… this time from bad news from Iraq: Crude oil rose to a record $44.97 a barrel after Iraq cut shipments to tankers in the Persian Gulf because of warnings of possible attacks on petroleum-industry infrastructure. Iraq’s Southern Oil Co. stopped pumping oil after militia troops threatened to attack oil facilities, Agence France-Presse reported, citing […]
www.juancole.com is doing an excellent job of covering what he calls the “Bush Administration outing of Khan”. I simply want to quote Condi Rice during her interview with Wolf Blitzer: “Well, I don’t know what might have been going on in Pakistan. I will say this, that we did not, of course, publicly disclose his […]
I’m not the first to suggest that National Review econpundits Lawrence Kudlow and Stephen Moore are less than honest with their readers, but it now seems these two are during most of their opeds for HumanEventsOnline, which is also pushing that Swift Boat scam. Moore’s latest as of August 6 states: The centerpiece of Kerry’s […]
Mideast expert Juan Cole reports that … [Muhammad Naeem Noor] Khan had been secretly apprehended by Pakistani military intelligence in mid-July, and had been turned into a double agent. He was actively helping investigators penetrate further into al-Qaeda cells and activities via computer, and was still cooperating when the “senior Bush administration” figure told Jehl […]
Private Lynndie England’s hearing to determine whether she will face court martial is underway. In the midst of this disgrace, it’s worth pointing out that not every soldier in Abu Ghraib was involved in torture. I’m sure some didn’t know, some knew and tried to pretend it wasn’t happening, and one chose to do something […]
Employment growth – household survey v. payroll survey – for the past 6 months (thousands): Household Payroll Feb (265) 83 Mar (3) 353 Apr 278 324 May 196 259 Jun 259 78 Jul 629 32 Kerry will likely emphasize the very modest increase in the payroll survey figure. Snow was touting this series this spring […]
Based on the latest from Illinois Republicans, I’d say farce: Illinois Republican leaders late Wednesday asked conservative talk-show host Alan Keyes to be their candidate for the U.S. Senate, but Keyes said that he would take until Sunday to decide whether to run. … Perhaps most problematic for Keyes is that he has few connections […]
Ever since the invasion of Iraq was contemplated, the White House has reassured people that Iraq’s oil money would remain theirs to spend to help rebuild the country. Earlier this year Bush was explicit: “One year after the liberation of Iraq, the revenues of the oil stream is pretty darn significant. That money will benefit […]
Karla L. Miller of Tax Analysts writes: The International Monetary Fund in a staff report on the U.S. economic outlook questioned whether the Bush administration’s medium- term goal of halving the deficit in five years is “ambitious enough”; the IMF’s suggestions for long-term fiscal security included imposing restrictions on tax cuts, broadening personal and corporate […]
George Mundstock’s 9th installment (August 2, www.discourse.net) in “US Taxation of Multinationals” goes after corporate inversions. Recommened reading also includes the prior eight installments as George is excellent. Earlier, I noted his July 19 piece on ETI “Leave No Corporation Behind”, which preceded US Taxation of Multinationals. For now, let me pass along part of […]