Press Briefing

Oct 16, 2010

Boehner's K Street Cabinet
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/OFA/gGMzzK

Lies, Damn Lies and the ObamaCare Sales Pitch - The White House's ObamaCare defense is becoming even more frantic and desperate
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554273700857644.html

Urbanization Policy in an Uncertain Economy. By Allen L. Clark, Meril Dobrin Fujiki, and Mariko Davidson (eds.)
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/search-for-publications/browse-alphabetic-list-of-titles/?class_call=view&mode=view&pub_ID=3559

Christie Is Right About the Hudson River Big Dig - The money might be better spent on New Jersey's roads, which are rated among the worst in the nation
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548280684121298.html

The New START Treaty. By Marcie B. Ries, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance. Remarks by Delegation of the United States of America to the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly. New York City, October 15, 2010
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149534.htm

Arnold's Last Hurrah - A modest pension victory amid the overall triumph of Sacramento
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575539830526815218.html

Advanced Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Peaceful Uses Initiative
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/scp/fs/2010/149511.htm

Why Liberals Don't Get the Tea Party Movement. By Peter Berkowitz
Our universities haven't taught much political history for decades. No wonder so many progressives have disdain for the principles that animated the Federalist debates.
WSJ, Oct 16, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531913602803980.html

Highly educated people say the darndest things, these days particularly about the tea party movement. Vast numbers of other highly educated people read and hear these dubious pronouncements, smile knowingly, and nod their heads in agreement. University educations and advanced degrees notwithstanding, they lack a basic understanding of the contours of American constitutional government.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman got the ball rolling in April 2009, just ahead of the first major tea party rallies on April 15, by falsely asserting that "the tea parties don't represent a spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment. They're AstroTurf (fake grass-roots) events."

Having learned next to nothing in the intervening 16 months about one of the most spectacular grass-roots political movements in American history, fellow Times columnist Frank Rich denied in August of this year that the tea party movement is "spontaneous and leaderless," insisting instead that it is the instrument of billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch.

Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne criticized the tea party as unrepresentative in two ways. It "constitutes a sliver of opinion on the extreme end of politics receiving attention out of all proportion with its numbers," he asserted last month. This was a step back from his rash prediction five months before that since it "represents a relatively small minority of Americans on the right end of politics," the tea party movement "will not determine the outcome of the 2010 elections."

In February, Mr. Dionne argued that the tea party was also unrepresentative because it reflected a political principle that lost out at America's founding and deserves to be permanently retired: "Anti-statism, a profound mistrust of power in Washington goes all the way back to the Anti-Federalists who opposed the Constitution itself because they saw it concentrating too much authority in the central government."

Mr. Dionne follows in the footsteps of progressive historian Richard Hofstadter, whose influential 1964 book "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" argued that Barry Goldwater and his supporters displayed a "style of mind" characterized by "heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy." Similarly, the "suspicion of government" that the tea party movement shares with the Anti-Federalists, Mr. Dionne maintained, "is not amenable to 'facts'" because "opposing government is a matter of principle."

To be sure, the tea party sports its share of clowns, kooks and creeps. And some of its favored candidates and loudest voices have made embarrassing statements and embraced reckless policies. This, however, does not distinguish the tea party movement from the competition.

Born in response to President Obama's self-declared desire to fundamentally change America, the tea party movement has made its central goals abundantly clear. Activists and the sizeable swath of voters who sympathize with them want to reduce the massively ballooning national debt, cut runaway federal spending, keep taxes in check, reinvigorate the economy, and block the expansion of the state into citizens' lives.

In other words, the tea party movement is inspired above all by a commitment to limited government. And that does distinguish it from the competition.

But far from reflecting a recurring pathology in our politics or the losing side in the debate over the Constitution, the devotion to limited government lies at the heart of the American experiment in liberal democracy. The Federalists who won ratification of the Constitution—most notably Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay—shared with their Anti-Federalist opponents the view that centralized power presented a formidable and abiding threat to the individual liberty that it was government's primary task to secure. They differed over how to deal with the threat.

The Anti-Federalists—including Patrick Henry, Samuel Bryan and Robert Yates—adopted the traditional view that liberty depended on state power exercised in close proximity to the people. The Federalists replied in Federalist 9 that the "science of politics," which had "received great improvement," showed that in an extended and properly structured republic liberty could be achieved and with greater security and stability.

This improved science of politics was based not on abstract theory or complex calculations but on what is referred to in Federalist 51 as "inventions of prudence" grounded in the reading of classic and modern authors, broad experience of self-government in the colonies, and acute observations about the imperfections and finer points of human nature. It taught that constitutionally enumerated powers; a separation, balance, and blending of these powers among branches of the federal government; and a distribution of powers between the federal and state governments would operate to leave substantial authority to the states while both preventing abuses by the federal government and providing it with the energy needed to defend liberty.

Whether members have read much or little of The Federalist, the tea party movement's focus on keeping government within bounds and answerable to the people reflects the devotion to limited government embodied in the Constitution. One reason this is poorly understood among our best educated citizens is that American politics is poorly taught at the universities that credentialed them. Indeed, even as the tea party calls for the return to constitutional basics, our universities neglect The Federalist and its classic exposition of constitutional principles.

For the better part of two generations, the best political science departments have concentrated on equipping students with skills for performing empirical research and teaching mathematical models that purport to describe political affairs. Meanwhile, leading history departments have emphasized social history and issues of race, class and gender at the expense of constitutional history, diplomatic history and military history.

Neither professors of political science nor of history have made a priority of instructing students in the founding principles of American constitutional government. Nor have they taught about the contest between the progressive vision and the conservative vision that has characterized American politics since Woodrow Wilson (then a political scientist at Princeton) helped launch the progressive movement in the late 19th century by arguing that the Constitution had become obsolete and hindered democratic reform.

Then there are the proliferating classes in practical ethics and moral reasoning. These expose students to hypothetical conundrums involving individuals in surreal circumstances suddenly facing life and death decisions, or present contentious public policy questions and explore the range of respectable progressive opinions for resolving them. Such exercises may sharpen students' ability to argue. They do little to teach about self-government.

They certainly do not teach about the virtues, or qualities of mind and character, that enable citizens to shoulder their political responsibilities and prosper amidst the opportunities and uncertainties that freedom brings. Nor do they teach the beliefs, practices and associations that foster such virtues and those that endanger them.

Those who doubt that the failings of higher education in America have political consequences need only reflect on the quality of progressive commentary on the tea party movement. Our universities have produced two generations of highly educated people who seem unable to recognize the spirited defense of fundamental American principles, even when it takes place for more than a year and a half right in front of their noses.

Mr. Berkowitz is a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution.

Remarks to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Women's Entrepreneurship Summit
http://www.state.gov/s/gwi/rls/rem/2010/149525.htm

What Bernanke Didn't Say - The dollar? Someone else's problem
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554220786642124.html

Debt-For-Nature Agreement to Conserve Costa Rica’s Forests
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg908.htm

Currency Chaos: Where Do We Go From Here? - Mundell: 'The most important initiative you could take to improve the world economy would be to stabilize the dollar-euro rate'
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552481963474898.html

Federal President's Weekly Address: Washington Republicans "Rewarding Corporations That Create Jobs and Profits Overseas"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/16/weekly-address-president-obama-washington-republicans-rewarding-corporat

A Real Vaccine Scare - Lawsuits, autism and the Supreme Court
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548470924781864.html

Adrian Fenty and Michelle Rhee: We fought for D.C. schools. Now it's up to you.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/15/AR2010101502701.html

Myron Scholes on Whether QE2 Will Work
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/10/15/guest-contribution-myron-scholes-on-whether-qe2-will-work/

Press Briefing

Oct 15, 2010

State Dept: Advancing Sustainable Agriculture Through the Committee on World Food Security
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/agriculture_committee_food_security

Poll conducted by the Democratic-leaning firm of Penn, Schoen & Berland: 44% of likely voters in districts "say the Democratic Party is more dominated by its extreme elements," 37% say the same about the GOP http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552190679905162.html

In The NYT Magazine: Education of a President
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/magazine/17obama-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Voters on ObamaCare: Informed and Opposed - A new poll shows that opposition to the individual mandate is intense
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673604575549700366382866.html

The U.S. National Space Policy, International Cooperation and the Pursuit of TCBMs
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149491.htm

The Education of Barney Frank - The benefits of a competitive election
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552371822314694.html

THE PATH TO GLOBAL RECOVERY: A CONVERSATION WITH THE TREASURY SECRETARY TIMOTHY GEITHNER
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/events/2010/1006_global_recovery/20100610_geithner.pdf

ObamaCare in Court - A Florida judge allows the major state lawsuit to proceed to trial
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552490899677152.html

The U.S.-European Relationship: Global Challenges and International Economic Architecture
http://www.state.gov/e/rls/rmk/2010/149421.htm

Liberalism and Public Works - Entitlement politics leaves little money for roads and tunnels
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548382097688038.html

Re: The Geopolitics of Emotion
http://themoornextdoor.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/re-the-geopolitics-of-emotion/

Stop Bashing Business, Mr. President - If we tried to start The Home Depot today, it's a stone cold certainty that it would never have gotten off the ground
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704361504575552080488297188.html

US Pledges Additional $1 Million to Help Displaced Afghans in Pakistan and Their Host Communities
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/10/149481.htm

Republicans appear poised for major gains in the Midwest, a region dominated by the president in 2008
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575547922554350844.html

Press Briefing

Oct 15, 2010

Organizing for America: See the Progress in Your Community
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/joshcohen/gGMzkf

China’s Auto Boom and Oil Strategy
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/14/chinas-auto-boom-and-oil-strategy/

Democrats: Moving America Forward
http://progress.democrats.org/

Side Effects: How Government Micromanagement Could Discourage Access to Some Preventive Services
http://fixhealthcarepolicy.com/research/side-effects-how-government-micromanagement-could-discourage-access-to-some-preventive-services

Press Briefing

Oct 14, 2010

Culture Evolves Slowly, Falls Apart Quickly
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/evolution-of-culture/

White House - What Health Reform Means for African Americans
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/13/what-health-reform-means-african-americans

The Peace Prize's Subversive Potential - The Soviet Union faced pressure after Andrei Sakharov won the Nobel in 1975. Now it's China's turn.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548443161394272.html

Sec Clinton: Townterview with Students, Women Leaders, and Members of Civil Society
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/10/149411.htm

Education Reform Setback - Washington, D.C. shows its maverick schools chancellor the door
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673604575550113203121580.html

Under Secretary Maria Otero Highlights New Partnership on Safe Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Education for Schools in Developing Countries
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/10/149413.htm

The Election Gong Show - Federal President fails to speak up against antitrade, anti-China campaigning.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548082194712758.html

White House - What You Missed: Tuesday Talk with Elizabeth Warren
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/13/what-you-missed-tuesday-talk-with-elizabeth-warren

How to Reform ObamaCare Starting Now - States should steer the mandated health-insurance exchanges in a pro-market direction and dare Washington to stop them
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575521770685906984.html

Press Roundtable at U.S. Embassy in Cairo
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/rm/2010/149382.htm

The president says secret foreign money might steal the election. He's not even fooling the New York Times
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673604575550180126192598.html

Transatlantic Missile Defense: Looking to the NATO Lisbon Summit
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149360.htm

Susan Dunn has written an engaging story of bare - knuck led political treachery that pits a president at the peak of his popularity against entrenched congressional leaders who didn't like where he was taking the country and their party. FDR tried to use the power of the White House, and his personality, to run his opponents out of the Democratic Party. He failed miserably.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532371905049074.html

Press Briefing

Oct 13, 2010

Abducted and Tortured for Reporting the News — 'This is the consequence of writing against the government,' my captors said
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703794104575545914180906100.html

A new CNN poll shows that people are becoming more nostalgic for the Bush years
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548130895975438.html

Under Secretary Brainard Remarks at the Institute of International Bankers' Regulatory Dialogue with Government Officials
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg903.htm

How to avoid another Alan Hevesi: turn defined benefit retirement plans into 401(k)-style defined contribution plans
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575540292781704692.html

Four Governors on How to Cut Spending - How they are coping and how they plan to save money in the future
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520221102889934.html

Liberating the Gulf - But a drilling ban persists by other means
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548454110320976.html

Organizing for America's John Pyrch: Step 2
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/johnpyrch/gGMz2N

A Growth Agenda for America - An economy grows through increased production, which is financed by capital or savings. Congress can encourage this process with the right tax reform.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440004575548172409030684.html

Final paper on supervisory colleges issued by the Basel Committee
http://www.bis.org/press/p101012.htm

Political Target Practice - A case study in what Democrats really mean by campaign 'disclosure' http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538402294440806.html

Vote 2010 Update with Michelle Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVF6c01fqys

The 2010 Spending Record - In two years, a 21.4% increase
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703358504575544351734226956.html

Secretary Clinton Travel Diary: Sec Clinton Dedicates New Embassy Compound and Robert C. Frasure Street
http://bit.ly/96Ioh0

Obama and the Politics of Outsourcing - For every job outsourced to Bangalore, nearly two jobs are created in Buffalo or other American cities
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575537983245805688.html

Activists Have Nothing to Say to Grand Jury | By Elizabeth DiNovella
http://t.co/pRZuEVh

Europe the Intolerant - The continent's progressive image is a fabrication of the American liberal mind
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575537950006608746.html

President Obama: Attend a Vote 2010 House Party
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws-l38SSqg8

Obamacare vs. the Rule of Law
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/07/obamacare-vs-the-rule-of-law

David Plouffe Obama Campaign Update: October 12, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD_Ck5g1pmE

Hope and Change - The politics of uplift and inspiration, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703794104575546470217381134.html

U.S. Positions at the Annual Meeting of the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149293.htm

Boehner's 'Plan B' for ObamaCare - Hearings can be used to sell market-friendly fixes
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703794104575546230578804328.html

Are Humans Genetically Disposed to Be Statists?
http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/are-humans-genetically-disposed-to-be-statists

Pakistan Is Not America's Enemy - A sustained U.S.-Pakistani partnership after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan could have produced a very different history than the one we wrestle with today
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703358504575544092642205742.html

If You Cant Beat Them, Silence Them
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/11/morning-bell-if-you-cant-beat-them-silence-them

Press Briefing

Oct 11, 2010

White House blog post on the struggles of LGBT youth
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/09/it-gets-better

The Fed Compounds Its Mistakes - Talk of increasing inflation to reduce unemployment is dangerous and unnecessary
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538532260290528.html

USAID Assistance in Pakistan
http://blogs.state.gov/ap/index.php/site/entry/usaid_assistance_in_pakistan

Shootout at the EPA Corral - Texas takes aim at the White House's illegal carbon rules
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538834180153298.html

The Economics of Drug Violence - Competition in the narcotics trade is preferable to monopolistic syndicates
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575540502615107046.html

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: In Holland, Free Speech on Trial
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575539872944767984.html

Remarks at Afghanistan Minerals Roadshow
http://www.state.gov/e/rls/rmk/2010/149240.htm

Shutting Up Business - Democrats unleash the IRS and Justice on donors to their political opponents
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536370151720874.html

Enduring Leadership: Marshall's Legacy For American Public Diplomacy in the 21st Century
http://www.state.gov/r/remarks/2010/149208.htm

MIRACLE: California’s Air Becomes 340% Cleaner Overnight
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/08/miracle-california%E2%80%99s-air-becomes-340-cleaner-overnight/

Geithner in Sunday's Washington Post: ‘Five Myths about Tarp’
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg900.htm

Afghanistan must embrace women's rights
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/08/AR2010100806343.html

Remarks to the International Youth Foundation's 20th Anniversary Reception
http://www.state.gov/g/149203.htm

A Nobel Vision of a Better China - With Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, China's pro-democracy movement may finally have found its leader
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575539513894444800.html

Technology = Salvation - An early investor in Facebook on the subprime crisis and why American ingenuity has hit a dead end
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575537882643165738.html

The Politics of Foreclosure - Washington's latest obstacle to a housing market recovery
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538440995389092.html

Press Briefing

Oct 08, 2010

The Employment Situation in September
http://goo.gl/fb/RwtVK

Tibetans Find Freedom in Exile - Since the Dalai Lama's expulsion in 1959, India has become home to at least 120,000
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703843804575534372072487894.html

New Patterns of Investment in the Global Economy: Implications for U.S. Leadership
http://www.state.gov/e/rls/rmk/2010/149187.htm

The U.S. Will Lose a China Trade War - Washington can't afford a weak-dollar policy. The only thing standing between the U.S. and a Greek-style sovereign debt crisis is the dollar's status as the global currency.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703843804575534423508502744.html

Update: U.S. Response to Pakistan's Flooding Disaster
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/10/149190.htm

Missed Trade Opportunity - The European Union capitalizes on U.S. protectionism -- South Korea Free Trade Agreement
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536972846474404.html

Community of Democracies Informal Ministerial Meeting
http://www.state.gov/g/149154.htm

The 'Limited Inflationists' - Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his QE Street Band
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575535791390597042.html

Remarks at the Trygve Lie Symposium on Business and Human Rights
http://www.state.gov/g/149150.htm

Murdoch: Unless we measure success by how children perform, we'll have higher standards for pop stars than public schools
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538080168519658.html

How to Contain Radical Islam: Lessons from South Asia
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/search-for-publications/browse-alphabetic-list-of-titles/?class_call=view&pub_ID=3565&mode=view

How a Bagram Detainee Foiled the Euro Terror Plot - The plan was disrupted because we were lucky enough to have the key witness in detention. It's a shame we didn't try to extract similar intelligence from Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536502486233766.html

Using Functional Populations to Create More Realistic Simulations
http://www.idga.org/article.cfm?externalid=3294

Revolt of the Accountants - Washington is turning America into Paperwork Nation
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538502008810226.html

Remarks for Launch of Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health
http://www.state.gov/g/149152.htm

Obama's Energy-Policy Goals Versus China's
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/07/obama%e2%80%99s-energy-policy-goals-versus-china%e2%80%99s/

China's Ambitions in the South China Sea
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/apb071.pdf

Side Effects: Obamacare Compels More Employers to Dump Coverage
http://fixhealthcarepolicy.com/in-the-news/side-effects-obamacare-compels-more-employers-to-dump-coverage

The Protectionist Instinct - Political support for free trade is a remarkable achievement of civic education—one threatened by our weak economy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531720311339894.html

Will Growing Government Debt Undermine the American Dream? The Implications of Mounting Federal Debt and Spending for the Debt-Paying Generation
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/09/Will-Growing-Government-Debt-Undermine-the-American-Dream

Press Briefing

Oct 07, 2010

The Obama Administration's Support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/10/149074.htm

Geithner's 'Cooperation' - Dollar devaluation is not economic leadership
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536453177817206.html

Secretary of Treasury Timothy F. Geithner Remarks at the Brookings Institution
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg894.htm

Toward a New American Century - Immigration reform, investments in human capital, and a saner housing policy can help restore U.S. economic leadership
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531894174441102.html

Fighting Back Against Arbitrary Government Rule
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/06/morning-bell-fighting-back-against-arbitrary-government-rule

ObamaCare and the Election - The GOP needs to raise the health-care stakes in 2010, and beyond
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703843804575534072299141554.html

Press Briefing

Oct 06, 2010

The Coming Golden Age of Television - TV networks and video programming are among the only traditional media to grow since the advent of the Internet
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704380504575530461209634820.html

The Demilitarization of Europe - Our NATO allies aren't spending enough to be credible security partners anymore
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531722614613144.html

Of Scoundrels and Speech - The First Amendment protects even jerks
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532221786782014.html

Undiplomatic Hold-Ups - Boxer and Brownback vs. U.S. interests
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575521831759579778.html

UNHCR Roundtable on Asylum-Seekers and Refugees Seeking Protection on Account of Their Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
http://www.state.gov/g/prm/rls/rmks/2010/149000.htm

Pax Americana and the New Iraq - Iraq's Shiites, especially, have a healthy fear of Iran and a desire to keep Persian power at bay
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703843804575534131136793708.html

Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets Mary J. Miller Remarks before the Future Industry Association Treasury and Rates Conference
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg890.htm

The Soul of the Spending Machine - Republicans need new rules to aid their policy priorities
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532410134909310.html

61st Session of the UNHCR Executive Committee - U.S. Government Plenary Statement
http://www.state.gov/g/prm/rls/rmks/2010/148629.htm

Why praise violent, misogynistic hip-hop stars?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575526401852413266.html

Remarks by Delegation of the United States of America to the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/149010.htm

The Private Sector Can Improve Infrastructure with Privatization not a Bank
http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2010/0929_infrastructure_privatization_winston.aspx

Serendipitous Connections - Innovation occurs when ideas from different people bang against each other
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531790397679612.html

How Handwriting Trains the Brain - Forming Letters Is Key to Learning, Memory, Ideas
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531932754922518.html

Press Briefing

Oct 05, 2010

Readers Write: Healthy Children Need Healthy Parents
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entries/readers_write_health/

Jennifer Rubin on how California's optimism has been replaced by cynicism and regulation
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532410472662810.html

Truth in the Time of Putinism - Kremlin critics fear assassination and kangaroo courts
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575526041067013892.html

Obama Tactics Rebound on Rahm - Rahm runs into a Chicago roadblock
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532120616441014.html

President Obama Meets with Economic Recovery Advisory Board
http://goo.gl/fb/rsIUB

Hating 'Superman' - Teachers unions are on the moral defensive
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520160925291820.html

White House Women's Entrepreneurship Conference: Closing Session
http://goo.gl/fb/cXaDQ

Manchin vs. Obama(Care) - A West Virginia Democrat tries to get elected
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520360188448950.html

White House Press Briefing
http://goo.gl/fb/UIQES

The 'Pay for Delay' Rap - The drug industry, the FTC and overzealous antitrust
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703447004575449511811622220.html

President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board Meeting
http://goo.gl/fb/GTWOw

Speak Up on D.C. Schools, Mr. President - The president remains silent about the fate of Michelle Rhee, the successful chancellor of public schools in the nation's capital
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532293014870442.html

White House Women's Entrepreneurship Conference: Opening Session
http://goo.gl/fb/3JktB

The Bill Gates Income Tax - If Washington's most famous billionaires are really worried about their state's finances, they'd write personal checks to the government and leave everyone else alone
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520241519315372.html

New START: Security Through 21st-Century Verification
http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2010_09/Gottemoeller

The Red Dragon’s Carbon Footprint
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/10/04/the-red-dragons-carbon-footprint/

Press Briefing

Oct 03, 2010

Will Obama's foreign policy follow his new democracy rhetoric?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/03/AR2010100303382.html

From Wikinomics to the Tea Party - Government is the institution most obviously frozen in the pre-Web era
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575525940019780582.html

The case for ambulance service fees
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/03/AR2010100303622.html

Adam Smith - A mind that ranged over politics, law and ethics—and produced the definitive defense of free markets
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575518151286879946.html

Right call on the Black Panthers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/03/AR2010100303620.html

Target: Ireland - Europe tries to beat the Republic into tax submission
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703465504575528013807144380.html

White House - Building Skills for America’s Future
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/04/building-skills-america-s-future

Leahy's Supreme Tie-Breakers - A plan for liberal Justices to come out of retirement
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575524023517652614.html

Helping More Women-Owned Small Businesses Compete for Federal Contracts
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/04/helping-more-women-owned-small-businesses-compete-federal-contracts

'Essential' Bailouts - Under Dodd-Frank, some creditors are more equal than others
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575524232993529218.html

National Cyber Security Awareness Month Kicks Off
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/01/national-cyber-security-awareness-month-kicks

The Lap Dog Coalition - Blue Dog Democrats voted with Nancy Pelosi 80% of the time on economic issues
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575526061943295810.html

Statement by the President on the Occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Reunification of East and West Germany
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/02/statement-president-occasion-20th-anniversary-reunification-east-and-wes

Historian Victor Davis Hanson writes that the American university is the most politically intolerant and monolithic institution in the country
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575526090709113292.html

The White House Women’s Entrepreneurship Conference
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/01/white-house-women-s-entrepreneurship-conference

The Trade and Tax Doomsday Clocks
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575521822940983434.html

U.S. Stabilization Capabilities: Lessons Learned From Kyrgyzstan
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/stabilization_kyrgyzstan

Peace Doesn't Keep Itself - Defense spending has increased at a much lower rate than domestic spending in recent years and is not the cause of soaring deficits
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575524763315951380.html

Enough With the Low Interest Rates! - Fed policy punishes savers without making credit more readily available
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575517940057210022.html

The Obama Experts vs. the Rule of Law
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/10/04/morning-bell-the-obama-experts-vs-the-rule-of-law

George Washington was a genius and a titan, but it was politics, not war, at which he excelled
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520061512222160.html

Alien Tort Victory - Business can't be held liable for overseas human rights abuses
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989304575503703623437096.html

IMF: Shaping the New Financial System
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/spn/2010/spn1015.pdf
             Press release: http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10376.htm

School Reform Rainmakers - John Walton had the right idea for education donors
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522302370477856.html

Weekly Address: Solar Power & a Clean Energy Economy
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/02/weekly-address-solar-power-a-clean-energy-economy

China's Aggressive New Diplomacy - Beijing drives its neighbors into the arms of the U.S.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575523710432896610.html

Press Briefing

Oct 02, 2010

Implementing the National Space Policy: Opportunities and Challenges
http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/147461.htm

San Franciscans Try to Take Back Their Streets - Even the liberal mayor is backing an initiative that would make public spaces safe again from the homeless industry and young thuggish vagrants
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522461338661360.html

New Executive Order Targeting Iranian Officials Responsible for or Complicit in Serious Human Rights Abuses
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/09/148345.htm

'Things Could Get Pretty Messy' - The man who would be the next House majority leader talks about the GOP agenda and working with Obama
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575524114269305180.html

White House: A Living-Room Discussion with Middle Class Families
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/28/a-living-room-discussion-with-middle-class-families

MSCs a viable alternative?
http://www.marsecreview.com/?p=376

Rebuilding Together: Europe and the United States after the Global Financial Crisis
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg875.htm

Healthamburglar - McDonald's meets ObamaCare
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575523980464573518.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Comparative counterinsurgency in Yemen
http://www.gloria-center.org/meria/2010/09/novak.html

Our Afghanistan mission diverts us from meeting China’s naval challenge
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-222855-109-our-afghanistan-mission-diverts-us-from-meeting-chinas-naval-challenge.html

White House White Board: CEA Chair Austan Goolsbee Explains the Tax Cut Fight
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/29/white-house-white-board-cea-chair-austan-goolsbee-explains-tax-cut-fight

The 'Spillover' Fallacy: Islamic Militants in Central Asia
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/6558/the-spillover-fallacy-islamic-militants-in-central-asia

Scientists conclude current guidelines on BPA are safe
http://www.webmd.boots.com/news/20101001/scientists-conclude-current-guidelines-on-bpa-are-safe

Critical questions regarding the role of foreign fighters in Shabaab
http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2010/09/critical_questions_regarding_t.php

Press Briefing

Oct 01, 2010

Warren op-ed: It's Time To Simplify Financial Regulation - Can customers easily understand the product? Regulators should be focused on that questionhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522062731420330.html

Black Churches and the Prosperity Gospel - Depending on miracles as a financial strategy is a dangerous way to live
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522202425314706.html

Companies Reducing Energy-related Business with Iran
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/09/148458.htm

Former Bush White House staffer Peter Wehner on ObamaCare and the New Republic's Jonathan Chait
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575518313840463750.html

Two Cheers for the New Bank Capital Standards - Why do we still rely on the rating agencies, and why are we still allowing Lehman Brothers levels of leverage?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704523604575511813933977160.html

Remarks at Vital Voices of Asia Women's Summit
http://www.state.gov/s/gwi/rls/rem/2010/148457.htm

Beggar the World - Monetary instability is a threat to the global recovery
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575523822949744704.html

Russ Feingold: ‘The Conscience of the Senate and Wisconsin’s Strongest Advocate’
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/ericasagrans/gGMzhV

Echoes of the Great Depression. By Phil Gramm
As in the 1930s, policy uncertainty and hostility to business have retarded recovery. At least this time around the political price for economic failure promises to be swift.
WSJ, Oct 01, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522351201224286.html

[Excerpts:]

This may not be your grandfather's Great Depression, but many aspects of today's situation would remind him of the 1930s. If the recession that officially ended a year ago feels uncomfortably surreal to you yet familiar to him, it's probably because the recovery went missing.

During the average recovery since World War II, gross domestic product (GDP) surpassed the pre-recession high five quarters after the recession began. It has never taken longer than seven quarters. Yet today, after 11 quarters, GDP is still below what it was in the fourth quarter of 2007. The economy is growing at only about a third of the rate of previous postwar recoveries from major recessions.

Obama administration officials such as Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have argued that without their policies the economy would be worse, and we might have fallen "off a cliff." While this assertion cannot be tested, we can compare the recent experience of other countries to our own.

[Change in total employment, 2007 compared to Q2-2010 http://sg.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-AM322_gramm_NS_20100930175224.gif]

The chart nearby compares total 2007 employment levels in the United States, the United Kingdom, the 16 euro zone countries, the G-7 countries and all OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries with those of the second quarter of 2010. There are 4.6% fewer people employed in the U.S. today than at the start of the recession. Euro zone countries have lost 1.7% of their jobs. Total employment in the U.K. is down 0.6%, G-7 average employment is down 2.4%, and OECD employment has fallen 1.9%.

This simple comparison suggests two things. First, that American economic policy has been less effective in increasing employment than the policies of other developed nations. Second, that if there was a cliff out there, no country fell off. Those that suffered the most were the most profligate, such as Greece, and their problems can't be blamed on the financial crisis. While the most recent quarterly growth figures are just a snapshot in time, it is hardly encouraging that economic growth in the U.S. (1.7%) is lower than in the euro zone (4%), U.K. (4.8%), G-7 (2.8%) and OECD (2%).

Most striking about these comparisons is their similarity to the U.S. experience in the Great Depression. Using data from the League of Nations' World Economic Survey, we can look at unemployment in developed nations between 1929 and the end of 1938. Ten years after the stock market crash, total employment in the U.S. was still almost 20% below the pre-Depression level. The decline in France was similar. But in the U.K. and Italy, total employment was up 10% and 12%, respectively. Industrial production on average in the six most developed countries was almost 16% above their 1929 levels by the end of 1938, but industrial production had declined by 20% in the U.S.

Today's lagging growth and persistent high unemployment are reminiscent of the 1930s, perhaps because in no other period of American history has our government followed policies as similar to those of the Great Depression era. Federal debt by the end of 1938 was almost 150% above the 1929 level. Federal spending grew by 77% from 1932 to 1934 as the New Deal was implemented—unprecedented for peacetime.

Still the economy did not take off. Winston Churchill gave a contemporary evaluation of the Roosevelt policy by observing, in the April 24, 1935, Daily Mail, "Nearly two thousand millions Sterling have been poured out to prime the pump of prosperity; but prosperity has not begun to flow."

The top individual income tax rate rose from 24% to 63% to 79% during the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations. Corporate rates were increased to 15% from 11%, and when private businesses did not invest, Congress imposed a 27% undistributed profits tax.

In 1929, the U.S. government collected $1.1 billion in total income taxes; by 1935 collections had fallen to $527 million. In 1929, individual income taxes accounted for 38% of government revenues, corporate taxes accounted for 43%, and excise taxes for 19%. By 1939, individual income taxes made up only 26% of federal revenues, corporate income taxes made up 29%, and excise taxes made up 45%.

When Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau suggested to President Roosevelt that the administration cut income tax rates in 1939, Roosevelt, apparently concerned about the possible effect of deficit-financed tax cuts on interest rates, asked, "You are willing to pay usury in order to get recovery?" Morgenthau said that he responded, "Yes sir." The president disagreed.

The Roosevelt administration also conducted a seven-year populist tirade against private business, which FDR denounced as the province of "economic royalists" and "malefactors of great wealth." The war on business and wealth was so traumatic that the League of Nations' 1939 World Economic Survey attributed part of the poor U.S. economic performance to it: "The relations between the leaders of business and the Administration were uneasy, and this uneasiness accentuated the unwillingness of private enterprise to embark on further projects of capital expenditure which might have helped to sustain the economy."

Churchill, who was generally guarded when criticizing New Deal policies, could not hold back. "The disposition to hunt down rich men as if they were noxious beasts," he noted in "Great Contemporaries" (1939), is "a very attractive sport." But "confidence is shaken and enterprise chilled, and the unemployed queue up at the soup kitchens or march out to the public works with ever growing expense to the taxpayer and nothing more appetizing to take home to their families than the leg or wing of what was once a millionaire. . . It is indispensable to the wealth of nations and to the wage and life standards of labour, that capital and credit should be honoured and cherished partners in the economic system. . . ."

The regulatory burden exploded during the Roosevelt administration, not just through the creation of new government agencies but through an extraordinary barrage of executive orders—more than all subsequent presidents through Bill Clinton combined. Then, as now, uncertainty reigned. As the textile innovator Lammot du Pont complained in 1937, "Uncertainty rules the tax situation, the labor situation, the monetary situation, and practically every legal condition under which industry must operate."

Henry Morgenthau summarized the policy failure to the House Ways and Means Committee in April 1939: "Now, gentleman, we have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work . . . I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started . . . and an enormous debt, to boot."

Despite the striking similarities between then and now, there is one major difference: Roosevelt's policies remained popular even as the economy faltered. The magnitude of the Depression, with its lack of stabilizers and safety nets, traumatized Americans and undermined their confidence in the economic system. This induced voters, as historians would later do, to judge Roosevelt not on his results but on his intentions.

Today, however, the Obama program appears to be failing politically as well as in the marketplace. The trauma of the financial crisis did not approach that of the Great Depression, and Americans do not appear to have lost faith in our economic system or come to see government as the savior. While progressivism gave the New Deal its intellectual foundations, history today is driven by the freedom tide that produced our economic revival in the 1980s and '90s and still drives economic liberalization in China and India.

Finally, we should not underestimate that this administration faces stronger and more united congressional opposition than FDR ever faced. The House and Senate Republican leadership has far surpassed all expectations of a minority party.
[...]

Mr. Gramm is a former U.S. senator from Texas and former professor of economics at Texas A&M University.


Treasury Announces Further Sales of Citigroup Securities and Cumulative Return to Taxpayers of $41.6 Billion
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg887.htm

U.S. Imposes Offshore Drilling Moratorium, but Other Countries Fail to Follow
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/09/30/u-s-imposes-offshore-drilling-moratorium-but-other-countries-fail-to-follow/

Press Briefing

Sep 30, 2010

Reforming Government: Congressional Republicans Haven't Changed & Can't Bring the Change We Need
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/30/reforming-government-congressional-republicans-havent-changed-cant-bring-change-we-n

Grading the Governors - A new Cato Institute report on the fiscal best and worst
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522123526567594.html

Assistant Sec for International Markets and Development Marisa Lago Introductory Comments for Eurofi Panel Discussion of "Prospects of future G-20 discussions and Expected impacts for the EU"
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg879.htm

Why Congressional intelligence is an oxymoron
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522202579025986.html

Treasury Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin Written Testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on "Implementing the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act"
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg881.htm

McDonald's May Drop Health Plan - the law ripples through the real world
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703431604575522413101063070.html

Distrust in U.S. Media Edges Up to Record High
http://www.gallup.com/poll/143267/Distrust-Media-Edges-Record-High.aspx

Conservatives: The Bipartisan Fight Against the Obama Tax Hikes
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/30/morning-bell-the-bipartisan-fight-against-the-obama-tax-hikes

Statement by the President on the House Approval of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/29/statement-president-house-approval-james-zadroga-911-health-and-compensa

In Elizabeth Warren We Trust? - The unaccountable head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has repeatedly used shoddy data to push policies she favors
By Todd Zywicki
WSJ, Sep 30, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704523604575512060220672440.html

The Obama administration has promised that the Federal Reserve's new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be independent from politics, a model of regulatory expertise grounded in sound data and economics. Naming Harvard Law Prof. Elizabeth Warren as de facto agency head undermines both goals.

By appointing another White House czar to avoid Senate confirmation, the administration politicized the powerful new bureaucracy from its birth. And by appointing an individual with a track record of using questionable research to advance policy ends, it has jeopardized the second goal as well.

Consider Ms. Warren's much-ballyhooed study on the alleged link among health problems, medical expenses and personal bankruptcy filings. Published in the February 2005 issue of Health Affairs, the report was timed to head off bipartisan bankruptcy legislation that was enacted later that year. Ms. Warren and her co-authors claimed that "at least" 46% of personal bankruptcy filings in 2001 (the year from they collected the data) were the result of "medical causes," and that this represented a 23-fold increase over 20 years.

Both conclusions are extremely suspect. First, the study provided an implausibly broad definition of "medical bankruptcy"—including any filer who reported uncontrolled gambling, drug or alcohol addiction, or the birth or adoption of a child.

Equally dubious, the authors classified a bankruptcy as having a "major medical cause" if the individual had accumulated more than $1,000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses (uncovered by insurance) over the course of two years prior to filing—regardless of income, and even if the debtor did not cite illness or injury among the reasons for bankruptcy.

In 2001, average per capita out-of-pocket medical expenses were $683. During the two-year period Ms. Warren and her co-authors studied, in other words, Americans spent an average of $1,366 on uninsured medical expenses, or 30% more than their threshold definition of a "major medical cause." There was no larger context for their threshold figure: A debtor with $1,001 in uncovered medical expenses and $50,000 on a Saks card would constitute a "medical bankruptcy" in their study.

The claim of a 23-fold increase in medical bankruptcies was based on a comparison of their 2001 data with Ms. Warren's research in a 1981 study—which appears to count only those who self-reported as having filed bankruptcy for medical reasons. This is a completely different and much narrower definition of "medical bankruptcy" than the one she used 20 years later, and obviously inflates the increase.

In contrast to Ms. Warren's studies, a battery of analysis, including research done by the Department of Justice's Executive Office of the United States Trustee (which oversees the administration of bankruptcy cases), and by Daniel Dranove and Michael Millenson of Northwestern University, concluded that fewer than 20% of bankruptcies are caused by health problems or medical expenses.

Last year Ms. Warren and her co-authors were back with an even more dramatic study, in the American Journal of Medicine, timed to promote President Obama's health-care reform law. Drawing on 2007 filings, the authors concluded that 62% of bankruptcy filings were the result of medical issues and that the odds that a bankruptcy had a medical cause had doubled between just 2001 and 2007. This study was also flawed.

After Congress made it harder for people to skip out on their debts in 2005, the number of bankruptcy filings plummeted. In 2001, the year Ms. Warren used for the first study, there were 1,452,030 personal bankruptcy filings; in 2007 there were 822,590. Even if we are to accept the methodologies of the two studies for the sake of argument, there were 670,838 "medical bankruptcies" in 2001 and 510,828 medical bankruptcies in 2007—a drop of 160,000 per year. Yet Ms. Warren's article nowhere acknowledges that the absolute number of bankruptcies and purported medical bankruptcies declined.

Concerns about Ms. Warren's presentation and interpretation of data have been longstanding. As I wrote in these pages in August 2007, her book "The Two-Income Trap" willfully ignores the obvious in her own data: that spiraling taxes—and not living expenses—were a major cause of middle class financial woes.

Similarly, reports of the Congressional Oversight Panel of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)—a panel of which she was chair—uniformly treated home foreclosures as the result of bank fraud and the bullying of helpless homeowners. Fraud and bullying there was, but her panel consistently ignored the many foreclosures that have resulted from a homeowner's strategic decision to walk away from a house whose value has fallen below the amount still owed on the mortgage. Economists and housing analysts widely agree that a substantial number of defaults occur for this reason. That reality is largely absent from the TARP panel's reports.

The head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is one of the most powerful bureaucratic positions ever created in the American political system. It can regulate or ban almost every consumer credit product in the country, yet it is beyond Congress's power of the purse because its budget is guaranteed as a percentage of the Fed's annual revenues. Under normal circumstances, the Senate would have the opportunity to ask Ms. Warren to explain the way in which she has sometimes interpreted data in her research before entrusting her with control of the agency.

By doing an end-run around the confirmation process, the Obama administration has eliminated our opportunity to find out. And by installing the head of the agency as an assistant to the president inside the White House, it has insulated her from meaningful congressional oversight.

Mr. Zywicki teaches bankruptcy and contracts at the George Mason University School of Law, and is the co-editor of the University of Chicago's Supreme Court Economic Review.


Update: U.S. Response to Pakistan's Flooding Disaster
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/09/148403.htm

Democrats and the Health-Reform Albatross - By making so many misleading claims, the president created an army of opposition
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522073624475054.html

IMF: Global Financial Stability Report
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/gfsr/2010/02/index.htm

The Protectionist Threat of Another Great Depression
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/29/morning-bell-the-protectionist-threat-of-another-great-depression

Press Briefing

Sep 29, 2010

Bangladesh, 'Basket Case' No More - Pakistan could learn about economic growth and confronting terrorism from its former eastern province
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575519330896471058.html

Barack Obama: Defender of State Secrets - The president has launched more leak prosecutions than all his predecessors combined. By Gabriel Schoenfeld
WSJ, Sep 29, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575519671706217584.html

'My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government," Barack Obama pledged to the nation when he took office. Things haven't quite worked out as the president promised.

Consider the fate of leakers of secret information—"whistleblowers" is the celebratory term employed by some in the press—at the hands of the Obama Justice Department. In December 2009, an FBI contract linguist pleaded guilty to passing classified information to a blogger. Shortly thereafter he was sentenced to 20 months in jail. This April, a high-ranking National Security Agency official was charged under the espionage statutes for passing secrets to a reporter at the Baltimore Sun. In August, a State Department contractor was indicted for passing secrets about North Korea to Fox News. On top of all of this, the military has charged a young army intelligence officer with the unauthorized transmission of national defense information. He is widely presumed to be the source of the huge trove of classified document published by WikiLeaks, the infamous online bulletin board for secrets.

Whatever one makes of the merits of any of these cases, the astonishing fact remains that in all of prior American history charges have only been brought in three instances for leaking classified information. In his first 21 months in office, President Obama has launched more such prosecutions than in all preceding administrations combined.

Then we have the Obama administration's invocation of the state secrets privilege in court—a practice for which the Bush administration was roundly criticized by the left. In a series of high-profile terrorism cases, the Justice Department has asked judges to toss out those in which secret information would be disclosed.

Most recently, it has invoked the privilege in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born cleric who resides in Yemen and is implicated in numerous terrorist attacks. "It strains credulity to argue that our laws require the government to disclose to an active, operational terrorist any information about how, when and where we fight terrorism," a Justice Department spokesman commented last week.

George W. Bush was slammed unrelentingly for engaging, in the words of John Podesta—Bill Clinton's former chief of staff and the founder of the liberal Center for American Progress—in a "prolonged assault on open government in the name of national security." These same voices are turning on the Obama administration in tones more plaintive than withering.

There is "real doubt," writes Ken Gude, a national-security expert at Mr. Podesta's think tank, "that the Obama administration will live up to its commitment to usher in a new era of transparency." Already last year, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero lamented that Mr. Obama has "disappointingly reneged" on some of his promises to be more open. "This is not change. This is definitely more of the same."

If it is indeed more of the same, it is worth asking why. Mr. Obama has discovered, as much as he may wish it otherwise, that he is a war president. And like his predecessor, he is not only a war president: He is presiding over a particular kind of war in Afghanistan and in the broader war against Islamic terrorists where intelligence is more critical than ever.

The effectiveness of our intelligence tools—from the interrogation of captured enemy combatants to the capabilities of satellite reconnaissance systems—remains overwhelmingly dependent on their clandestine nature. It is not an overstatement to say that secrecy today is one of the most critical tools of national defense.

Leaks of counterterrorism secrets to the press, and disclosure of counterterrorism techniques and procedures in courtrooms, can imperil the war effort. We are thus faced squarely with the abiding tension between liberty and security. The U.S. government, under successive administrations, has been struggling to find the proper balance.

Now that they're going after the Obama administration for its alleged unwarranted secrecy, the carping civil-libertarian critics are acquiring the virtue of consistency. Perhaps they can serve a useful purpose in guarding against government excesses. But one thing's certain: The more voluble they become, the more apparent it also becomes that Mr. Obama is doing the right thing.

Mr. Schoenfeld, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and resident scholar at the Witherspoon Institute, is the author of "Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media, and the Rule of Law" (Norton, 2010).


The President on Our Veterans - Choosing Priorities in Albuquerque
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/28/president-our-veterans-choosing-priorities-albuquerque

Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks Are Suspended. So What? - What matters is growth and state-building in the West Bank. Yet the Obama administration is still fixated on settlements.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575519781120433248.html

Multilateral Engagement in Action
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/multilateral_engagement_in_action

Department of Disinformation - Sebelius tells a North Carolina fairy tale
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520000041860936.html

Helping Bangladeshis Achieve Food Security
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/bangladeshis_food_security

The Pelosi-Reid Deficits - Blame Congress, not presidents Bush or Obama, for our perilous fiscal situation
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575519784046288058.html

U.S. Strongly Condemns Stoning Of Woman in Orakzai, Pakistan
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/09/148302.htm

Blaming the Voters - Democrats embrace the Chris Farley school of political motivation
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520044037709702.html

Thinking beyond Kopassus: Why US Security Assistance to Indonesia Needs Recalibrating
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/search-for-publications/browse-alphabetic-list-of-titles/?class_call=view&mode=view&pub_ID=3553

The Litigious Legacy of Kelo - Eminent domain abuse and Justice Kennedy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575517931099633878.html

State Dept: Unstinting Resolve
http://blogs.state.gov/sudan/index.php/site/entry/unstinting_resolve

China's Next Leap Forward - The jump from middle-income to rich status is much harder to achieve than the ascent from poverty. But there are plenty of reasons to believe China's growth prospects remain strong.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575517950869853586.html

Press Briefing

Sep 28, 2010

The election of 1860—between war and the bitterness of failed compromise - Review of Douglas R. Egerton's "Year of Meteors"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575517162272813390.html

What Ahmadinejad Knows - Iran's president appeals to 9/11 Truthers
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575517632476603268.html

Black Colleges Need a New Mission - Once an essential response to racism, they are now academically inferior
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575517822124077834.html

A Game of Trade Chicken - Poultry protectionism shows where the U.S. and China are heading
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704654004575517300721920676.html

Remarks to 2010 Multinational BMD Conference and Exhibition
http://www.state.gov/t/vci/rls/147952.htm

What's the Matter With Wall Street? - There are too many traders, bankers and salesmen to support the new level of business. Thanks to Dodd-Frank, the shrinking of finance will continue.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704082104575515853029748826.html

The U.S. Record on Financing for Development in 2009
http://www.state.gov/e/eeb/rls/fs/2010/148051.htm

Low Carbon Fuel Standards: A Threat to Our Most Secure Source of Foreign Oil
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/09/27/low-carbon-fuel-standards-a-threat-to-our-most-secure-source-of-foreign-oil/

Sebelius op-ed: Health Insurers Finally Get Some Oversight - In the past, these companies ran wild with no accountability
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704082104575515851336184716.html

ObamaCare's Hotel California - The state moves to impose price controls you can never leave
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703556604575502160531647630.html

Press Briefing

Sep 27, 2010


White House Council on Women and Girls’ Friday Highlights
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/24/council-women-and-girls-friday-highlights

The Regulation Tax Keeps Growing - Blame Washington, not China, for the decline of American manufacturing
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703860104575508122499819564.html

White House: Emergency Planning for the Entire Community
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/24/emergency-planning-entire-community

The Send Jobs Overseas Act - Ending the deferral of foreign income is another tax on U.S. employment
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703384204575509700366289206.html

Curb Corruption or Lose the War - Association with the CIA has given some Afghan officials a sense of impunity, which threatens Gen. Petraeus's hearts-and-minds effort
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440604575496131772049018.html

How to Grow Out of the Deficit - Limiting spending increases to inflation minus 1% would balance the budget in less than a decade
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989304575504221128887634.html

White House - Dodging the Impact of Their Policies "Across the Board"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/25/dodging-impact-their-policies-across-board

The Non-Economist's Economist - John Kenneth Galbraith avoided technical jargon and wrote witty prose—too bad he got so much wrong
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703556604575501883282762648.html

Press Briefing

Sep 25, 2010

President Obama Addresses Ministerial Meeting on Sudan
http://blogs.state.gov/sudan/index.php/site/entry/obama_ministerial_meeting_on_sudan

Tax Cuts and Revenue: What We Learned in the 1980s - Supply-siders never argued that all tax cuts pay for themselves. But the evidence is clear that lower rates on high earners do produce more revenue over time.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989304575504192870395162.html

Where Should the UN Focus Its Peacekeeping Resources, and Why?
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/q_UN_peacekeeping_resources

Kids 0, Insurance 0 - The first fruits of ObamaCare
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703384204575510011133742130.html

NATO-Russia Council Meeting:  Building a Stronger Partnership
http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/nato-russia_council_meeting

The Administration’s De Facto Moratorium on Shallow Water Energy Exploration
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/09/24/the-administration%E2%80%99s-de-facto-moratorium-on-shallow-water-energy-exploration/

President Obama: GOP Leadership Standing up for Outsourcing and Special Interests, Instead of American Workers
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/25/weekly-address-president-obama-gop-leadership-standing-outsourcing-and-s

Tony Blair in Defense of the West—and the Third Way - 'In today's world, a progressive party that stands essentially for big government is not going to succeed'
By Bret Stephens
The Wall Street Journal, sEP 25, 2010, page A17
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704523604575511453790276626.html

New York
Tony Blair believes in "Islamist extremism."

It's U.N. week, and the former British prime minister is in town as the representative of the Quartet—the U.S., Russia, the EU and the U.N.—that aims to broker Mideast peace. We are in his suite at a posh Upper East Side hotel, talking about a passage in his just-published memoir in which he discusses the reach of the radical Islamist "narrative." It's a narrative, he argues, that needs to be "challenged head on."

This prompts me to ask whether he thinks that the widespread reluctance to use the word "Islamist" alongside the word "extremist" is a kind of evasion from reality.

"I think it is, I'm afraid," Mr. Blair answers, deploying the famously elegant diction that used to make for such invidious contrasts in the days when he shared a podium with George W. Bush. By way of explanation, he turns to the recent, aborted attempt by Florida Pastor Terry Jones to burn the Quran.

"I have no difficulty in saying this person is a Christian pastor but I completely and totally disagree with him," he explains. "It's fascinating, though, that when that happens the whole of the Western leadership have to come out and denounce it. . . . Let's say some cleric in some remote part of Pakistan turns up and says, 'I'm going to burn the Bible tomorrow.' What would we all say?"

Mr. Blair has been out of office for more than three years, but he is still sounding the same themes that were the touchstones of his decade in office. He is still faithful to the Third Way school of politics, still believes that government should be for empowerment not entitlement, and is still fighting a rear-guard action against fellow "progressives" who think it ought to be the other way round. But above all, Mr. Blair remains seized by the scope of the challenge posed by radical Islam.

"I think there is a tendency to regard the activities of the extremists who use terrorism and suicide bombings and so on as this small group of people unrelated to the broader [Muslim] community in which they exist," he says. "And I feel that narrative penetrates a lot deeper. And if you can't take that narrative on, you are left in a position where you end up semi-apologizing for your own position in relation to these things. And I think that's dangerous."

The narrative, as Mr. Blair describes it, consists of the view that the West is in cahoots with its client regimes in the Middle East—not just Israel, but also countries like Pakistan, Egypt and the Gulf emirates—to oppress Muslims and denigrate Islam. That narrative has its own subscribers among Western leaders and opinion-makers who believe the right approach is to say, in Mr. Blair's mocking paraphrase, "We kind of understand why you feel like this about us and maybe it's our fault but, you know, let's try and work this out."

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Mr. Blair has little patience with this view: It rubs him wrong not only because he believes the analysis is flawed and the prescription misguided, but also—and here I'm reading between the lines—because it suggests Muslims should be held to a different set of standards and values.

Yes, he says, the Muslim world needs "genuine demonstrations of equality, respect, partnership and so on." That's one reason, he adds, why he puts so much stock in the Israeli-Arab peace process. But Mr. Blair also stresses that what the Muslim world—or at last the modernizing forces within it—need from the West is "for us to be really strong about our own confidence in our position, our own way of life and the values we represent."

Part of that confidence is affirming the rightness of what the U.S., Britain and the rest of the Coalition of the Willing did in Iraq—and what they continue to do in Afghanistan. Regarding the so-called occupation of Iraq, Mr. Blair notes that from the middle of 2003 coalition forces were in the country "with full U.N. authority." The international community followed up with billions in aid to the country. Democratic elections were held; Iraqis indicated the kind of future they wanted for their country.

And then the effort nearly fell apart on account of the unremitting savagery of Baathist holdouts, al Qaeda recruits, and Iranian-backed militias. Mr. Blair would like to know why Iraq's tormentors should be let off the hook while its liberators are vilified. "For us to end up in this situation where people say this is an indication that you should never have gone there, that you should have just let Saddam stay—we really need to think about what we're saying when we're saying that."

Mr. Blair feels the same way about the apportionment of blame in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is confident of the good intentions of both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (about whom, he adds, he is "absolutely sure [he] would sign a deal"). But he is also mindful of the way Israel is mindlessly castigated in the West, "particularly in Europe," for its every misstep, real or alleged.

"You cannot refuse to accept that Israel has a genuine security problem," he insists. "What does it mean when, the other day, President Obama launches the [Israeli-Palestinian] talks in the White House . . . and Hamas kill those [Israelis], including a pregnant woman and the parents of six children, and then put out a statement saying that this is an heroic act of courage? What does it say of the nature of what we're up against?"

Mr. Blair is equally emphatic about the need to confront Iran, which in his memoir he treats as morally equivalent to al Qaeda. Though he says he agrees with President Obama's approach to the regime—summed up as "here's a hand of friendship and now it's your choice"—he is under no illusions about the threat Iran poses. He is particularly enraged at the role it played in Iraq, including the supply of IEDs to insurgent forces that killed British and American troops. Might things in Iraq have gone better had the coalition confronted Iran's meddling sooner than it did? "I think that's a very, very good question," he replies.

The interview turns to the subject of Tehran's nuclear program. Could an Iran with nuclear weapons be contained, I ask, as it is now so fashionable to argue?

"I wouldn't take that risk," he replies without hesitation. "It is perfectly possible that a nuclear-armed Iran might be contained. But I think it's impossible to guarantee that, and it so drastically changes the balance of power within the region that it's not responsible" to allow it.

I say that sounds like he'd be prepared to countenance military strikes if other options fail.

Mr. Blair hedges for a moment: "When I'm asked this, [I always] default to the traditional line, which is to say I don't think you can take any option off the table."

I press: "But it sounds like you actually mean it."

He comes back more firmly: "I do mean it. . . . The alternative is to say that you are prepared to contemplate [a nuclear Iran], which, by the way, the moment you send that signal makes it a lot more likely to happen. So I think it's perfectly possible that we can avoid the situation. But I think the stronger and clearer we are, the more likely we are to avoid it."

Mr. Blair's tenure in office—begun, as he accurately puts it in his memoir, as a veritable love affair between him and the British electorate—is widely believed to have soured precisely because he holds these foreign policy views and was willing to act on them. Given that the Labour Party in Britain and the Democrats in the U.S. have now turned their back on the Third Way politics that gave Mr. Blair and Bill Clinton their resounding electoral victories, I wonder whether those politics would not have been more in vogue today had it not been for Iraq.

Mr. Blair demurs. "People forget this, but the closest I came to losing my job in a [parliamentary] vote was actually over tuition fees [for university students], and not over Iraq. The most difficult things were . . . introducing private-sector [reforms] into the health-care system, introducing academy schools, the equivalent of charter schools, and law and order."

It's a useful reminder. When Mr. Blair and Gordon Brown first came to office, the New Labour moniker was widely suspected of being a kind of political marketing device rather than representing a real change of heart by a party that had once been a de facto subsidiary of Britain's trade unions. But if Mr. Blair's memoir is anything to go by, he for one was a sincere convert to the New Labour faith. Among other things, it explains his current opposition to high rates of marginal taxation.

"The most important thing is to encourage strong growth, for the economy to create wealth. And I just think this is a very basic point . . . you need tax rates that are competitive with the world in which we live and in which people's hard work and enterprise is rewarded." As for the notion that the purpose of progressive governance is to tax the wealthy and redistribute it to the rest, Mr. Blair urges caution: "The people you end up hitting are not the very wealthy, because in my experience the very wealthy can make their own arrangements."

Mr. Blair is similarly worried about the perils of excessive regulation. While he believes that governments were right to respond to the financial crisis as they initially did, he worries that the recovery runs the risk of regulatory strangulation. "How you stabilize the economy is not the same as how you then get it let out of the crisis and back to strong growth, where you will need the private sector to be enterprising, innovative and able to compete." Nor does he have any patience with the demonization of the financial sector as "the bad guys" in the crisis.

The question arises of how Mr. Blair—a prep school boy and Oxford graduate who came to the Labour Party more from its intellectually Fabian wing than from the trade union movement—came by his views. Partly it's to do with his own father's rise from working-class roots, and partly by the pre-political years he spent as a commercial and industrial-relations lawyer, where he learned that "most people aspire to do better and most people actually want their kids to do better than them—and these are actually great engines of growth and progress."

But he also says his views are informed by traveling to emerging economies such as China. "These are all places where, if we're not careful, they are going to learn the lessons of our development and, funnily enough, they're not going to replicate all those lessons. . . . They will learn from our successes as well as our mistakes. And if we're not careful, they are going to leave us behind."

So much of what Mr. Blair says is so consonant with the political right-of-center that I ask him if he doesn't feel closer to John McCain politically than to Barack Obama. He laughs it off, calling himself a straight "Democrat-Labour" kind of guy. But elsewhere in the interview he offers a political warning to his fellow progressives:

"In today's world, in the 21st century, a progressive party that stands essentially for the state and big government is not going to succeed. Simple as that." I wonder if anyone in the White House is listening.


Pastors For ObamaCare? - If the White House office of faith-based initiatives is going to be used as propaganda unit, it might as well be shut down
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704523604575511920142932674.html

State Dept Officials: Remarks to the Press from UN General Assembly
http://www.state.gov/p/af/rls/spbr/2010/147922.htm

The Democratic Tax Retreat - The economic policies of the last four years are being repudiated
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704523604575511863393295260.html

Avoiding the Internet's Black Holes
http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/telecom/internet/avoiding-the-internets-black-holes

Well-functioning capital markets are critical for job creation. Congress should ease the burden on companies that go public—and fast
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989304575504270290227634.html

Press Briefing

Sep 24, 2010

Organizing for America: "This is health reform"
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/ericasagrans/gGMzNC

Andy Stern Sees the Light on Overseas Profits - The labor icon now supports reducing the double taxation of foreign-earned corporate income
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989304575504042729688942.html

White House Blog - The Congressional Republicans' Pledge: What if the Rubber Hit the Road?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/23/congressional-republicans-pledge-what-if-rubber-hit-road

Iran's Defecting Diplomats - Signs that the Green movement is alive, even within the government
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440604575495750611730106.html

The United States in UN Peacekeeping: Strengthening UN Peacekeeping and Conflict Prevention Efforts
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/09/147828.htm

Fannie Mae Motors - GM lobbies the government that owns it
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703860104575508051998518526.html

2010 FSI Survey on the Implementation of the New Capital Adequacy Framework
http://www.bis.org/fsi/fsipapers09.htm

The GOP Agenda - Weaknesses aside, Republicans give voters a clear choice
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703384204575509812090777570.html

Remarks by President Obama and Premier Wen Jiabao of China before Bilateral Meeting
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/23/remarks-president-obama-and-premier-wen-jiabao-china-bilateral-meeting

Inside the Republican Money Machine - This year GOP backers have come close to matching spending by independent Democratic groups
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704129204575505563870827420.html

International Alliance Launched to Support Country-Led Progress in Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health
http://www.usaid.gov/press/releases/2010/pr100922.html

Campaign Finance Reform: A Libertarian Primer
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11176

USAID and the President's Global Development Policy
http://www.usaid.gov/unga/ppd.html

How the Woodward saga could make for a Greek tragedy in the White House
http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/22/how_the_woodward_saga_could_make_for_a_greek_tragedy_in_the_white_house

Press Briefing

Sep 23, 2010

Excerpts of President Obama's Remarks to the United Nations General Assembly
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/22/excerpts-president-obamas-remarks-united-nations-general-assembly

Update: U.S. Response to Pakistan's Flooding Disaster
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/09/147594.htm

Don't Be Afraid of Frankenfish - Genetically engineered salmon will meet growing demand for protein-rich food without depleting wild fish stocks
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704129204575506270723050064.html

Sec Clinton Remarks at UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Millennium Development Goals' Maternal and Child Health Event
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/09/147592.htm

Shakedown in the Rain Forest - The attempt to loot Chevron for $27 billion is falling apart
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703625304575115831733424838.html

Sec Clinton Remarks at "Inclusive Finance: A Path to the MDGs" Luncheon
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/09/147595.htm

Too Little Inflation? - Central bankers who say they want higher prices usually get them
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703860104575507971718234914.html

Breakfast With Ahmadinejad
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703860104575507961881959510.html

How Seniors Will Pay for ObamaCare - In many areas, Medicare Advantage enrollees will lose about one-third of their health insurance benefits. The cuts will finance new subsidies for younger people.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704129204575505804034634066.html

Obama Administration September Housing Scorecard Shows Continued Advances in Housing Market
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg869.htm

Industry Views: IER Testimony for the Hearing on the Global Clean Energy Race
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/09/22/ier-testimony-on-the-hearing-on-the-global-clean-energy-race/

Briefing on the P-5+1 Ministerial Meeting by a Senior Administration Official Via Teleconference
http://www.state.gov/p/nea/rls/rm/147563.htm

How to Level the Capital Playing Field - The best way to deal with China's exchange-rate policy may be to borrow a page from its monetary playbook
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703860104575507253727570456.html

Treasury Sec Tim Geithner Written Testimony House Financial Services Committee - Basel III
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg867.htm

Red Tape Rises Again: Cost of Regulation Reaches $1.75 Trillion
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/22/red-tape-rises-again-cost-of-regulation-reaches-1-75-trillion

Press Briefing

Sep 22, 2010

Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves: The United States Commitment By the Numbers
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/09/147494.htm

A Teacher Quality Manifesto - What happens to bright teachers stuck in schools that don't have the right to hire by performance and build a culture of excellence? They quit.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703440604575496281030445268.html

Transforming Distressed Neighborhoods into Neighborhoods of Opportunity
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/21/transforming-distressed-neighborhoods-neighborhoods-opportunity

The Carter-Obama Comparisons Grow - Walter Mondale himself sees a parallel
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704129204575505822147816104.html

White House: Building a New Foundation
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/21/building-a-new-foundation

Questions for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Do democracy, freedom and human rights have a place in Islamic theology? Is Iran holding two American hikers hostage?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989304575504061960018840.html

Why They Go Green - A green breakfast to thank Harry Reid
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704129204575505982913143218.html

Republicans in Congress Push to End Consumer Protections, Let Wall Street Run Loose
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/21/republicans-congress-push-end-consumer-protections-let-wall-street-run-loose

The Real Gulf Disaster - The well is plugged. The moratorium drags on.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989304575504201916757646.html

State Dept.'s Multilateral Newsletter: Volume 2 - September 17, 2010
http://www.state.gov/p/io/147464.htm

Obama, Warren and The Imperial Presidency - The Senate should vote on all senior appointments within 60 days. But the president should give it a chance to vote
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989304575503661726493580.html

Infrastructure Investment in the Long-Term & The Case for a National Infrastructure Bank. By Assistant Secretary Krueger. Testimony Before Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg863.htm

Massive Medicare Advantage Cuts
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/17/massive-medicare-advantage-cuts

Implementing the National Space Policy: Opportunities and Challenges
http://www.state.gov/t/vci/rls/147461.htm

More Proof We Can't Stop Poverty By Making It More Comfortable
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12149

Press Briefing

Sep 21, 2010

The Pentagon Is Serious About Saving Money - Last year we awarded $55 billion in 'competitive' contracts for which only one bid was received
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703904304575497754176193396.html

Cap Gains Taxation: Less Means More - A new study suggests a zero cap gains rate could create millions of jobs at a fraction of the cost of the spending stimulus
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703556604575501892210065882.html

Fighting Fraud and the Consequences of Defunding the Affordable Care Act
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/20/fighting-fraud-and-consequences-defunding-affordable-care-act

A Tale of Two Recoveries - The state of the economy after a year of 'rebound'
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989304575504053230524906.html

President Obama's Town Hall on the Economy, Business and the Middle Class
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/09/20/president-obamas-town-hall-economy-business-and-middle-class

The Recession and the Housing Drag - The more the government tries to prevent prices from finding an equilibrium, the longer it will take for the economy to begin growing again
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989304575503752698078816.html

Public-Private Partnership Brings Clean Drinking Water to Flood Victims
http://blogs.state.gov/ap/index.php/site/entry/partnership_clean_water_pakistan

Republicans should be grateful tea partiers did not run as third-party candidates and split the antistatist vote
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989304575503921088554324.html

Under Secretary Levey Remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg862.htm

Don’t Wish Upon an Energy Star to Save the Environment
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/09/20/don%e2%80%99t-wish-upon-an-energy-star-to-save-the-environment/

U.S.-Colombia Action Plan on Racial and Ethnic Equality
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/scp/fs/2010/147375.htm

Conservatives: The Economic Toll of the Federal President's Tax Hikes
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/20/morning-bell-the-economic-toll-of-the-obama-tax-hikes