Egypt Crisis Raises Fears Of 'Second Revolution'

Protesters run as they face Egyptian riot Police during clashes on Omar Makram street, off Tahrir Square, on November 28, 2012 in Cairo. Police fired tear gas into Cairo's Tahrir Square, where several hundred protesters spent the night after a mass rally to denounce President Mohamed Morsi's assumption of expanded powers. (GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/Getty Images) 

CAIRO -- Faced with an unprecedented strike by the courts and massive opposition protests, Egypt's Islamist president is not backing down in the showdown over decrees granting him near-absolute powers.

Activists warn that his actions threaten a "second revolution," but Mohammed Morsi faces a different situation than his ousted predecessor, Hosni Mubarak: He was democratically elected and enjoys the support of the nation's most powerful political movement.

Inequality Breeds Resistance to Globalization

Don’t blame globalization for inequality – but rather policies hijacked by a few

Pranab Bardhan

YaleGlobal, 27 November 2012

Rich economy, poor management: China’s rich flaunt their wealth (top); India’s poor children wait for a mid-day meal

BERKELEY: Economic globalization in the sense of expansion of foreign trade and investment is, of course, somewhat anemic, reflecting the impact of global recession, although still vigorous in the sense of continuous international transmission of technology, information, ideas and social media.

But in the world of politics and policymaking a cold wind is blowing, dimming earlier enthusiasm for global integration and market liberalization. The Doha round of trade negotiations is moribund. Economic integration in Europe is in disarray. Not merely is the fuming against imports from China and immigrants from Mexico now a staple of American electoral politics, the populist anger in all countries, rich or poor, against the galloping rise in inequality is often directed at the dark forces of global intrusion and competition.

The Fiscal Cliff: Absolutely everything you could possibly need to know, in one FAQ

Posted by Suzy Khimm, Ezra Klein, Dylan Matthews and Brad Plumer on November 27, 2012 at 9:00 am

Washington is engaged in an all-consuming debate about how to resolve the “fiscal cliff” — which we like to call, for reasons that will soon be explained, “the austerity crisis.” But what is that and why does it matter? We at Wonkblog put together a FAQ to sort it out. And we’ll keep updating this FAQ as the debate rages on.

Want to tax capital and income equally? Try the Buffett rule

Posted by Dylan Matthews on November 27, 2012 at 10:09 am

Warren Buffett (Daniel Acker — Bloomberg)

Enthusiasm is building for a “minimum tax” for the wealthy, in which millionaires would have to pay, say, 30 percent of their income in taxes, no ifs or buts. Republicans in Congress have floated taxing the entire income of high-earners at 35 percent, while Warren Buffett has renewed his call for a minimum tax of 30 percent for millionaires.

Let’s hope the austerity crisis is holding back business spending

Posted by Neil Irwin on November 27, 2012 at 10:18 am

Can they reach a deal? Business investment spending may hang in the balance.

There are new signs that businesses are pulling back on their investment spending in advance of the looming austerity crisis. And that’s the good news.

Shipments of core capital goods, a measure that excludes defense spending and aircraft — a common measure of business investment — fell 0.4 percent in October, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. There is an obvious and likely explanation: Firms were becoming all the more wary of what might happen with the “fiscal cliff,” the wave of tax hikes and spending cuts scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1 absent a new agreement. If you are a corporate executive weighing the purchase of a piece of industrial equipment or a truck for your delivery fleet, you may well decide “I’ll just wait to see how all this shakes out.”

Does advertising help or harm the economy?

Posted by Brad Plumer on November 27, 2012 at 11:21 am

It’s impossible to escape advertising. Truck ads on billboards, beer ads on television, pop-up ads for credit cards on the Internet. It’s everywhere. Last year, U.S. companies spent about $144 billion on commercials and other forms of marketing—about 1 percent of the GDP. So what effect do all these ads have on the economy?

The dangerous fiscal deadline isn’t Dec. 31 – it’s February 2013

Posted by Suzy Khimm on November 27, 2012 at 2:43 pm

(Source: Mark Lennihan / AP)

The debt ceiling has largely taken a backseat to the looming fiscal changes that are scheduled to take effect on Dec. 31. But unless it’s dealt with in the lame duck Congress, we’re going to hit another debt limit come February 2013, according a new analysis by the Bipartisan Policy Center.

What’s holding back the economy, in 10 charts

Posted by Zachary A. Goldfarb on November 27, 2012 at 3:09 pm

Lately, there has been quite a bit of excitement that the big overhang of debt left over from the financial crisis may be starting to ease. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has noted that there’s been a “significant reduction” of debt, and a number of indicators point to American households getting their finances in better shape.

How U.S. can once again define the future

By Patrick Doherty, Special to CNN

November 27, 2012 -- Updated 1859 GMT (0259 HKT)

 

Editor's note: Patrick Doherty is the deputy director of the National Security Studies Program at the New America Foundation and author of the forthcoming report, "Grand Strategy of the United States of America."

(CNN) -- Washington is all about the fiscal cliff these days. In Doha, Qatar, world leaders are negotiating over climate change. Federal debt and carbon emissions are indeed two big problems on the nation's front burner. But they are just the beginning.

Tobacco companies ordered to admit they lied over smoking danger

Reuters in Washington guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 November 2012 04.59 GMT

US judge says tobacco firms must spend their own money on a public campaign admitting deception about the risks of smoking

The public advertisements are to be published in various media for as long as two years. Photograph: Alex Segre/Alamy

 

Major tobacco companies who spent decades denying they lied to the US public about the dangers of cigarettes must spend their own money on a public advertising campaign saying they did lie, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. 

The ruling sets out what might be the harshest sanction to come out of a historic case that the justice department brought in 1999 accusing the tobacco companies of racketeering.