JPMorgan Chase’s $2 billion trading loss is top news nationwide. But over at the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), such losses are business as usual. USPS reported a typical (for it) $3.2 billion loss for the most recent quarter. Try that comparison on for size. JPMorgan Chase incurred a “whale” of a loss because, as explained […]
JPMorgan Chase’s announcement that it has lost $2 billion in a failed hedge strategy sent shock waves through the financial world yesterday. And in Washington, the reaction has had a political tone, with calls to accelerate adoption of the “Volcker Rule” limiting investments by banks. But policymakers should take a breath before taking out the […]
With negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) between the U.S. and eight other countries set to resume this week in Dallas, opponents are dusting off the same old discredited arguments against international trade. In a recent Huffington Post article, Leo Hindery of the New America Foundation dismissed the TPP as “deeply flawed.” His article repeats […]
If 2008 was all about hope and change, 2012 may well be about ladders. Yes, ladders. President Barack Obama has developed a soft-spot for the “ladder of opportunity” metaphor, and he’s running with it. At a community college in Ohio a few weeks ago, he promised an economy “where there are ladders of opportunity.” At […]
News yesterday of the expulsion of Melissa Chan, an American reporting for Al-Jazeera in China, brings into stark focus the great disparity between the U.S. willingness to grant visas to Chinese journalists—who are then allowed complete freedom to report in the U.S.—and the difficulty that foreign journalists have in not only getting permission to work […]
For some professions, it makes a lot of sense to have some high standards before you’re allowed to work — doctors, pharmacists, pilots, you get the picture. But did you know that some states have some serious hurdles for jobs like makeup artists, tree trimmers, animal trainers and massage therapists? It’s true, and a series […]
In April, the Independent Working Group (IWG) on Missile Defense and the Space Relationship held an event on the new triad—space, nuclear weapons, and ballistic missile defense—and its importance for the United States. It explored the fundamental importance and the relationship among the different elements of defense. The United States currently does not have a […]
Since the ratification of the Constitution, thousands of constitutional amendments have been proposed, but only 27 have survived the process of Article V. Out of these, the most well known are the first 10, also known as the Bill of Rights. Interestingly, 12 amendments were originally proposed, including one on congressional compensation. This proposal later […]
Argentina’s vice president, Amado Boudou, is confirmed to speak tomorrow at the annual Council of the Americas (COA) meeting at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington. COA is an association of international businesses founded in 1965 by David Rockefeller that promotes “open markets, the rule of the law, and democracy throughout the Western Hemisphere.” Boudou, […]
On her first visit to China in 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Chinese leaders that she considered human rights secondary to other, greater issues. “Our pressing on those issues can’t interfere on the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis,” she said. Have those words ever come back to […]
