Free Republic

Thanks to the fantastic and timely recent IMF paper and database on historical financial crises by Luc Laeven and Fabian Valencia, we can identify other instances in which a government took equity stakes in major banks as part of a recapitalization program. This has happened five times since 1970, according to Laeven and Valencia: Finland Jamaica Japan Korea Norway Crisis date (year and month, respectively ) Sep-91 Dec-96 Nov-97 Aug-97 Oct-91 Recap cost to government (gross) (as % of GDP respectively) 8.63% 13.90% 6.61% 19.31% 2.61% Recovery proceeds (% of GDP respectively) 1.72% 4.95% 0.09% 3.50% 2.00% Recap cost to...

Record numbers of American voters tuned in to the three debates, proving only two things. Americans are very concerned about the future of their nation and they want to know more about the two tickets running for the highest office in the land. What we have learned so far... 1) Modern debates are designed to hide facts, not provide facts. 2) It’s a mistake to allow only left-wing Democrats like Jim Lehrer, Gwen Ifill and Tom Brokaw, to control the most important debates of our generation. 3) Style trumps substance for too many Americans. 4) We need an electric hot...

Yes, this problem is maddeningly big and complicated. But America is full of smart and caring people; surely there exists a handful of wise men and women who can stow their axes and their differences to right the ship. The solution back then was to create an entity called Municipal Assistance Corp. that raised money selling bonds backed by sales tax receipts and stock transfer taxes. The goal was to revive the city's economy while balancing its budget. It worked. A few years later, the budget was balanced and New York was back on its feet. Every crisis is different,...

A cute joke. Second article on the page.

BARACK OBAMA V. JOHN MCCAIN TODAY's joint visit to Ground Zero may give the impression that John McCain and Barack Obama share a common analysis of the causes of 9/11 and how to deal with its legacy. They don't. The divide starts with the question: Why was America attacked? McCain's answer is simple (or, as Obama might suggest, simplistic): The United States was attacked because a resurgent Islam has produced a radicalism that dreams of world conquest and sees America as the enemy.

In this war, Russia won, Georgia lost, and US was resoundingly defeated Orly Azoulay Published: 08.13.08, 23:29 / Israel Opinion Moscow's decision to flex its muscle vis-à-vis Georgia was meant to signal to the West, and particularly to Washington, not to meddle in Russia's backyard. Even before Georgia's invasion into South Ossetia, President Saakashvili was in Russia's sights. He was too American for its taste. Saakashvili was certain he has a trusted friend in the White House; one who would come to his aid and offer significant help during times of crisis. This is what Washington made him understand. He...

...."Strategically, the Russians have been sending signals that they really wanted to flex their muscles, and they're upset about Kosovo," the diplomat said. He was alluding to Russia's anger at the West for recognizing Kosovo's independence from Serbia earlier this year. Indeed, the decision by the United States and Europe to recognize Kosovo may well have paved the way for Russia's lightning-fast decision to send troops to back the separatists in South Ossetia. During one meeting on Kosovo in Brussels this year, Lavrov, the foreign minister, warned Rice and European diplomats that if they recognized Kosovo, they would be setting...

As the U.S. armed forces have done so many times before, they entered the uncertainty of a new war in 2001, and are now trying to figure out what they gained from it. Most of what went on during this war was unreported or misreported. This is nothing new. The important details, and lessons, of all past American wars were poorly reported, and what the military is trying to avoid is taking away the wrong lessons. Throughout the current conflict, the military made no secret of what they were doing, and just kept focused on winning. They knew they would...

Here's one thing you can say about journalists: Surely no one loves us as much as we love ourselves. That's one lesson of the Tim Russert coverage. A friend told me Sunday: "I now know more about Tim Russert than I do many members of my family." After Russert's shocking death Friday at age 58, television kept serving up witnesses to his expertise, intelligence, diligence, kindness, faith, love of family, Buffalo and the Buffalo Bills. The self-indulgence was breathtaking. On Monday's "Today," Matt Lauer interviewed Russert's son, Luke. The show basically gave over the first half-hour to the Russert story....

What Can Ronald Reagan Teach the Next President? by: Melinda Zosh, June 11, 2008 It’s been 20 years since former President Ronald Reagan served in office and four years since he passed away. But his legacy is far from over. “…It’s not surprising that Republicans would say kind things about Reagan,” said Frank Donatelli, Chairman, Reagan Ranch Board of Governors and Reagan Political Director, at a Capitol Hill conference on June 5. “What’s even more interesting is the newfound interest [in Reagan] by many of our Democratic friends.” The conference Donatelli spoke at was sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation,...

WASHINGTON, June 2, 2008 – Four years ago, Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison was center-stage amid allegations of detainee abuse, and coalition forces suddenly cast as conquerors instead of liberators, losing the trust of the Iraqi people. Video Conscientious decisions and new detainee programs have helped the coalition turn the corner on the road to regaining that lost trust, Multinational Force Iraq’s commander of detainee operations said yesterday in a Baghdad news conference. “Today, we are still trying to regain that trust, and I want to tell you once again there was no justification for what happened at Abu Ghraib,”...

The highly-respected Lausanne-based Institute for Management Development (IMD) has just issued its 20th anniversary ‘World Competitiveness Yearbook 2008’ [see: ‘Britain slips down key economic league table’, The Times, May 14/15]. It is not a pleasant read for the UK. In this annual assessment of national competitiveness, the UK has fallen one place from twentieth, to twenty-first, having been overtaken by Israel. But, more significantly, the IMD report downgrades the UK’s position against its global rivals on the crucial factor of economic performance, from seventh out of 55 countries to an alarming sixteenth. And the cause of this decline? Yes, you...

Special election races for Congress have arguable value as bellwethers for upcoming general elections. Mostly these races get decided on local issues rather than national themes, as in Louisiana, where the Republicans ran a lousy candidate, considered the only person who could have lost the seat. They do demonstrate the strength of national party efforts, though, and when one party loses three special elections in districts previously thought safe, that sends a message — and rightly has Republicans worried about their chances in November: A Democrat won the race for a GOP-held congressional seat in northern Mississippi yesterday, leaving the...

No, not the lesson the national press is pushing, that Mr. Jenkins's loss is a sign of GOP disaster this fall, or that it demonstrates how difficult it will be for Republicans to link local competitors to the liberal Mr. Obama. Republicans face tough odds, yes. But that's because they've yet to prove they've learned a lesson, as they demonstrated again with Mr. Jenkins. By the lazy standards of the GOP, Mr. Jenkins should've been a cinch to win a Baton Rouge district in Republican hands for 34 years, and that President Bush won with 59% in 2004. Their candidate...

CHICAGO — Senator Barack Obama woke up on Wednesday talking of his delegate lead and of taking the fight to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. But after defeats...Snip...he also sounded like a chastened candidate in search of his lost moment. Mr. Obama once again failed to administer an electoral coup de grâce, and so allowed a tenacious rival to elude his grasp.Snip In Ohio and Texas, he drew vast and adoring crowds, yet he came up short on primary day, just as he did in New Hampshire in early January. Mrs. Clinton’s attack on his readiness to serve as commander in...

In what may well be one of the last published articles he wrote, William F. Buckley Jr. recalls the problems that arose when the John Birchers got too close to Barry Goldwater’s Presidential Campaign: The society had been founded in 1958 by an earnest and capable entrepreneur named Robert Welch, a candy man, who brought together little clusters of American conservatives, most of them businessmen. He demanded two undistracted days in exchange for his willingness to give his seminar on the Communist menace to the United States, which he believed was more thoroughgoing and far-reaching than anyone else in America...

CRITICS of the war in Iraq like to claim they "oppose the mission" but "support the troops." But the experience of Vietnam shows that turning our backs on the mission always means turning our backs on the courage of those who fought for that mission, and what they achieved through their skill and sacrifice. Consider the battle that ended 40 years ago today, when US Marines and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) troops retook the Imperial Palace at Hue, South Vietnam's third largest city, from Communist forces after a 27-day siege. The fight for Hue tested the Marines...

Two Fatal Errors of Modern Liberalism by Dennis Campbell February 16, 2008 Two primary errors of modern liberalism are a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature and an inability to learn from history. Regarding the first, liberals are always chasing the fantasy of human perfectibility, which influences so many aspects of their policies. Liberals believe that if we give a powerful central government enough resources and authority, wielded by intelligent people of good will, virtually all problems and endeavors of human society can have happy outcomes – poverty, education, racial disharmony, crime, affordable housing, universal health care. Conservatives, on the other...

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 10, 2008 – NATO and Afghanistan are now intertwined, and the experience holds many lessons for the alliance’s near- and long-term strategy, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today. NATO’s effort in Afghanistan shows not only how far the alliance has come from its original mission of confronting the Cold War era’s Soviet threat, but also how far it has to go to become a force for the 21st century, the secretary said at the 44th Munich Conference on Security Policy. “There is little doubt that the mission in Afghanistan is unprecedented,” Gates said. “It is,...

Some would say that the 2008 Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses solved nothing. Others would argue that this week’s votes essentially determined who the presidential nominees will be this fall. I think the ramifications and results of Super Tuesday are somewhat inconclusive and difficult to translate, but the lessons we learned are clear. First, we now know for sure that Sen. Barack Obama can over take Sen. Hillary Clinton and win it all. In the states that favored Clinton (with the exception of Arkansas) the results were extremely close and competitive. Obama’s victories however were for the most part, decisive...

The news about yesterday's suicide bombing in the Israeli town of Dimona is that it's news. In 2002, at the height of the second intifada, 451 Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks, including 14 suicide bombings. By contrast, yesterday's attack, which killed one and injured 11, was the first of its kind in more than a year. This didn't happen by accident, or because Palestinian radicals have somehow become less hostile to Israel. Responsibility for yesterday's attack was claimed by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, which is affiliated with President Mahmoud Abbas's ostensibly moderate Fatah party. Islamist Hamas remains even...

..."Whatever the true story, though, we continue to believe the Bush and Coalition allies had no choice but to invade, given the assessment that Saddam was a real threat. And make no mistake: He was. Anyway, he got what he deserved. But America needs to heed the underlying message: Dictators won't respond to threats they don't take seriously. Had the US record reflected greater toughness, the war itself might have been averted."

The charge against Thompson, who entered the campaign last September when polls showed him a favorite among Republican voters, was repeated so often it became a cliché. Like most clichés it tells us more about the people who used it than about the state of affairs it was supposed to describe. His campaign lacked "energy." He didn't get out enough on the campaign trail, and, when he did, he didn't hold enough events. His speaking style was too low-key, and his speeches were too long, and more often than not his "performance" in televised debates was lackluster. He just didn't...

In his recent memoir, Alan Greenspan says he's been pushing a constitutional amendment of his own devising. It reads: "Anyone willing to do what is required to become president of the United States is thereby barred from taking that office." If the Greenspan amendment is ever enacted, it will at last clear the field for Fred Thompson, who might then become president. But not until then.

Ezra Klein has a smart article on the troubling news that advocates of national health care have a much better sense of how to enact their desire if they win the White House. Next time, they won't try to cut congressional committees out of the action. They understand now that most people are happy with their own health-care arrangements and don't want to see Washington disrupt them. It is harder to argue that Hillary Clinton's current plan, for example, threatens what people value about their own health care than it was to make that argument about her 1993-94 plan. (It's...

The United States, with its claims of exceptionalism, is usually thought of as free of historical analogies. But comparisons with the fate of earlier empires are becoming more common. I have recently been struck by an analogy from German history: the disaster of German leadership during the first world war, epitomised by Kaiser Wilhelm II. In 1888, at just 29, Wilhelm became the leader of a country on the cusp of European mastery. Wilhelm flaunted his absolute power, believing it to be divinely ordained, was contemptuous of parliament, revelled in the trappings of power, and delighted in uniforms. He was...

DOVER, N.H. — As they barnstorm through New Hampshire, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband are often introduced by supporters who once backed another candidate but converted to her cause. Today, in Dover, Francine Torge, a former John Edwards supporter, said this while introducing Mrs. Clinton: “Some people compare one of the other candidates to John F. Kennedy. But he was assassinated. And Lyndon Baines Johnson was the one who actually” passed the civil rights legislation. The comment, an apparent reference to Senator Barack Obama, is particularly striking given documented fears among blacks that Mr. Obama will be assassinated...

Nothing has been more instructive in modern American politics than Mike Huckabee's surge to victory in Iowa and semi-seriousness as a contender for the presidency. I hedge with "semi" because Huckabee likely will come in a distant third to fifth Tuesday in New Hampshire, which will temper, at least for a week or two, his momentum. For the moment, though, here are four powerful Huckabee-demonstrated lessons: 1. Go where the voters are. The conventional wisdom was that Huckabee was erring by abandoning Iowa on caucus eve to do "The Tonight Show." But consider what James Carville told me the morning...

What We Learned From The Iowa Caucuses By John Ziegler That where candidates stand on the issues matter far less (if at all) than how likable they are and how nice their skin looks. That all the old rules of Presidential politics no longer apply. That strong and real opposition to illegal immigration is not as important to Republicans in Iowa as we were told. That even some liberals really can’t stand Hillary Clinton. That Oprah’s endorsement is more powerful to Democrats than Bill Clinton’s. That when you are bombarded with too many political ads and candidate visits for too...

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf: Up until now, Musharraf had been seen by some as a genuine US ally in the war on terrorism, despite having cut deals with terrorists to keep them out of his hair and in the northern part of his country where they could make bombing runs into Afghanistan. However, when these terrorists came into town this past summer to grab some hostages and make trouble for Musharraf in the Red Mosque standoff because they wanted Sharia law in Islamabad, Musharraf’s policy of negotiating with them was proven to be a joke.

There are lessons to be learned from the dazzling success of the surge strategy in Iraq. Lesson one is that just about no mission is impossible for the United States military. A year ago it was widely thought, not just by the new Democratic leaders in Congress but also in many parts of the Pentagon, that containing the violence in Iraq was impossible. Now we have seen it done. We have seen this before in American history. George Washington's forces seemed on the brink of defeat many times in the agonizing years before Yorktown. Abraham Lincoln's generals seemed so unsuccessful...

There are lessons to be learned from the dazzling success of the surge strategy in Iraq. Lesson one is that just about no mission is impossible for the United States military. A year ago it was widely thought, not just by the new Democratic leaders in Congress but also in many parts of the Pentagon, that containing the violence in Iraq was impossible. Now we have seen it done. We have seen this before in American history. George Washington's forces seemed on the brink of defeat many times in the agonizing years before Yorktown. Abraham Lincoln's generals seemed so unsuccessful...

The assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto illustrates the fragility of the current international order in the face of the radical Islamist threat. Pakistan is an Islamic country with nuclear weapons and security services that contain many sympathizers with the Taliban and al-Qaida. It is hardly clear that the massive US investment in the Musharraf government as a bulwark against these same jihadi groups will be sustainable. Bhutto was murdered by a suicide bomber who shot her before blowing himself up, killing some dozen of her supporters. This bombing followed two others in October from which Bhutto escaped unharmed,...

Benazir Bhutto is dead, assassinated Thursday at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan: "Bhutto, 54, was leaving the rally in her bulletproof vehicle when she asked that the rooftop hatch be opened so she could bid supporters farewell, aides who were with her said. She leaned her head through the hatch, and several gunshots rang out, an aide seated next to her said. Just as Bhutto sank into her seat, a large bomb detonated outside the vehicle. The left side of Bhutto’s face was badly bloodied, aides said, but it was not clear whether she’d been hit by bullets or...

Ron Paul is no compassionate conservative. His supporters love him for it. If there's been a phenomenon in this Republican presidential race, it's been the strength of a fiery doctor from Texas and his message of limited government. As the GOP front-runners address crowds of dispirited primary voters, Mr. Paul has been tearing across the country, leaving a trail of passionate devotees in his wake. Paul rallies heave with voters waving placards and shouting "Liberty! Liberty!" Money is pouring in from tens of thousands of individual donors--so much cash that the 10-term congressman recently admitted he wasn't sure he could...

 Nov. 20, 2007 based on the following news stories: Karl Rove: How to beat Hillary next November     This cartoon/graphic is free for noncommercial use in emails, blogs, and forums.  iowapresidentialwatch.com

WHAT CONSERVATIVES SHOULD LEARN FROM 9/11. Right Turn by Andrew Sullivan These are heady times for conservatism. The last 20 years have seen a decisive shift in the West toward market economics and away from statist intervention. The welfare state as it has historically been understood is an endangered species. Culturally, the importance of family structure, religious faith, and personal responsibility is affirmed by a wider array of people than for a generation. And with September 11, the bedrock conservative insight that the world is an inherently dangerous place has been decisively proved once again. Even the democratic left has ...

FEMA and other US agencies seem to have improved their emergency response since the 2005 Katrina fiasco. Curbside service: Firefighters caught some rest Tuesday after battling wildfires near San Diego. Lucy Nicholson/ReutersLos Angeles and San Diego - In a dark corridor of Qualcomm Stadium, Jennifer Dillon of Rancho Bernardo, Calif., watches her 6-year-old daughter Molly sleep on a cot supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Mother and daughter are surrounded by evacuees from across San Diego, most of whom tote a few items – shirts, towels, stuffed animals – inside backpacks or shoulder bags. "This time around, the county...

The fires in CA are horrendous by any measure. Personally, I believe they are an event full of import for FREEPERS, CONSERVATIVES and AUTHENTIC CHRISTIANS in California and across the Nation. Whether it is fires; hurricanes; Jihadi attacks; bird flu; meteors; crash-of-the-dollar; pine beetle; quakes; volcanos; swarms of tornados tsunamis . . . NWO or whatever . . . there appears to be plenty on our plate in this era. We have had tastes with 9/11 and Katrina . . . some tornado swarms . . . these fires . . . tastes of how massively devastating disasters natural, 'happenstance'...

1. Don't Be a 'Marginal Moron' I have a theory I call The Marginal Moron Rule, meaning: Whenever a market reaches peak levels of speculation, the last entrants into that market lack the necessary knowledge or sophistication to properly navigate their newly chosen field. As my old boss Joe at Merrill Lynch would say, "These are the guys who take the last nickel off the table." During the height of the technology and Internet boom, there were schoolteachers, doctors, attorneys, housewives and police officers who left their daily roles to take up daytrading. Their fundamental knowledge of investing was practically...

Finance is an endlessly fascinating topic. It involves history, intuition, logic, mathematics, and hope. But for most of us, our finances come from work and not from investments. In turn, how we do at work is vitally affected by the kind of education we get -- and most especially what we get out of our education. And what we get out of our education is very largely dependent on what we put into our education. The Son Also Rises This comes to mind because classes are starting soon in many colleges. (How did it get to be so early? When...

We shouldn't once again wait too long to admit our mistake and leave In the scheme of small protests, I suppose what I did the other day qualifies. I was in one of those little catchall stores, the kind that sells candles and clothes and cheap jewelry. It was a necklace that caught my eye. A tiny peace symbol suspended from a plain pewter chain. Oh, please, you say. How very Vietnam. I know. I mean, I really know. In 1970, I was a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign when the National Guard descended on the campus....

MINEOLA, N.Y., Sept. 19, 2007 – The reason the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff visited Chaminade High School here was on the wall as he entered the building today: a simple plaque with the names of graduates killed in combat. Rev. James C. Williams and Marine Gen. Peter Pace look at photos of graduates of Chaminade High School who have been killed in combat. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff visited the Mineola, N.Y., school Sept. 19, 2007, and met with Gold Star families. Photo by Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen, USAF  (Click photo for screen-resolution...

I want to open today's speech with a story that begins on a sunny morning, when thousands of Americans were murdered in a surprise attack -- and our nation was propelled into a conflict that would take us to every corner of the globe. The enemy who attacked us despises freedom, and harbors resentment at the slights he believes America and Western nations have inflicted on his people. He fights to establish his rule over an entire region. And over time, he turns to a strategy of suicide attacks destined to create so much carnage that the American people will...

Try explaining to a college student that Tet was an American military victory. You’ll provoke not a counterargument—let alone an assent—but a blank stare: Who or what was Tet? Doing interviews about the recent hit movie 300, I encountered similar bewilderment from listeners and hosts. Not only did most of them not know who the 300 were or what Thermopylae was; they seemed clueless about the Persian Wars altogether. It’s no surprise that civilian Americans tend to lack a basic understanding of military matters. Even when I was a graduate student, 30-some years ago, military history—understood broadly as the investigation...

When I asked Karl Rove this week to summarize his approach to politics, he quoted from memory a 167-year-old letter by Abraham Lincoln to his Whig campaign committee: "Keep a constant watch on the doubtful voters, and from time to time have them talked to by those in whom they have the most confidence." Rove's innovation was to bring this peer-to-peer politics to a continental scale. Microtargeting and intensive turnout efforts improbably elected a Republican challenger in a time of Democratic prosperity. "In election after election," Rove observes, "we were applying Lincoln's letter." In several years as a colleague, I...

Bottom Line: Harry Potter may be fictional, but there are important truths in his life . . . at least through book six! I will let you know if I change my mind at the end of book seven . . . but so far there are five important themes in He Who Must Wear Round Glasses life . . . beyond the fact that inventing such a character and marketing him well will get you a castle of your own! First, magic cannot solve real problems. For most moderns technology is magical . . . . allowing them to...

Now that the immigration bill has finally died its slow and much-deserved death, it's an appropriate time to consider what lessons can be learned and what the episode portends for a Republican Party in disarray. Above all, the defeat of the Senate's immigration bill-a de facto amnesty for illegal immigrants that did virtually nothing to address the threats to our national security that our porous borders have created-was a victory for average Americans over the Washington, D.C. establishment. The details of the bill's collapse are telling. Between Tuesday and Thursday of last week, 14 senators changed their minds and voted...

Five Hundred Years Since Columbus: Lessons of the Church's History by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. Our reflections so far on Christopher Columbus have concentrated on his Catholic discovery of America. Our stress has been on the providential role that Columbus played in initiating the most fruitful conversion to Catholic Christianity since apostolic times. Too much has happened since 1492 and no two evaluations will be the same. However, there are certain aspects of our Catholic history since Columbus that are too obvious to be missed. They are also too important not to learn from the past how God wants...

By Rabbi Ari Sytner I had never seen so many fire trucks in one place. It was Erev Shabbos the eve of the Sabbath, but this Friday was unlike like any other. Instead of running around town in preparation for Shabbos, I stopped my normal routine and found myself standing solemnly with the crowd of onlookers lining the sidewalks of Charleston, South Carolina. We watched silently as several hundred fire trucks from cities and counties across the country passed before us. This somber procession would escort the nine heroic fallen Charleston firefighters who earlier that week had died in the...