An Almanack

There are two sources of political power. The more obvious is that of patronage. When you hold office, you hold the purse strings,can make appointments, pass bills and set policy.

The less obvious is the power of insurgency. When you are out of power, you get to sit back and criticize, watch for abuses of power, put your opponent on the defensive by exposing corruption. To do this effectively you must be aggressive and passionate. You need to have a cause that will unite your base, which might whither away without patronage.

The best situation of all is to be able to do both. As you are reforming the Government in your own vision, the past abuses of the previous Government come out. The more embarrassing the revelations, the more dispirited the opposition’s base will be. They will be too busy defending the indefensible to launch any offensive against you. And you can use that breathing room to further your own agenda.
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I mentioned to a colleague that Varadhan, a mathematician of Indian origin at NYU, won the Abel Prize. One of the top honors in the field. My colleague turned to the person sitting next to him, a visiting academic, and said:

In the middle of all that corruption, they are good in statistics. It must be because the British were good at it.

He was expressing a common view of India as a corrupt place where nothing works, perhaps with an occasional genius. Even Americans whose knowledge of India does not extend beyond watching “Slumdog Millionaire” feel free to pass such judgment. (more…)

I don’t oppose all wars

said Barack Obama in a speech back in 2002.

What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war…A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics…

As Sen. Clinton pointed out back then, this speech is the only thing Obama brought to the Primary campaign. It was enough. In that speech, of which only a few seconds of video remain, Obama laid out a vision for how to use (and not use) military force in the complicated world we live in.

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Today is Easter Sunday. The day that Jesus is said to have resurrected himself after being executed by a State that found him guilty after a trial. This could explain why the modern Catholic Church is against capital punishment. A cross is the best reminder that a Government’s system of justice can go horribly wrong.

The Popes of recent years have opposed executing even hardened criminals. Pope John Paul II during a visit to the US in April of 1999:

I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform.

So why was there no protest when George W. Bush was given an honorary degree by Notre Dame in 2001? During his six years as Governor, Bush presided over 152 executions in Texas: any of which he could have prevented by an executive order. In the case of Karla Faye Tucker, he ignored a personal appeal by the Pope himself. And yet when Obama is invited to address the graduating class and receive a degree there is a firestorm of protest. (more…)

Frank Rich, NYTimes

As if to confirm that much of our so-called legitimate financial world has been six degrees of separation from Bernie Madoff, GMAC’s chairman was none other than J. Ezra Merkin. In addition to presiding over losses of nearly $8 billion at GMAC, Merkin had a separate investment management business that threw away another $2 billion by feeding other people’s money (including the endowments at N.Y.U. and Yeshiva University) into Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

It is a small world at the top of the pyramid schemes of the Bush years. The impending bankruptcy of GM, with the hundreds of thousands of jobs at stake, is directly connected to its financial shenanigans. The “Real World” of blue collar jobs cannot escape the contagion of greed that brought down Wall St.

So who is J. Ezra Merkin? (more…)

Politico reports:

Arrayed around a long mahogany table in the White House state dining room last week, the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world offered several explanations for paying high salaries to their employees — and, by extension, to themselves.

We have all heard these explanations.

These are complicated companies.

We’re competing for talent on an international market.

The President was having none of it.

Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that. My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

The pitchforks are out. And not just on Wall Street.

Typically, people like their own boss. But ask anyone and you will hear complaints about extravagant benefits and salaries that others in their company are receiving. Unlike other People, Americans are not resentful of the wealthy. Those who become wealthy by talent and effort are admired. People do not mind their bosses being paid well as long as they feel they are doing a good job.

But there is a lot of anxiety out there. There is a suspicion that too many people are in administrative positions and too few in productive roles. I posted a (whose author is still unknown to me) on this blog about layoffs. It has been an instant hit. Everyone feels they are Andre’.

Obama understands the public mood. He made sure that the bankers understood as well.

The titans of finance — men used to being the most powerful man in almost any room — sized up a new president who made clear in ways big and small that he expected them to change their ways.
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“The anger gentlemen, is real,” Obama said

It had been a landmark day in the history of American capitalism. Unbeknownst to the financial executives, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner was also on Pennsylvania Avenue that day, meeting with Obama’s auto bailout task force. Although the finance CEOs got a meeting with the president, Wagoner saw only Obama’s senior advisor Steven Rattner at the Treasury Department. During the meeting, Rattner demanded Wagoner’s resignation.

Let us hope others heed the warning too.

What Went Wrong? is the title of a book by the Orientalist scholar Bernard Lewis about the Decline and Fall of the Islamic Civilization. There was a time when the Islamic Empires ruled from Spain to India and beyond. They had the best scientists, the most sophisticated literature. The basic degrees given out in Western Universitites today (Bachelors, Masters, Doctorate) are translations of Arabic terms used at Madrassas from Morocco to Egypt. The idea of tax exempt foundations to support research and charitable work is Islamic. The Shariah Law gave women the right to property, unheard of in the West till the eighteenth Century. And then it all fell apart. The Ottoman Caliphate lingered on as the sickman of Europe until it was finally abolished in the 1920s by the British.

Something like this is happening with the American Car industry. Obama just fired the Chairman of GM, the closest thing to a Caliph in America. (more…)

So that is the payoff. A few months ago India launched a spy satellite for Israel, using its PSLV rocket. So why take the risk of doing a favor for Israel, when the political situation in South Asia is so inflammatory?

Now we know. Indian satellites lack the Synthetic Aperture Radar that can see through clouds and at night. The Mumbai terrorist attack highlights the importance of being able to track small vessels in the Indian ocean and to watch terrorist training camps within Pakistan. The two countries can fill the gaps in each other’s capabilities. And then there is the whole enemy of my enemy thing happening also.

It is not something either side wants to talk about much: (more…)

The best part of Stewart’s merciless takedown of Jim Cramer was the old videotape where Cramer brags about manipulating the market. Just a few months ago people would have watched that tape and nodded in admiration. But now it exposes him as a fraud and possibly a criminal. Every time Cramer would try to weasel out, Stewart would call out a time “2:20″ and his flak would play another damning clip. Why is this guy Cramer not in jail?

It is not just fools who are taken in by market mania. Even Sir Isaac Newton lost twenty thousand pounds in the South Sea Bubble back in 1720. This time around, the victims of Bernie Madoff include a Nobel Laureate (Elie Wiesel), a newspaper tycoon (Mort Zuckermann) and several foundations.
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The Democratic Leadership Council was formed by Al From in the wake of Reagan’s victories. Its aim was to move the Democratic Party to the center. It claimed that America was a center-right nation. Bill Clinton is its most prominent former head. Zel Miller and Joe Lieberman had a turn. Currently it is chaired by Harold Ford Jr.

Things are not going well for the DLC. America no longer looks so center-right. In fact, it looks kinda center-left these days. It is the Republicans who need to correct course towards the center,dragging the mighty whale Rush Limbaugh .

Politico

The Democratic Leadership Council — a group of centrists that dominated politics during the Clinton presidency but is laboring to remain relevant in the Obama era — is on the brink of a major shake-up.

At the same time, the Progressive Policy Institute, an influential think tank closely affiliated with the DLC, will soon part ways with the council. Will Marshall, who heads the think tank, said the recent Democratic electoral gains and a massive new agenda being pushed by the Obama administration “require us to think anew.”

Duh.

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