Date: 5/4/2009 7:50 AM
PHILIP ELLIOTT
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama plans changes to tax policy certain to be unpopular with corporations with international divisions and individuals who use tax havens.
Obama’s two-part plan, which he is slated to unveil at the White House on Monday, also calls for 800 new federal tax agents to enforce the system.
The president’s proposal would eliminate some tax deductions for companies that earn profits in countries with low tax rates, as well as consider U.S. citizens who use tax havens in the Bahamas or Cayman Islands guilty of violating U.S. tax laws. If Obama wins congressional approval for the changes — and he faces a challenge on Capitol Hill — it could deliver $210 billion in tax revenue over the next decade.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was to join Obama for the 11 a.m. comments.
Officials described the administration’s plan ahead of the announcement on the condition of anonymity so they wouldn’t upstage the president’s remarks. However, they acknowledged the political challenges facing the plan. The administration won’t seek a complete repeal of overseas tax benefits and, although the rule changes are narrower than some anticipated, business leaders still oppose them as a tax hike. Obama aides countered that the plan is a step toward a massive overhaul of international financial regulations the president has promised.
In exchange, Obama said he was willing to make permanent a research tax credit that was to expire at the end of the year and is popular with businesses. Officials estimate that making the tax credits permanent would cost taxpayers $74.5 billion over the next decade.
But administration aides said 75 percent of those tax credits paid workers’ wages; given the struggling economy, aides were reluctant to do anything that could add more Americans to the unemployment rolls.
It was small comfort. Companies who shelter profits in international accounts stand to lose billions if Obama’s plan becomes law. Under the existing regulation, those companies pay taxes only if they bring the profits back to the U.S. If they keep the profits offshore, they can defer paying taxes indefinitely — and many do.
Obama’s plan wouldn’t go into effect until 2011; Obama has said he does not want to tinker with tax revenues until his $787 billion stimulus plan has run its course. The proposals, however, were far from complete, and aides said this was just one piece of the administration’s plan for sweeping overhaul.
First up: Companies won’t be able to write-off domestic expenses for generating profits abroad. For instance, administrative tasks performed in New York for a London office would not be tax deductible in the United States.
Administration officials depicted the move as a way to close unfair tax loopholes that encouraged companies to send jobs overseas. They argued that if it costs the same amount to do business in, say, Ireland as in Iowa, why not do it entirely in Des Moines? Officials said Obama would characterize the move as a way to keep jobs in the United States and fight a system that is rigged against U.S. companies who keep their entire business operation domestic.
Obama also planned to ask Congress to crack down on tax havens and implement a major shift in the way courts view guilt. Under Obama’s proposal, Americans would have to prove they were not breaking U.S. tax laws by sending money to banks that don’t cooperate with tax officials. It essentially would reverse the long-held assumption of innocence in U.S. courts.
If financial institutions cooperate with Washington and disclose details when asked, Americans could invest anywhere they like.
Obama officials also said they would close a Clinton-era provision that would cost $87 billion over the next decade by letting U.S. companies “check the box” and treat international subsidiaries as mere branch offices. Officials said it was meant as a paperwork shortcut that is now a widely used and perfectly legal way to avoid paying billions in taxes on international operations.
___
On the Net: www.whitehouse.gov
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Worldwide hopes soar for Obama inauguration
Date: 1/20/2009
By GREGORY KATZ
Associated Press Writer
LONDON (AP) — The arrival of a new American president triggered joy and jubilation Tuesday in a world made weary by warfare, recession and fear. Bulls and goats were slaughtered for feasts in Kenya, toasts were offered at black-tie balls in Europe and shamans in Latin America chanted Barack Obama’s name with reverence.
From Kenya and Indonesia, where Barack Obama has family ties, to Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, Obama’s inauguration sparked a volcanic explosion of hope for better days ahead.
The ascendance of the first African-American to the presidency of the United States was heralded as marking a new era of tolerance and possibility.
Nelson Mandela, the former South African president who also inspired millions, sent a letter to Obama shortly before his inauguration.
“Your election to this high office has inspired people as few other events in recent times have done,” Mandela wrote. “Amongst many around the world a sense of hopelessness had set in as so many problems remain unresolved and seemingly incapable of being resolved. You, Mister President, have brought a new voice of hope that these problems can be addressed and that we can in fact change the world and make of it a better place.”
The anti-apartheid icon’s sentiment was echoed in much of the world.
Alex Andrade, a 24-year-old unemployed black Brazilian, said Obama’s rise has inspired Brazil’s poor.
“Blacks face so much discrimination here,” he said, standing outside the Cantagalo slum, where ramshackle shacks line steep hills in Rio de Janeiro. “Now with a black man in charge of such an important country, it might help decrease the racism in Brazil.”
It was a reflection of Obama’s sprawling, complex family tree that villages in places as diverse as Ireland and Kenya held special parties to celebrate their link to the new president.
In Kenya, traditional dancers performed, feasts were held and movie screens were erected so neighbors could join together for the moment, only a year after their own elections were marred by horrific ethnic violence.
“Our election in Kenya really had problems with ethnicity … America has shown that this doesn’t have to be that big a problem,” said Dr. Joseph Osoo, who runs a clinic in one of Kenya’s biggest slums and last year at this time was stitching up people wounded in election riots.
“Kenyans are very happy because their son is going to be the leader of America,” he said.
In the village of Kogelo in western Kenya, where many of Obama’s Kenyan relatives live, women dressed in colorful printed cloths performed traditional dances to the rhythms of cowhide drums.
At the biggest hospital in nearby Kisumu, Christine Aoko named her newborn daughter Michelle, after Obama’s wife.
“I hope my girl will grow as tough as Michelle,” Aoko told The Associated Press.
An Irish village called Moneygall covered itself in red, white and blue bunting Tuesday in honor of Obama’s connections, via a great-great-great grandfather named Fulmouth Kearney who emigrated to the United States in 1850.
They also baked a special round fruitcake, locally called a “brack,” to sell for the occasion — with Obama’s picture on the wrapping.
In the South American country of Guyana, dozens of work sites closed at noon to let employees watch the inauguration.
“As far as I am concerned, today is a holiday,” said Patrick Hazelwood, an insurance agent in Georgetown. “I have also told my staff they are free to do what they want and take in the ceremony. Today is a serious day for everybody, a historic day.”
There was also jubilation in the often-violent Colombian town of Puerto Tejada, where sugarcane-cutting descendants of African slaves had the day off to celebrate and watched the Washington proceedings on a giant screen.
“The people here see themselves represented in Obama,” Mayor Elver Montano told the AP.
In Peru’s capital of Lima, a dozen faith healers from Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Bolivia danced during the inauguration. Stomping their feet, shaking rattles and blowing smoke, they chanted Obama’s name while throwing flower petals and coca leaves at his photograph.
The ancient Andean ritual is known as Jatun Sonjo, or ‘Big Heart’ in the Quechua language, explained shaman Juan Osco.
“In ancient times, it was one of the rituals dedicated to Inca and pre-Inca rulers,” Osco said. ” Today we dedicate it from Peru to Obama, because he is the first black president and his heart is big for the whole world.”
In Sweden, African-American singer Cyndee Peters was hosting a show named “A Gala for Obama,” featuring dozens of Swedish soul, jazz, hip-hop, gospel, folk and blues artists.
“Obama fever is all over the whole world, ” said Peters, 62, who grew up in North Carolina and New York. “What he stands for needs to be celebrated.”
In London, Americans could get free admission to Madame Tussaud’s waxworks to see the new figure of Obama, and parties were scheduled in dozens of venues, from ritzy hotels to local sports bars.
Louise Darko from Atlanta, standing on line to be photographed with the Obama waxwork, was thrilled with Obama’s inauguration because of the difficulties her great-grandfather faced when he was one of the first blacks to attend university in the American south.
“Now when I tell my children you can grow up to be anything, I really mean it,” said Darko, 44. “
In the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, where Obama spent four years as a young boy, students from his former school swayed and spun in bright, traditional costumes representing Indonesia’s ethnically diverse tropical islands.
Old classmates gathered at the Menteng 1 elementary school to watch a speech on television by the once-chubby kid they remember as Barry.
“I’m proud that the next president is someone who I have shared time with,” said Rully Dasaad, a fellow Boy Scout with Obama. “It was a crucial time for children our age, it is when we learned tolerance, sharing, pluralism, acceptance and respect of difference in cultures and religions.”
___
AP writers Min Lee in Hong Kong, Anthony Deutsch and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin, Dean Carson in London, Bert Wilkinson in Guyana, Vivian Sequera in Colombia, Bradley Brooks in Brazil and Andrew Whalen in Peru.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
By GREGORY KATZ
Associated Press Writer
LONDON (AP) — The arrival of a new American president triggered joy and jubilation Tuesday in a world made weary by warfare, recession and fear. Bulls and goats were slaughtered for feasts in Kenya, toasts were offered at black-tie balls in Europe and shamans in Latin America chanted Barack Obama’s name with reverence.
From Kenya and Indonesia, where Barack Obama has family ties, to Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, Obama’s inauguration sparked a volcanic explosion of hope for better days ahead.
The ascendance of the first African-American to the presidency of the United States was heralded as marking a new era of tolerance and possibility.
Nelson Mandela, the former South African president who also inspired millions, sent a letter to Obama shortly before his inauguration.
“Your election to this high office has inspired people as few other events in recent times have done,” Mandela wrote. “Amongst many around the world a sense of hopelessness had set in as so many problems remain unresolved and seemingly incapable of being resolved. You, Mister President, have brought a new voice of hope that these problems can be addressed and that we can in fact change the world and make of it a better place.”
The anti-apartheid icon’s sentiment was echoed in much of the world.
Alex Andrade, a 24-year-old unemployed black Brazilian, said Obama’s rise has inspired Brazil’s poor.
“Blacks face so much discrimination here,” he said, standing outside the Cantagalo slum, where ramshackle shacks line steep hills in Rio de Janeiro. “Now with a black man in charge of such an important country, it might help decrease the racism in Brazil.”
It was a reflection of Obama’s sprawling, complex family tree that villages in places as diverse as Ireland and Kenya held special parties to celebrate their link to the new president.
In Kenya, traditional dancers performed, feasts were held and movie screens were erected so neighbors could join together for the moment, only a year after their own elections were marred by horrific ethnic violence.
“Our election in Kenya really had problems with ethnicity … America has shown that this doesn’t have to be that big a problem,” said Dr. Joseph Osoo, who runs a clinic in one of Kenya’s biggest slums and last year at this time was stitching up people wounded in election riots.
“Kenyans are very happy because their son is going to be the leader of America,” he said.
In the village of Kogelo in western Kenya, where many of Obama’s Kenyan relatives live, women dressed in colorful printed cloths performed traditional dances to the rhythms of cowhide drums.
At the biggest hospital in nearby Kisumu, Christine Aoko named her newborn daughter Michelle, after Obama’s wife.
“I hope my girl will grow as tough as Michelle,” Aoko told The Associated Press.
An Irish village called Moneygall covered itself in red, white and blue bunting Tuesday in honor of Obama’s connections, via a great-great-great grandfather named Fulmouth Kearney who emigrated to the United States in 1850.
They also baked a special round fruitcake, locally called a “brack,” to sell for the occasion — with Obama’s picture on the wrapping.
In the South American country of Guyana, dozens of work sites closed at noon to let employees watch the inauguration.
“As far as I am concerned, today is a holiday,” said Patrick Hazelwood, an insurance agent in Georgetown. “I have also told my staff they are free to do what they want and take in the ceremony. Today is a serious day for everybody, a historic day.”
There was also jubilation in the often-violent Colombian town of Puerto Tejada, where sugarcane-cutting descendants of African slaves had the day off to celebrate and watched the Washington proceedings on a giant screen.
“The people here see themselves represented in Obama,” Mayor Elver Montano told the AP.
In Peru’s capital of Lima, a dozen faith healers from Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Bolivia danced during the inauguration. Stomping their feet, shaking rattles and blowing smoke, they chanted Obama’s name while throwing flower petals and coca leaves at his photograph.
The ancient Andean ritual is known as Jatun Sonjo, or ‘Big Heart’ in the Quechua language, explained shaman Juan Osco.
“In ancient times, it was one of the rituals dedicated to Inca and pre-Inca rulers,” Osco said. ” Today we dedicate it from Peru to Obama, because he is the first black president and his heart is big for the whole world.”
In Sweden, African-American singer Cyndee Peters was hosting a show named “A Gala for Obama,” featuring dozens of Swedish soul, jazz, hip-hop, gospel, folk and blues artists.
“Obama fever is all over the whole world, ” said Peters, 62, who grew up in North Carolina and New York. “What he stands for needs to be celebrated.”
In London, Americans could get free admission to Madame Tussaud’s waxworks to see the new figure of Obama, and parties were scheduled in dozens of venues, from ritzy hotels to local sports bars.
Louise Darko from Atlanta, standing on line to be photographed with the Obama waxwork, was thrilled with Obama’s inauguration because of the difficulties her great-grandfather faced when he was one of the first blacks to attend university in the American south.
“Now when I tell my children you can grow up to be anything, I really mean it,” said Darko, 44. “
In the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, where Obama spent four years as a young boy, students from his former school swayed and spun in bright, traditional costumes representing Indonesia’s ethnically diverse tropical islands.
Old classmates gathered at the Menteng 1 elementary school to watch a speech on television by the once-chubby kid they remember as Barry.
“I’m proud that the next president is someone who I have shared time with,” said Rully Dasaad, a fellow Boy Scout with Obama. “It was a crucial time for children our age, it is when we learned tolerance, sharing, pluralism, acceptance and respect of difference in cultures and religions.”
___
AP writers Min Lee in Hong Kong, Anthony Deutsch and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin, Dean Carson in London, Bert Wilkinson in Guyana, Vivian Sequera in Colombia, Bradley Brooks in Brazil and Andrew Whalen in Peru.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Blagojevich lawyer to submit Obama report to panel
Date: 12/29/2008
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The lead attorney for Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he plans to submit President-elect Barack Obama’s internal report on contacts with the scandal-plagued governor to the Illinois House committee weighing impeachment.
Attorney Ed Genson told the Chicago Sun-Times on Sunday the report would support Blagojevich’s claims that he hasn’t done anything wrong in his handling of Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat.
Earlier in the week, Obama released the internal report supporting his insistence that there had been no inappropriate contact with the governor’s office by Obama or his staff.
State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, chairwoman of the committee, said Sunday that Genson’s request to submit the report would probably be approved. But she expressed skepticism that the report would prove the governor’s innocence.
“Maybe in this particular instance someone didn’t run a stop sign, but it doesn’t say they didn’t run a different stop sign,” she said.
The House panel is scheduled to meet Monday.
Genson’s move comes after the committee rejected his request to subpoena incoming Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, whose testimony he said would also bolster Blagojevich’s claims of innocence.
“Since I can’t subpoena anyone, this is the next best thing,” Genson said.
The panel rejected his subpoena request after U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said testimony from Emanuel and others would interfere with his investigation.
Currie said Fitzgerald has not yet responded to the committee’s request to access wiretap recordings used to build the case against Blagojevich.
“They understand this is urgent,” Currie said of the U.S. attorney’s office, “so I suspect we’ll hear from them very soon.”
Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9 on charges accusing him of scheming to swap Obama’s vacant Senate seat for profit, shaking down a hospital executive for campaign donations and other wrongdoing. The two-term Democratic governor has declared his innocence and says he will fight the charges.
While Blagojevich has ignored repeated calls for his resignation, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn said Sunday he expects Blagojevich to be impeached and removed from office by the Illinois Legislature by Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial birthday celebration on Feb. 12.
___
Information from: Chicago Sun-Times, http://www.suntimes.com/index
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The lead attorney for Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he plans to submit President-elect Barack Obama’s internal report on contacts with the scandal-plagued governor to the Illinois House committee weighing impeachment.
Attorney Ed Genson told the Chicago Sun-Times on Sunday the report would support Blagojevich’s claims that he hasn’t done anything wrong in his handling of Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat.
Earlier in the week, Obama released the internal report supporting his insistence that there had been no inappropriate contact with the governor’s office by Obama or his staff.
State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, chairwoman of the committee, said Sunday that Genson’s request to submit the report would probably be approved. But she expressed skepticism that the report would prove the governor’s innocence.
“Maybe in this particular instance someone didn’t run a stop sign, but it doesn’t say they didn’t run a different stop sign,” she said.
The House panel is scheduled to meet Monday.
Genson’s move comes after the committee rejected his request to subpoena incoming Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, whose testimony he said would also bolster Blagojevich’s claims of innocence.
“Since I can’t subpoena anyone, this is the next best thing,” Genson said.
The panel rejected his subpoena request after U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said testimony from Emanuel and others would interfere with his investigation.
Currie said Fitzgerald has not yet responded to the committee’s request to access wiretap recordings used to build the case against Blagojevich.
“They understand this is urgent,” Currie said of the U.S. attorney’s office, “so I suspect we’ll hear from them very soon.”
Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9 on charges accusing him of scheming to swap Obama’s vacant Senate seat for profit, shaking down a hospital executive for campaign donations and other wrongdoing. The two-term Democratic governor has declared his innocence and says he will fight the charges.
While Blagojevich has ignored repeated calls for his resignation, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn said Sunday he expects Blagojevich to be impeached and removed from office by the Illinois Legislature by Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial birthday celebration on Feb. 12.
___
Information from: Chicago Sun-Times, http://www.suntimes.com/index
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Can Barack Save us from Global Woes?
Editor’s Note: Just when I finished today’s blog on the potential world calamity that allowing the U.S. auto industry to collapse could create, this story came across the AP Wire. This story has a little bit different spin than my apocalyptic warning, but it does corroborate my belief in the interdependency of the world’s belief in the value of the money.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://subtlebraininjury.com
http://thelegaltimes.net
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
http://vestibulardisorder.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447
©Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr. 2008
Date: 12/15/2008 12:19 AM
Global woes pose risks, also openings for US
WASHINGTON (AP) — The economic slump roaring across the world’s geopolitical map poses weighty challenges, as well as some unexpected opportunities, for President-elect Barack Obama.
Japan and major European countries have joined the United States in falling into recession. China has seen its remarkable three-decades-long export-fueled rise slowed. Oil-based economies on Washington’s worry list such as Iran, Russia and Venezuela, are reeling, too.
The U.S. led the rest of the world into the economic crisis, and many global players hope Washington can lead the world out. International investments pouring into low-interest U.S. Treasury securities in recent weeks show that, even if the U.S. has lost prestige internationally in recent years, it’s still deemed one of the safest places to park money.
The financial crisis drives home to other nations that “without an America that is successful financially, economically and therefore also politically, they’re not going to be successful,” said Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter. “If we don’t function well, no one functions well.”
Brzezinski said he believes “we have the chance again to establish our legitimacy internationally.”
China had been on track to surpass Germany as the world’s largest economy after the U.S. and Japan. But last week Beijing said its November exports took their biggest plunge in seven years in the face of weakening demand from the U.S. and other wealthy countries.
While China does not yet appear to be in recession, many factories have closed, raising the threat of heavy job losses that could fuel political unrest.
Analysts say the downturn has led Chinese leaders to put their top emphasis on protecting the domestic economy, including establishing a $586 billion plan to create public works jobs.
“In the long term, the economic crisis could decrease their investment in terms of defense, which had been rising very sharply. On the down side, it kind of reverses the U.S. approach to try to engage them more globally as China turns more inwardly,” said Steven Schrage, a former Bush administration trade official now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Also, U.S. multinational companies need an economically healthy China as a market for their own goods.
The effect of the dive in world oil prices — to under $50 a barrel from a high of $147 a barrel in early July — can work to the advantage and disadvantage of the U.S., analysts suggest.
In Venezuela, it could help reduce the funds available for policies that threaten U.S. interests. That could include President Hugo Chavez’s aid program for left-leaning Latin American governments.
In Iran, already isolated economically through international penalties, falling oil prices have dealt a hard beating to the country, helping further erode the popularity of Iran’s hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ahead of a tough re-election battle next year.
Ahmadinejad, already under sharp criticism for his unpopular economic policies, said this month that the oil-price plunge will force the government of the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter to make painful spending cuts.
His political rivals and other critics accuse Ahmadinejad of squandering the opportunity presented by soaring oil prices over the past three years and failing to use the higher income to insulate Iran for tougher times.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she hopes the economic shock from falling oil prices “will lead Iran to take a more reasonable course” in its standoff with the U.S. and other international powers over the country’s nuclear program.
Across the broader Middle East, tumbling oil prices also have left their mark.
The economic slowdown may cut into the ability of militant groups based in the region from financing terrorism operations elsewhere. But plunging oil prices will make it harder for Iraq to finance needed renovations to their oil fields and could effect the ability of states friendly to the U.S. to bankroll anti-terrorism programs.
“Some states that have been good at keeping dissent in their countries tamped down with all kinds of subsidies — and Saudi Arabia is one — will have fewer resources to do that with,” said Dan Benjamin, a former Middle East specialist with the National Security Council in the Clinton administration. “Saudi Arabia does run on oil and this is not be fun for them,” said Benjamin, now a scholar at the Brookings Institution.
Russia is confronting its worst economic crisis in a decade. The need to focus on righting its domestic economy could lead Moscow to moderate aggressive foreign policies.
Still, the crisis has allowed the Kremlin to take greater control over oil companies and other industries that Vladimir Putin, the former president and current prime minister, contends should never have been privatized in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The jury is still out on whether the global economic crisis will increase terrorist attacks, as some analysts suggest. But, clearly, al-Qaida and its affiliates are prepared to take credit for the downturn. Some note that the horrific attacks this month in Mumbai, India, were in the heart of an important economic hub.
“For the last several years, Osama bin Laden has spoken again and again to his followers about the need to go after economic targets, that economic targets should be at the top of the list,” said Bruce Riedel a senior national security adviser to three presidents. “Al-Qaida believes that it’s winning that war, that the global economic meltdown is a sign of its victory in the war,”
Bin Laden put out a video statement one year ago in which he talked about the home mortgage bubble in the United States and the impending crisis on Wall Street.
Either way, Obama inherits a full plate of issues in which economic and foreign-policy concerns are intertwined.
Going for him, suggests former U.N. Ambassador Thomas Pickering, is what appears to be a huge pool of international good will.
But, Pickering warns, this reservoir may not last long. “Every priority he selects will make someone happy and every priority he fails to select will disappoint somebody, so he’s now at the zenith of his political popularity internationally unless he can figure a new way around this.”
Pickering suggests Obama address various international issues at some length early in his presidency “so people around the world will know how in fact he fits the world together.” It also might help if Obama can demonstrate that the United States under his leadership “can walk and chew gum” at the same time, Pickering said.
Copyri ght 2008 The Associated Press.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://subtlebraininjury.com
http://thelegaltimes.net
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
http://vestibulardisorder.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447
©Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr. 2008
Date: 12/15/2008 12:19 AM
Global woes pose risks, also openings for US
WASHINGTON (AP) — The economic slump roaring across the world’s geopolitical map poses weighty challenges, as well as some unexpected opportunities, for President-elect Barack Obama.
Japan and major European countries have joined the United States in falling into recession. China has seen its remarkable three-decades-long export-fueled rise slowed. Oil-based economies on Washington’s worry list such as Iran, Russia and Venezuela, are reeling, too.
The U.S. led the rest of the world into the economic crisis, and many global players hope Washington can lead the world out. International investments pouring into low-interest U.S. Treasury securities in recent weeks show that, even if the U.S. has lost prestige internationally in recent years, it’s still deemed one of the safest places to park money.
The financial crisis drives home to other nations that “without an America that is successful financially, economically and therefore also politically, they’re not going to be successful,” said Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter. “If we don’t function well, no one functions well.”
Brzezinski said he believes “we have the chance again to establish our legitimacy internationally.”
China had been on track to surpass Germany as the world’s largest economy after the U.S. and Japan. But last week Beijing said its November exports took their biggest plunge in seven years in the face of weakening demand from the U.S. and other wealthy countries.
While China does not yet appear to be in recession, many factories have closed, raising the threat of heavy job losses that could fuel political unrest.
Analysts say the downturn has led Chinese leaders to put their top emphasis on protecting the domestic economy, including establishing a $586 billion plan to create public works jobs.
“In the long term, the economic crisis could decrease their investment in terms of defense, which had been rising very sharply. On the down side, it kind of reverses the U.S. approach to try to engage them more globally as China turns more inwardly,” said Steven Schrage, a former Bush administration trade official now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Also, U.S. multinational companies need an economically healthy China as a market for their own goods.
The effect of the dive in world oil prices — to under $50 a barrel from a high of $147 a barrel in early July — can work to the advantage and disadvantage of the U.S., analysts suggest.
In Venezuela, it could help reduce the funds available for policies that threaten U.S. interests. That could include President Hugo Chavez’s aid program for left-leaning Latin American governments.
In Iran, already isolated economically through international penalties, falling oil prices have dealt a hard beating to the country, helping further erode the popularity of Iran’s hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ahead of a tough re-election battle next year.
Ahmadinejad, already under sharp criticism for his unpopular economic policies, said this month that the oil-price plunge will force the government of the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter to make painful spending cuts.
His political rivals and other critics accuse Ahmadinejad of squandering the opportunity presented by soaring oil prices over the past three years and failing to use the higher income to insulate Iran for tougher times.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she hopes the economic shock from falling oil prices “will lead Iran to take a more reasonable course” in its standoff with the U.S. and other international powers over the country’s nuclear program.
Across the broader Middle East, tumbling oil prices also have left their mark.
The economic slowdown may cut into the ability of militant groups based in the region from financing terrorism operations elsewhere. But plunging oil prices will make it harder for Iraq to finance needed renovations to their oil fields and could effect the ability of states friendly to the U.S. to bankroll anti-terrorism programs.
“Some states that have been good at keeping dissent in their countries tamped down with all kinds of subsidies — and Saudi Arabia is one — will have fewer resources to do that with,” said Dan Benjamin, a former Middle East specialist with the National Security Council in the Clinton administration. “Saudi Arabia does run on oil and this is not be fun for them,” said Benjamin, now a scholar at the Brookings Institution.
Russia is confronting its worst economic crisis in a decade. The need to focus on righting its domestic economy could lead Moscow to moderate aggressive foreign policies.
Still, the crisis has allowed the Kremlin to take greater control over oil companies and other industries that Vladimir Putin, the former president and current prime minister, contends should never have been privatized in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The jury is still out on whether the global economic crisis will increase terrorist attacks, as some analysts suggest. But, clearly, al-Qaida and its affiliates are prepared to take credit for the downturn. Some note that the horrific attacks this month in Mumbai, India, were in the heart of an important economic hub.
“For the last several years, Osama bin Laden has spoken again and again to his followers about the need to go after economic targets, that economic targets should be at the top of the list,” said Bruce Riedel a senior national security adviser to three presidents. “Al-Qaida believes that it’s winning that war, that the global economic meltdown is a sign of its victory in the war,”
Bin Laden put out a video statement one year ago in which he talked about the home mortgage bubble in the United States and the impending crisis on Wall Street.
Either way, Obama inherits a full plate of issues in which economic and foreign-policy concerns are intertwined.
Going for him, suggests former U.N. Ambassador Thomas Pickering, is what appears to be a huge pool of international good will.
But, Pickering warns, this reservoir may not last long. “Every priority he selects will make someone happy and every priority he fails to select will disappoint somebody, so he’s now at the zenith of his political popularity internationally unless he can figure a new way around this.”
Pickering suggests Obama address various international issues at some length early in his presidency “so people around the world will know how in fact he fits the world together.” It also might help if Obama can demonstrate that the United States under his leadership “can walk and chew gum” at the same time, Pickering said.
Copyri ght 2008 The Associated Press.
A tough time for comics with Obama as president?
Date: 11/10/2008
By FRAZIER MOORE
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) _ Where’s the funny in Barack Obama?
That question, which dogged TV humorists throughout the presidential race, has gained new urgency now that Obama is headed for the White House.
His victory last week signaled imminent hardship for comics who lampoon political leaders for a living. The laugh-a-minute 2008 campaign is history, and soon there’ll be no President Bush to kick around in comedy sketches or talk-show monologues.
Adding to the jesters’ plight: Obama will soon be sworn in as the next Punch-Line-In-Chief.
Here is a man who inspires admiration, excitement or, maybe, suspicion. What he doesn’t inspire (in any measurable quantity, so far) are cheap laughs.
“A dignified, thoughtful, charismatic, smart man who doesn’t run at the mouth,” summed up Craig Ferguson, host of CBS’ “Late Late Show,” in the aftermath of eight go-go Bush years for comics. “Is it a challenge to our creative juices to find something funny about Obama? God, yes!”
Right after the election, some TV wags were even waxing nostalgic on the air, however tongue-in-cheek.
On Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart said he was already missing the Bush administration — and his own George W. Bush impression, which had served him so well at the anchor desk.
“As a comedian,” NBC’s Jay Leno echoed to his “Tonight Show” audience, “I’m going to miss President Bush. Barack Obama is not easy to do jokes about. He doesn’t give you a lot to go on. See, this is why God gave us (Vice President-elect) Joe Biden.
“When one door closes, another one opens up.”
True, as a six-term U.S. Senator and lately as Obama’s running mate, Biden has cemented his reputation for blurting out remarks before they’re vetted by his brain. (Item: Biden declared that “Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television” to address the nation when the stock market crashed in October 1929 — even though Herbert Hoover was president then and TV was barely invented.)
“He’s a little more gregarious, runs around and slaps people on the back, he’s cheery-looking,” said Ferguson, who agreed that Biden is the comics’ consolation prize. “You can at least put him in a sketch.”
The host of HBO’s “Real Time,” comic Bill Maher describes himself as “a policy guy who tries to stick more to what politicians do than who they are.” But that doesn’t mean he’s immune to the problem Obama represents.
“It’s always better if the president is stupid, or fat, or cheating on his wife, or angry, or a phony. This guy is none of those things. And that,” said Maher with a laugh, “is really unfair.
“But, c’mon, on balance, aren’t we all happier that we have somebody who isn’t such an easy target? I mean, comedians have had it really easy for the last eight years.”
Humor often relies on stereotypes and caricature, but comics haven’t yet sussed out how to caricature Obama, and so far he has defied any categorical stereotypes — even that of a black man.
Magician-comedian Penn Jillette recalled how “there have been jokes about Bush that had nothing to do with him being stupid or wrong — just about his being from Texas, since he has a slight Texas accent.
“But if you wanted to do black jokes about Obama, none of them are applicable: It’s as if he were from Texas, but without the Texas accent.”
Jillette ventured an idea for putting Obama in the comic cross-hairs: Crack wise about his notion “that government can solve a lot of the problems that were previously left to the individual. I would be talking about the audacity of government giving people that kind of hope.”
Ferguson proposed poking fun at Obama’s “deification” by his more fervent supporters. It’s no long-term solution for comedians, but it might buy them some time.
Obama’s do-no-wrong aura is sure to be short-lived, as Americans observe him no longer full-tilt on the campaign trail but instead slogging through each presidential workday.
And humor springs from increased familiarity with the target of the jokes.
“In time, that will happen,” said “Saturday Night Live” cast member Fred Armisen, who last February scored the show’s plum role impersonating Obama — “in time, not just with me, as we see more and more of him.”
And as comedians search for Obama’s laughs-generating sweet spot, they should fight the urge to go easy on him out of misconceived racial sensitivity, said D.L. Hughley.
“If you call yourself a comic, you can’t excuse the most powerful man in the world,” said Hughley, who is black and host of “D.L. Hughley Breaks the News” on CNN. “He is the most powerful man on the face of the planet. He is The Man!”
And many changes await in an Obama presidency that will serve the cause of humor. Meanwhile, much about the comedy landscape will be the same, as Hughley was reminded as he headed home on election night.
“I had watched it in Harlem,” he said. “I was elated, smiling from ear-to-ear, excited that the country I love now decided that they love people like me back, and in a major way. And I flagged a cab. And that cab drove right by me. Then I tried to flag another one, and it drove right by.”
Recalling the experience, he couldn’t help laughing that a black man couldn’t get a cab to stop in Obama’s America. Until comics find the key to the funny in Obama, they’ll have plenty else to make jokes about.
___
AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle contributed to this report.
___
CBS is owned by CBS Corp; CNN and HBO are owned by Time Warner; Comedy Central is owned by Viacom; NBC is owned by General Electric.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore(at)ap.org
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By FRAZIER MOORE
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) _ Where’s the funny in Barack Obama?
That question, which dogged TV humorists throughout the presidential race, has gained new urgency now that Obama is headed for the White House.
His victory last week signaled imminent hardship for comics who lampoon political leaders for a living. The laugh-a-minute 2008 campaign is history, and soon there’ll be no President Bush to kick around in comedy sketches or talk-show monologues.
Adding to the jesters’ plight: Obama will soon be sworn in as the next Punch-Line-In-Chief.
Here is a man who inspires admiration, excitement or, maybe, suspicion. What he doesn’t inspire (in any measurable quantity, so far) are cheap laughs.
“A dignified, thoughtful, charismatic, smart man who doesn’t run at the mouth,” summed up Craig Ferguson, host of CBS’ “Late Late Show,” in the aftermath of eight go-go Bush years for comics. “Is it a challenge to our creative juices to find something funny about Obama? God, yes!”
Right after the election, some TV wags were even waxing nostalgic on the air, however tongue-in-cheek.
On Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart said he was already missing the Bush administration — and his own George W. Bush impression, which had served him so well at the anchor desk.
“As a comedian,” NBC’s Jay Leno echoed to his “Tonight Show” audience, “I’m going to miss President Bush. Barack Obama is not easy to do jokes about. He doesn’t give you a lot to go on. See, this is why God gave us (Vice President-elect) Joe Biden.
“When one door closes, another one opens up.”
True, as a six-term U.S. Senator and lately as Obama’s running mate, Biden has cemented his reputation for blurting out remarks before they’re vetted by his brain. (Item: Biden declared that “Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television” to address the nation when the stock market crashed in October 1929 — even though Herbert Hoover was president then and TV was barely invented.)
“He’s a little more gregarious, runs around and slaps people on the back, he’s cheery-looking,” said Ferguson, who agreed that Biden is the comics’ consolation prize. “You can at least put him in a sketch.”
The host of HBO’s “Real Time,” comic Bill Maher describes himself as “a policy guy who tries to stick more to what politicians do than who they are.” But that doesn’t mean he’s immune to the problem Obama represents.
“It’s always better if the president is stupid, or fat, or cheating on his wife, or angry, or a phony. This guy is none of those things. And that,” said Maher with a laugh, “is really unfair.
“But, c’mon, on balance, aren’t we all happier that we have somebody who isn’t such an easy target? I mean, comedians have had it really easy for the last eight years.”
Humor often relies on stereotypes and caricature, but comics haven’t yet sussed out how to caricature Obama, and so far he has defied any categorical stereotypes — even that of a black man.
Magician-comedian Penn Jillette recalled how “there have been jokes about Bush that had nothing to do with him being stupid or wrong — just about his being from Texas, since he has a slight Texas accent.
“But if you wanted to do black jokes about Obama, none of them are applicable: It’s as if he were from Texas, but without the Texas accent.”
Jillette ventured an idea for putting Obama in the comic cross-hairs: Crack wise about his notion “that government can solve a lot of the problems that were previously left to the individual. I would be talking about the audacity of government giving people that kind of hope.”
Ferguson proposed poking fun at Obama’s “deification” by his more fervent supporters. It’s no long-term solution for comedians, but it might buy them some time.
Obama’s do-no-wrong aura is sure to be short-lived, as Americans observe him no longer full-tilt on the campaign trail but instead slogging through each presidential workday.
And humor springs from increased familiarity with the target of the jokes.
“In time, that will happen,” said “Saturday Night Live” cast member Fred Armisen, who last February scored the show’s plum role impersonating Obama — “in time, not just with me, as we see more and more of him.”
And as comedians search for Obama’s laughs-generating sweet spot, they should fight the urge to go easy on him out of misconceived racial sensitivity, said D.L. Hughley.
“If you call yourself a comic, you can’t excuse the most powerful man in the world,” said Hughley, who is black and host of “D.L. Hughley Breaks the News” on CNN. “He is the most powerful man on the face of the planet. He is The Man!”
And many changes await in an Obama presidency that will serve the cause of humor. Meanwhile, much about the comedy landscape will be the same, as Hughley was reminded as he headed home on election night.
“I had watched it in Harlem,” he said. “I was elated, smiling from ear-to-ear, excited that the country I love now decided that they love people like me back, and in a major way. And I flagged a cab. And that cab drove right by me. Then I tried to flag another one, and it drove right by.”
Recalling the experience, he couldn’t help laughing that a black man couldn’t get a cab to stop in Obama’s America. Until comics find the key to the funny in Obama, they’ll have plenty else to make jokes about.
___
AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle contributed to this report.
___
CBS is owned by CBS Corp; CNN and HBO are owned by Time Warner; Comedy Central is owned by Viacom; NBC is owned by General Electric.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore(at)ap.org
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.