US national intelligence chief Mike McConnell has said the interrogation technique of water-boarding "would be torture" if he was subjected to it. Mr McConnell said it would also be torture if water-boarding, which involves simulated drowning, resulted in water entering a detainee's lungs. He told the New Yorker there would be a "huge penalty" for anyone using it if it was ever determined to be torture. The US attorney-general has declined to rule on whether the method is torture.
Mr McConnell said it would also be torture if water-boarding, which involves simulated drowning, resulted in water entering a detainee's lungs.
He told the New Yorker there would be a "huge penalty" for anyone using it if it was ever determined to be torture.
The US attorney-general has declined to rule on whether the method is torture.
LIMA, Jan 12 (IPS) - The intelligence services of Peru and Argentina kept Washington informed in real time about a 1980 joint clandestine operation in which four alleged members of Argentina's Montoneros guerrilla movement were "disappeared," according to documents declassified in the United States.The incident forms part of the case opened in December by Italian Judge Luisianna Figliola, who issued arrest warrants for those responsible for this and other actions carried out in the framework of Operation Condor, a coordinated plan among the military governments that ruled Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay in the 1970s and 1980s, aimed at tracking down, capturing, torturing and eliminating left-wing opponents. Townsend B. Friedman, political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires, revealed in a secret Aug. 19, 1980 memo to Claus Ruser, the ambassador's number two man, details about the operation involving the supposed Montoneros in Lima, and the fatal outcome. In that memo, which has now been declassified thanks to the efforts of the National Security Archive, an independent Washington-based non-governmental research institute, Friedman told his superior that an Argentine intelligence official had provided them with details of the Lima operation on Jun. 16, 1980.
WASHINGTON, Jan 11 (IPS) - At a recent forum held here by the progressive Economic Policy Institute, labour and human rights activists criticised what they consider a lack of adequate protections for workers contained in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a unilateral U.S. trade deal aimed at increasing commerce between the United States and Sub-Saharan African countries.Passed by the U.S. Congress in 2000, AGOA allows certain goods from Sub-Saharan African countries -- notably petroleum products and apparel -- to enter the United States duty-free and largely without any quota restrictions. It also encourages the growth of the textile industry in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) by extending duty-free market access to apparel made using foreign sources of fibre, largely from Asia. The agreement currently affects trade relations with 39 countries and has led to a large increase in trade between the United States and Africa. According to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, in 1999 U.S. imports from Africa amounted to roughly 13.7 billion dollars. In 2006, the last year for which data is available, that number rose to 59.2 billion dollars. But labour rights activists say the increase in trade and jobs brought by AGOA has not led to a corresponding improvement in conditions for workers. They argue many labourers work up to 16 hours a day for nothing more than the bare minimum legal wage, which they say falls well short of covering the cost of food, shelter and transportation.
China has moved more people out of poverty than any other country in recent decades, but the persistence of destitution in places like southern Henan Province fits with the findings of a recent World Bank study that suggests that there are still 300 million poor in China -- three times as many as the bank previously estimated. Poverty is most severe in China's geographic and social margins, whether the mountainous areas or deserts that ring the country, or areas dominated by ethnic minorities, who for cultural and historic reasons have benefited far less than others from the country's long economic rise. But it also persists in places like Henan, where population densities are among the greatest in China, and the new wealth of the booming coast beckons, almost mockingly, a mere province away. <...> Other experts say Henan and other heavily populated parts of the Chinese heartland are often excluded from the financial support that goes to the coastal areas, and what antipoverty measures there are have little effect. Typically, residents of those areas say, money intended for them is appropriated by corrupt local officials, who pocket it or divert it to business investments. Paradoxically, they say, they are overlooked precisely because of their proximity to the major economic centers of the east, forced to fend for themselves on the theory that they can make do with income sent home by migrant laborers and other forms of trickle-down wealth. "Previous poverty alleviation policy focused more on western China, places like Gansu, Qinghai or Guizhou, which were poorer," said Wang Xiaolu, deputy director of the National Economic Research Institute, a Beijing nongovernmental organization. "Besides, the situation in the border regions is more complicated, because if things go wrong there, it becomes more than a poverty problem. That's why policy leaned toward them." <...> Many more people in this part of Henan subsist between the official poverty line and the $1 a day standard long used by the World Bank. The World Bank's estimate of the number of poor people in China was tripled to 300 million from 100 million last month, after a new survey of prices altered the picture of what a dollar can buy. The new standard was set according to what economists call purchasing power parity. By the new calculations, estimates of the overall size of the Chinese economy also shrank by 40 percent.
Poverty is most severe in China's geographic and social margins, whether the mountainous areas or deserts that ring the country, or areas dominated by ethnic minorities, who for cultural and historic reasons have benefited far less than others from the country's long economic rise.
But it also persists in places like Henan, where population densities are among the greatest in China, and the new wealth of the booming coast beckons, almost mockingly, a mere province away.
<...>
Other experts say Henan and other heavily populated parts of the Chinese heartland are often excluded from the financial support that goes to the coastal areas, and what antipoverty measures there are have little effect. Typically, residents of those areas say, money intended for them is appropriated by corrupt local officials, who pocket it or divert it to business investments.
Paradoxically, they say, they are overlooked precisely because of their proximity to the major economic centers of the east, forced to fend for themselves on the theory that they can make do with income sent home by migrant laborers and other forms of trickle-down wealth.
"Previous poverty alleviation policy focused more on western China, places like Gansu, Qinghai or Guizhou, which were poorer," said Wang Xiaolu, deputy director of the National Economic Research Institute, a Beijing nongovernmental organization. "Besides, the situation in the border regions is more complicated, because if things go wrong there, it becomes more than a poverty problem. That's why policy leaned toward them."
Many more people in this part of Henan subsist between the official poverty line and the $1 a day standard long used by the World Bank. The World Bank's estimate of the number of poor people in China was tripled to 300 million from 100 million last month, after a new survey of prices altered the picture of what a dollar can buy. The new standard was set according to what economists call purchasing power parity. By the new calculations, estimates of the overall size of the Chinese economy also shrank by 40 percent.
Amartya Sen argues that many third world intellectuals are unable to get past the experience of colonialism to see the value of western institutions and values--and the parallels they have with the best of their own traditions. You conform to Sen's model.
), he brings to bear a lot of relevant information and makes a lot of very thought-provoking points.
I'd like to read the whole exchange again more thoroughly, but this particular line is the most important that struck out for me:
Our concern in the west should be to help China face its enormous challenges without damaging us in the process.
The key word there being help.
I don't understand Chinese culture or thinking well enough to read how they consider and respond to Western criticism. My sense is that they are quite prickly, but I think in general, despite their pride, the current level of Western criticism, farcically self-righteous, supercilious, and one-sided though it may be, nevertheless, on balance does more good than harm by keeping up the pressure towards reform, liberalization, and democratization.
The danger, however, is in going too far and reaching a point where we insult and alienate them more than we prod and incent them.
I think when China started opening up, the predominant thrust of Western and Japanese interest in that country was one of almost megalomaniacal greed, with a streak of contempt in it: China as gigantic supply of cheap coolie labor, and potentially massive market for their goods. However, now the Western and Japanese attitude towards China strikes me as primarily one of fear, uncertainty, and a different sort of contempt (an outgrowth of fear and uncertainty rather than of greed), from which spring much of the venom in the criticism against China (I wonder if a similar emotional dynamic is not also active in Western criticism of Putinian Russia.)
No doubt, China still has some very serious problems that it must overcome.
But I believe that they are making progress and that things are improving, if slowly, from a human rights and also an economic point of view, even for the poorest (albeit not quickly enough for too many of them). As Will Hutton enumerates, there is an incredibly complicated set of interrelated challenges and social, economic, political, and environmental forces which play off of one another, and improving things in one area, can mean inviting chaos and/or harm in other areas. This is the reason for the extreme caution by the government, which can seem so reactionary and oppressive, and which, particularly on the local levels, remains so plagued by corruption.
To emphasize, I still do not understand enough about China to affirm with conviction what should be the best way to help China move forward. But my current sense is that while maintaining the pressure on China to conform to certain values, principles and standards that we believe should apply universally, we should also refrain from our customary (and from non-Western points of view, often hypocritical) moral self-righteousness, and we should gradually shift towards a position of pragramatically firm while rhetorically understated policy actions, such as imposing carbon taxes on imports (but not just on China, which would obviously be insulting and antagonistic, but on all exporting countries), combined with a stance of sympathy and cooperation -- particularly in the media -- to help the Chinese help themselves, so to speak. Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
Toys and DVD players reaching European shelves on a 'new silk route' by rail -- that's the goal for six train companies already testing a 'fast freight' line between Beijing and Hamburg."China is the workhouse of the world -- the potential is enormous," said Luc Aliadiere, chief executive of the Paris-based International Union of Railways (UIC).A test-run lugging 100 containers of toys, electrical goods and industrial products left Beijing on Wednesday, overseen by Chinese Transport Minister Liu Zhijun and German railways Deutsche Bahn (DB) President Hartmut Mehdorn.The convoy is due to reach the port city of Hamburg, 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) away "in under 20 days," half the time it would take by traditional shipping lanes, according to DB.
"China is the workhouse of the world -- the potential is enormous," said Luc Aliadiere, chief executive of the Paris-based International Union of Railways (UIC).
A test-run lugging 100 containers of toys, electrical goods and industrial products left Beijing on Wednesday, overseen by Chinese Transport Minister Liu Zhijun and German railways Deutsche Bahn (DB) President Hartmut Mehdorn.
The convoy is due to reach the port city of Hamburg, 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) away "in under 20 days," half the time it would take by traditional shipping lanes, according to DB.
Yeah, my PowerBook (17" G4 1.67Ghz), in which I invested a good chunk of my savings and which I was planning to use for up to 4-5 years, started generating 1-pixel wide vertical lines across my screen, after just two years of use, which infuriated me, but I decided to live with them -- until half my screen went poof and disappeared on me a month ago.
Turns out, this model, like many Apple products, was made in China. In Shanghai, to be precise.
Having said that, many Apple lovers, and users of other models of PowerBooks, do not have such problems (or are so religiously zealous about Apple that they are in denial or refuse to admit that Apple can be anything less than perfect). So my model might be the exception.
Also, while I do not own an iPod myself, not sure how many people would agree with you that iPods are a "piece of shit".
Or iPhones, for that matter, which are made by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. in Shenzhen. Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
Citigroup is putting the final touches to its second big capital-raising effort in as many months, seeking up to $14bn from Chinese, Kuwaiti and public market investors.Under the proposal being discussed, the bulk of the money - roughly $9bn - would be most likely to come from China, people familiar with the negotiations say. The Kuwait Investment Authority would contribute about $1bn, while $2bn to $4bn would be raised through a public placement of shares.The formula is still being adjusted and there could be last-minute changes, the people involved say. It is also possible other investors will participate.The deal underscores the depth of the problems faced by banks that suffered heavy losses in the US subprime mortgage crisis. It would follow an injection of $7.5bn into Citigroup by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in late November."The second round is going very well, because Citi is seen as US Inc," says the regional head of a US investment bank in the Middle East. Citi declined to comment.
Citigroup is putting the final touches to its second big capital-raising effort in as many months, seeking up to $14bn from Chinese, Kuwaiti and public market investors.
Under the proposal being discussed, the bulk of the money - roughly $9bn - would be most likely to come from China, people familiar with the negotiations say. The Kuwait Investment Authority would contribute about $1bn, while $2bn to $4bn would be raised through a public placement of shares.
The formula is still being adjusted and there could be last-minute changes, the people involved say. It is also possible other investors will participate.
The deal underscores the depth of the problems faced by banks that suffered heavy losses in the US subprime mortgage crisis. It would follow an injection of $7.5bn into Citigroup by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in late November.
"The second round is going very well, because Citi is seen as US Inc," says the regional head of a US investment bank in the Middle East. Citi declined to comment.
Or is it some long-term political consideration of ignoring the financial pain in order to be able to apply direct pressure on US foreign policy where it hurts ? keep to the Fen Causeway
Hundreds of people marched through China's financial hub of Shanghai on Saturday protesting a planned extension of the city's magnetic levitation train, or "maglev", worried it would emit radiation and sicken them. Police initially detained dozens of people, bundling them into waiting cars, vans and buses, as protesters gathered in front of city hall shouting "We don't want the maglev" and carrying placards reading: "No to maglev -- bad for health." "We are afraid how the radiation will affect us. Why does the government not listen to our concerns?" said a protester surnamed Guan, adding the extension would pass within 100 meters (328 ft.) of her house. As police cordoned off the city government in People's Square, once home to a race track in Shanghai's colonial heyday, demonstrators took off down the fashionable Nanjing Road shopping area. The protest was the largest the cosmopolitan and wealthy city has seen since thousands took to the streets in sometimes violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in 2005. "I'm marching against the proposed line as it's too close to town. It's going to be noisy and emit pollution," said another protester, who would only give his family name, Liu. <...> "Yes, it's an illegal protest. But we've been pushed into a corner," said another protester. <...> China has the only commercial maglev in operation in the world, developed and built by the government and a German consortium including industrial giant Siemens. Launched in 2003, the maglev floats on a magnetic cushion over a distance of 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) between an outlying part of Shanghai's financial district in Pudong and the international airport. The government wants to extend the train to downtown Shanghai, and then possibly to the nearby tourist city of Hangzhou.
Police initially detained dozens of people, bundling them into waiting cars, vans and buses, as protesters gathered in front of city hall shouting "We don't want the maglev" and carrying placards reading: "No to maglev -- bad for health."
"We are afraid how the radiation will affect us. Why does the government not listen to our concerns?" said a protester surnamed Guan, adding the extension would pass within 100 meters (328 ft.) of her house.
As police cordoned off the city government in People's Square, once home to a race track in Shanghai's colonial heyday, demonstrators took off down the fashionable Nanjing Road shopping area.
The protest was the largest the cosmopolitan and wealthy city has seen since thousands took to the streets in sometimes violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in 2005.
"I'm marching against the proposed line as it's too close to town. It's going to be noisy and emit pollution," said another protester, who would only give his family name, Liu. <...>
"Yes, it's an illegal protest. But we've been pushed into a corner," said another protester.
China has the only commercial maglev in operation in the world, developed and built by the government and a German consortium including industrial giant Siemens.
Launched in 2003, the maglev floats on a magnetic cushion over a distance of 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) between an outlying part of Shanghai's financial district in Pudong and the international airport.
The government wants to extend the train to downtown Shanghai, and then possibly to the nearby tourist city of Hangzhou.
BECAUSE YOU LIVE IN A TOTALITARIAN STATE, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE, AND THEY DON'T HAVE TO!!! SO WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU IDIOTS GOING TO ACTUALLY DOOOOOO ABOUT IT?!
Humans, I swear. Give me another species to work with. This is bullshit. In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
Why?
But Connecting Shanghai to a nearby city of 6.5 million people seems a good idea from any perspective.
I think the problem is that neither the media nor city officials provided residents living near the maglev line (up to 22.5 meters in some places) with clear information regarding the effects of radiation and noise pollution.
In fact, the amount of radiation emitted is apparently negligible and perfectly harmless, so that concern can be eliminated.
I believe noise will not be a problem either -- within the train and from about 200 meters away, it is very quiet indeed. (Having said that, the issue seems not as clear-cut .)
Nevertheless, these protests may have a silver lining, actually, three: people with a common cause organized themselves to express their displeasure with the government, and effectively enacted civil disobedience in doing so; furthermore, the government got a lesson in what happens when you try to railroad a more and more self-assertive citizenry into just going along with its plans without listening to their concerns and responding effectively enough; finally, when in all likelihood the radiation and noise pollution will turn out to be non-issues, people will realize that all the time, emotional energy, they took in their protests were based on unfounded fears.
Since the number of people arrested and/or injured in the protests were few, hopefully this will be a lesson well learned (and remembered) by all parties at relatively little cost. Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
I agree with your other points - I wasn't really commenting on the substance of the post at all, just the terminology.
definitely, on all three counts.
but i think among Chinese, Hangzhou is seen first and foremost as a tourist city, given its country-wide fame for its scenery, history, temples, personages, legends, tea, silk, and so on. the first time i was told about it was from a Shanghai woman who called it the city for honeymoons.
still, you're right, more recently it has become a booming business and high-tech hub, with plenty of business traffic from overseas as well. and a 28-minute (!!!) maglev connection between Shanghai and Hangzhou would be simply fantastic, particularly for the surprising number of Hangzhou residents who commute every day to Shanghai, not to mention the far more numerous business people who travel between the two cities on a frequent if not every day basis. Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
Buddhism is booming--quite a paradox given the Communist Party's official atheism and its troubled relationship with the Dalai Lama. The faith's growing popularity reflects a yearning for meaning among China's yuppies, who increasingly are attracted to Buddhism's rejection of materialism and emphasis on the transitory nature of life. "They have a BMW and a house in the countryside," says Lawrence Brahm, an American who runs three boutique hotels, including one in Tibet. "And they're bored. They're realizing there's more to life than collecting toys." Buddhism's trendiness has spawned a surge in faith-related business: Flights to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, are booked solid, monasteries are building guesthouses, and Web sites offering free downloadable mantras are proliferating. <...> ... the government is comfortable with Buddhism. "Buddhists seldom mess with politics," says Chan Koon Chung, a writer and Buddhist in Beijing. "So it's more palatable to the government." In a recent speech President Hu Jintao even suggested that religion, including Buddhism, could help to ease tensions between the haves and the have-nots. <...> Some traditionalists fret that Buddhism is becoming too trendy. Exhibit A: pop diva Faye Wong, a convert whose videos sometimes feature Buddhist images. And some monasteries focus as much on attracting tourists as practicing the faith. "Commercialization," says professor Xuan, "is one of the most dangerous trends of Chinese Buddhism." Still, for stressed-out yuppies, Buddhism is a respite from the rat race. "Society brings so many headaches," says Nikki Xi, a convert who works for a Web ad agency. "I'm more relaxed. [Buddhism] makes the whole work process smoother."
... the government is comfortable with Buddhism. "Buddhists seldom mess with politics," says Chan Koon Chung, a writer and Buddhist in Beijing. "So it's more palatable to the government." In a recent speech President Hu Jintao even suggested that religion, including Buddhism, could help to ease tensions between the haves and the have-nots. <...>
Some traditionalists fret that Buddhism is becoming too trendy. Exhibit A: pop diva Faye Wong, a convert whose videos sometimes feature Buddhist images. And some monasteries focus as much on attracting tourists as practicing the faith. "Commercialization," says professor Xuan, "is one of the most dangerous trends of Chinese Buddhism." Still, for stressed-out yuppies, Buddhism is a respite from the rat race. "Society brings so many headaches," says Nikki Xi, a convert who works for a Web ad agency. "I'm more relaxed. [Buddhism] makes the whole work process smoother."
That was one of the things that surprised me when I first visited China last March: the numbers of people praying so earnestly in temples, just as they do in Japan. (Westerners -- and even Orientals themselves -- are often cynical and mocking of these Japanese and Chinese attitudes towards prayer, which often revolve around the health, material wealth, and social status of the prayer and/or her loved ones -- i.e. very worldly in content. The Chinese and Japanese are rather pragmatic in this respect. And yet, there are sects of Buddhism, I believe, where prayer is focused on devotion to the Buddha [or one of his incarnations, proxies, or lieutenants] with the ultimate aim of entering into Paradise, or on the well-being of souls, in particular loved ones who have passed away. So prayer is not always, or even primarily, selfish or materialistic.)
As for superficial crapola like Feng Buddhism, see this article on the "revival" of feng-shui in China:
The ancient practice of geomancy, or feng shui, is technically illegal in fiercely secular China, where the ruling Communist Party considers it "superstition" and has forbidden people to practise it. But the Chinese have believed in the practice - the idea that the land is a living, breathing thing filled with qi energy, and that individuals should live in harmony with the wind and water of our natural environment - for thousands of years, and the ideas of feng shui (which translates as "wind and water") are so deeply rooted in their psyche that it has refused to die out. <...> In private, of course, feng shui never really went away. But it is becoming much more open now. Families in the countryside will fight over a particularly auspicious piece of land, and the resulting feuds can last for generations. There are reports of buildings in mainland cities being knocked down because of bad feng shui readings. Communism and traditional philosophies such as feng shui are officially at loggerheads, but there has always been a sneaking regard for the principles of feng shui among the top cadres.
But the Chinese have believed in the practice - the idea that the land is a living, breathing thing filled with qi energy, and that individuals should live in harmony with the wind and water of our natural environment - for thousands of years, and the ideas of feng shui (which translates as "wind and water") are so deeply rooted in their psyche that it has refused to die out.
In private, of course, feng shui never really went away. But it is becoming much more open now. Families in the countryside will fight over a particularly auspicious piece of land, and the resulting feuds can last for generations. There are reports of buildings in mainland cities being knocked down because of bad feng shui readings.
Communism and traditional philosophies such as feng shui are officially at loggerheads, but there has always been a sneaking regard for the principles of feng shui among the top cadres.
And regarding Confucianist Prajna, Forum 18, a Norway-based religious freedom advocacy group, while suspicious of the Chinese government's selective embracing of Confucianism, nevertheless acknowledges its growing popularity and widespread outspoken advocacy for it:
Spurring this renewed interest in Confucianism is the growing sense among Chinese intellectuals that liberal democracy will not resolve China's problems. Professor Kang Xiaoguang of the People's University in Beijing, arguably the leading proponent of Confucianism in China, wrote in 2006 that Western democracy « is useless because it will not necessarily resolve the problem of political corruption, nor break the collusion between the officials and private businessmen, nor protect the interests of the masses, nor prevent the elite from plundering ». Likewise, Confucius' moral teachings are increasingly seen as a means toward improving human behaviour in a society filled with greed and selfishness. China's best-selling book today is one written by a Beijing Normal University professor on Confucius' « Analects », the main record of his actions and thoughts. Professor Yu Duan's « Notes on reading the Analects » has reportedly sold over three million copies in just four months. <...> How should this recent interest in Confucianism be interpreted ? On the one hand, many might welcome the growing interest in something other than Communism. The fact that society craves values and principles that can guide individuals' lives and their relations with others once again points up Communism's failure as an ideology that emphasises material interests. Even amongst Communist Party members, growing numbers have the political identity of a Party member and the spiritual identity of a religious believer (see F18News 13 February 2007 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=910). Clearly, human beings are not just driven by the pursuit of material wealth ; they also want a moral framework for their lives. On the other hand, the selective adoption of Confucian principles by the Communist state means that genuine religious freedom in China is unlikely to be achieved in the near future. Will fashion for Confucius retard religious freedom?
Likewise, Confucius' moral teachings are increasingly seen as a means toward improving human behaviour in a society filled with greed and selfishness. China's best-selling book today is one written by a Beijing Normal University professor on Confucius' « Analects », the main record of his actions and thoughts. Professor Yu Duan's « Notes on reading the Analects » has reportedly sold over three million copies in just four months.
How should this recent interest in Confucianism be interpreted ? On the one hand, many might welcome the growing interest in something other than Communism. The fact that society craves values and principles that can guide individuals' lives and their relations with others once again points up Communism's failure as an ideology that emphasises material interests. Even amongst Communist Party members, growing numbers have the political identity of a Party member and the spiritual identity of a religious believer (see F18News 13 February 2007 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=910). Clearly, human beings are not just driven by the pursuit of material wealth ; they also want a moral framework for their lives.
On the other hand, the selective adoption of Confucian principles by the Communist state means that genuine religious freedom in China is unlikely to be achieved in the near future.
Will fashion for Confucius retard religious freedom?
As leaders in Washington turn their attention to efforts to avert a looming downturn, many economists suggest that it may already be too late to change the course of the economy over the first half of the year, if not longer. With a wave of negative signs gathering force, economists, policy makers and investors are debating just how much the economy could be damaged in 2008. Huge and complex, the American economy has in recent years been aided by a global web of finance so elaborate that no one seems capable of fully comprehending it. That makes it all but impossible to predict how much the economy can be expected to fall before it stabilizes. The answer could be a defining factor in the outcome of the fiercely contested presidential election. Not long ago, the race centered on the war in Iraq. But now, as candidates fan out across the country, visiting places as varied as the factory towns of Michigan and streets lined with unsold condominiums in Las Vegas, voters are increasingly demanding that they focus on the best way to keep the economy from slipping off the tracks. [...] But the forces menacing the economy, like the unraveling of the real estate market and high oil prices, are too entrenched to be swiftly dispatched by government largess or cheaper credit, some economists say.
With a wave of negative signs gathering force, economists, policy makers and investors are debating just how much the economy could be damaged in 2008. Huge and complex, the American economy has in recent years been aided by a global web of finance so elaborate that no one seems capable of fully comprehending it. That makes it all but impossible to predict how much the economy can be expected to fall before it stabilizes.
The answer could be a defining factor in the outcome of the fiercely contested presidential election. Not long ago, the race centered on the war in Iraq.
But now, as candidates fan out across the country, visiting places as varied as the factory towns of Michigan and streets lined with unsold condominiums in Las Vegas, voters are increasingly demanding that they focus on the best way to keep the economy from slipping off the tracks.
[...]
But the forces menacing the economy, like the unraveling of the real estate market and high oil prices, are too entrenched to be swiftly dispatched by government largess or cheaper credit, some economists say.
The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
