Is the last shoe in the global debt crisis about to drop? Folha columnist Patricia Campos Mello writes that with a possible slowdown on the horizon and a municipal debt crisis that may amount to 30 percent of China’s GDP, the ‘bond buyer of last resort’ for both America and struggling E.U. countries may no longer be capable of coming to the rescue. For Folha, Patricia Campos Mello writes in...

Have Republicans gone too far with their absolutest positions on raising the U.S. debt limit and demanding tax cuts without any new revenue? Try as one might, there are precious few people abroad who see the economic world like the Republican Tea Party faction does. Salzburger Nachrichten columnist Thomas Spang writes that U.S. Republicans have already lost their attempt to ‘get Obama into trouble,’...

For columnist Fyodor Lukyanov of Russia’s Gazeta, America’s ugly debate about raising the U.S. debt ceiling serves as a disturbing counterpoint to Greece’s flirtation with bankruptcy. According to Lukyanov, it is precisely the sense of fruitless confrontation in Washington that is the greatest source of American discouragement. For Gazeta, Fyodor Lukyanov writes in part: On the day the Greek...

There is no denying that too many of our troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are having a very difficult time coping with their lives back home—emotionally, financially, medically, mentally and in so many other ways. Homelessness, suicide, domestic violence, divorce, drug and alcohol addiction and even serious crime are some of the symptoms and consequences. We have read, seen and heard such stories...

Jobs in America will take another severe hit if further bungling in the US and Europe causes a slowdown in growth of the major emerging economies, including China, Russia, India and Brazil. There are many threats to their growth but the worst come from failure to handle US public debt and potential government bankruptcies in Europe. European finance ministers will meet in Brussels on Thursday but the impasse...

Damning evidence has been surfacing during the past decades revealing how different US administrations have been looking the other way despite Pakistan military establishment’s open role in supplying nuclear know-how to rogue regimes. Now A.Q. Khan, the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb program, asserts that the government of North Korea bribed top military officials in Islamabad to obtain access to...

The New Yorker sums up the murky media Mughal Murdoch scandal thus: “Rupert Murdoch and his people have claimed that the newspaper scandal in London was caused by a few rotten apples. Now that a very large apple, Rebekah Brooks, has been arrested, it is clear that it is the entire barrel that is rotten.” Brooks is a former News International chief. Meanwhile London’s police chief resigned...

It is time to celebrate – that is, unless you are the ‘Great Satan’ or any other devil in human form. Because today is the birthday of the Mahdi, also known as the Muslim Messiah. And according to Iran’s state-run Kayhan, it’s time to prepare ourselves for his return. Kayhan columnist Seyyed Ali Shahbaz informs us of the Mahdi’s imminent arrival – along with Jesus...

Does the U.S. political crisis demonstrate what Beijing has been saying for years: that it is dangerous for U.S. creditors to allow the dollar to continue as the global currency of choice? According to this article by Li Xiangyang for the state-run People’s Daily, until the dollar is dethroned, holders of U.S. sovereign debt ‘must either endure the enormous immediate financial risk brought about...

Following up on Holly’s “Even More Fallout: Les Hinton of WSJ Announces Resignation“: Now, it appears that even Scotland Yard may have been in bed with those good ole Murdoch boys: Breaking News Alert The New York Times Saturday, July 16, 2011 — 1:38 PM EDT —– Taint From Tabloids Rubs Off on a Cozy Scotland Yard For nearly four years, six overstuffed plastic bags* containing...

Its grasslands have absorbed too much blood. Its winds have carried away too many sounds of interethnic, religious and civil warfare and strife in which more than 2 million people have been killed and more than 5 million have become internally and externally displaced. Its tropical forests have witnessed too much grief and violence. But while its past is troubled and its future uncertain, yesterday the...

Is the United States doing enough to put an end to the drug violence south of the border? According to this editorial from Mexico’s El Universal, while the Obama government has taken tiny steps in the right direction, opposition from the U.S. gun lobby and the legalization of marijuana in 15 U.S. states has hindered progress. The editorial from El Universal says in part: The weapons that kill thousands...

Is there any truth to the notion that it would be no big deal if the U.S. Congress failed to lift the debt ceiling? According to Die Zeit columnist Christoph von Marschall, the world is cowering in fear over the fact that there are some U.S. lawmakers who fail to acknowledge the catastrophe of such an unprecedented event. For Die Zeit, Christoph von Marschall writes in part: The clock is ticking relentlessly....

Default on debt – that’s the latest conversation but it’s silly.  The conversation recently has been all about a bail out of Greece.  But who’s getting bailed out?  It’s not the people of Greece but the banksters that loaned them money.  In reality the citizens of Greece would be better off if the country defaulted.  Ireland, Portugal, Spain and now Italy...

When it comes to the question of the U.S. defaulting on its debt, it seems that the old adage ‘when the U.S. coughs, the world catches cold’ isn’t completely outdated. According to this editorial from Brazil’s O Globo, the fortunes of billions may depend of the vicissitudes of America’s cartoonish yet deadly serious political debate. The O Globo editorial says in part: On the...

INTRODUCTION Charles Hugh Smith put up another two-part analysis on his website “Of Two Minds” (http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html) concerning why U.S. Small businesses are not hiring and will likely not be hiring in the future. The phrase “structural unemployment” is sometimes used in misleading ways in many opinion pieces around the Media. Some writers use “structural” as in there are too many...

Is the burgeoning rivalry between China and the United States destined to worsen the split between North and South Korea? This editorial from South Korea’s Hankyoreh warns that the territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas may put Korean unification even further out of reach than it already is. The Hankyoreh editorial says in part: The question of whether China will support North Korea militarily...

Director Roman Polanski may have narrowly escaped yet another attempt to extradite him to the United States on charges that he raped a San Francisco 13-year-old 33 years ago. According to this article by Ewa Siedlecka of Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza, Polanski canceled a visit to a film festival in his native country of Poland at the last minute, leading many to believe he feared the long arm of American law. For...

Pakistan truly seems in danger of creating such a backlash in the United States that even though it remains an important component for Washington in the war in Afghanistan and the war on terror it is on the verge of exploding as a political campaign issue. The latest self-inflicted blow to its worsening image here: an official says Pakistan could simply decide to pull its troops back from the Afghanistan border...

Pakistan is now turning itself into a major issue in the United States on two fronts. The administration has held back on a chunk of funding due to some actions many think are not exactly in keeping with the definition of an ally. And it is losing friends quickly in Congress. The latest news that it is holding the doctor who tried collecting bin Laden DNA will make its position worse on both fronts: Pakistani...