Posted on 10/27/2008 4:15:13 PM PDT by WayneLusvardi
It wasn't the world that got flat, contrary to New York Times pundit Thomas Friedman, but the emerging markets that got flattened.
Faddish conventional wisdom over the past few years held that American influence was fading as technology radiated to the far reaches of the world. When America's economy went into a ditch, though, the supposed economic superpowers of the future went flying, like children on skates holding onto the back of truck.
The financial crash exposes the fragility of large swaths of the world. The political consequences will be terrible. The worst of it is that America will not be around to moderate the melee, not if Democratic Senator Barack Obama is elected president, that is. Those who objected to America's role as world policeman will get what they wanted, but they won't like it: a religious war reaching from Lebanon to Pakistan, and Colombian-style narco-war spreading to Mexico and Brazil. The low level of violence in Iraq during the past several months owes something to the skill of American arms in the so-called "surge", but it owes even more to a tacit agreement between Iran and the George W Bush administration: in return for leashing its irregular forces in Iraq, Iran would get a free hand with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and American forbearance with respect to its nuclear weapons program.
The Bush administration's motive to bribe Iran and avoid political damage in Iraq disappears on US presidential election day on November 4. Read more here: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JJ28Dj07.html
(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...
The worst of it is that America will not be around to moderate the melee, not if Democratic Senator Barack Obama is elected president, that is. Those who objected to America’s role as world policeman will get what they wanted, but they won’t like it: a religious war reaching from Lebanon to Pakistan, and Colombian-style narco-war spreading to Mexico and Brazil.
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Well, at least the Asia Times gets it right and says it like it is. F-— the U.S. MSM. They are the facilitators of a radical Socialist regime under Comrade Hussein.
Friedman is not a pundit, he is now a nobel prize PANDIT, equal to Pandit Carter, Pandit Gore, etc.
Start the draft. We have a world to police.
Friedman did not win any Nobel Prize — that was the loathsome Paul Krugman for work he did 20 years ago in international economics. His NY Times columns are atrocious and have contained numerous errors of fact, even in the area of economics.....but the Nobel Committee claims they awarded the prize solely for his academic work in economics. Supposedly it is competent work, although it is difficult to imagine that he alone would be elevated at this time above all other (non-Nobel) economists had he not turned into a rabid left-wing Bush-hating demagogue over the past 8 years..... just the kind of nonsense that too many Europeans love to reward. I find it difficult to believe that there are not other better, or at least comparable economists who were passed over in order to reward Krugman for his anti-Bush polemics.
Yikes and OOPS! And Thank You for correcting me in such a gentle manner.
IOW
Welcome back, Jimmy! Tell Miss Roslyn we left the Green Room just like she left it!
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