may say it started because of bad mortgage lending, others say it is because people got in to mortgages that were beyond their means. I believe the crisis has to do with everyone involved in the picture; policymakers, lenders/banks, and consumers. I was born and raised in San Diego, California. My Mother and Father brought me up with the idea that owning real estate is always a good investment. At age 20, I had a great job making between 60,000- 80,000 dollars annually and the first thing I did when I was...
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