Tag: 4@4

1. The NY Times reports the Pentagon expects cuts in military spending.

   After years of unfettered growth in military budgets, Defense Department planners, top commanders and weapons manufacturers now say they are almost certain that the financial meltdown will have a serious impact on future Pentagon spending.

   Across the military services, deep apprehension has led to closed-door meetings and detailed calculations in anticipation of potential cuts. Civilian and military budget planners concede that they are already analyzing worst-case contingency spending plans that would freeze or slash their overall budgets.

   The obvious targets for savings would be expensive new arms programs, which have racked up cost overruns of at least $300 billion for the top 75 weapons systems, according to the Government Accountability Office.

   The $500 billion annual base budget for the Pentagon is at the highest level since World War II. In addition, the Pentagon gets $100 billion each year to fight the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

   Some critics, citing the increase in military spending since Sept. 11, 2001, say it would be much easier to cut military spending than programs like Social Security and Medicare at a time when most people’s retirement savings are dwindling because of the financial crisis. Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has raised the idea of reducing military spending by one-quarter.

Four at Four continues with Bush still “hopeful” for a McCain victory, the global water crisis, and Mayan kites.

1. The Wall Street Journal reports Wall Street firms are considering limits on compensation after public outcry.

   In a sign that Wall Street is waking up to the political tempest over billions of dollars in year-end bonuses likely to be paid out at securities firms lining up for government infusions, top executives are in discussions to possibly cap their own compensation, according to people familiar with the situation.

   While the discussions remain fluid and many details still must be agreed to, the talks underscore an emerging consensus among some of the securities industry’s most powerful executives that the escalating pay controversy is creating yet another public-relations mess for Wall Street…

   And as Wall Street firms examine their pay and bonuses, distinctions are being made between the highest-ranking executives and lower-level traders and investment bankers who aren’t widely known beyond Wall Street but could get plucked away by rival firms if compensation practices are significantly altered.

   As a result, the most likely scenario in the firm-by-firm discussions is a sharp decline in compensation for chief executive officers, but fewer changes in how bonuses are paid to most employees, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Four at Four continues with an Iraq update, evidence of climate change on every continent, and an update on the North American bat die-off.

1. Just in time for Halloween, McClatchy Newspapers report John McCain could still win. To do so, everything would have to break his way. “He’d have to squeeze out more support from independents… and hope that enough undecided voters swing his way to help him sweep almost all the states that now are considered tossups.”

   For McCain to win, he must hold all the states that went for President Bush four years ago, which would be enough to give him 286 Electoral College votes and victory. He could even lose one midsized Bush state, such as Virginia, which has 13 electoral votes, and still have more than the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win.

   The NY Times notes Al Gore is to Campaign in Florida for Obama. He will be joined by Tipper in Palm Beach and Broward counties.

2. The NY Times also reports Days before the election come stark signs of a slowdown. The U.S. economy “contracted in the third quarter as consumer spending dipped for the first time in 17 years.” The GDP is “shrinking at a 0.3 percent annual rate… The impacts of a now-global financial crisis are continuing to squeeze companies and impede investment, prompting more layoffs and another wave of austerity.”

   Meanwhile, the Washington Post adds Exxon Mobil profits set a record in the third quarter. The oil giant “smashed its own record for quarterly profits today, ringing up $14.8 billion in net income”. Their “earnings, at $2.86 a share, are up 58 percent from the same period in 2007”.

   While over in the UK, the Chancellor demands cheaper petrol as Shell posts record profits, according to The Guardian. “Alistair Darling today called on oil companies to pass on lower costs to consumers by cutting petrol prices as Royal Dutch Shell posted a 71% rise in profits.” Shell reported a profit of $10.9 billion, up $6.4 billion from last year.

Four at Four continues with ominous signs of inflation, increasing sophistication of Taliban attacks in Afghanistan, and a bonus NASA update.

1. The LA Times reports Defense War Secretary Robert Gates calls for modernization of U.S. nuclear weapons. “Unless the United States modernizes its inventory of nuclear weapons and develops a replacement warhead, the atomic arsenal’s long-term safety and reliability will deteriorate,” according to Gates.

   “No one has designed a new nuclear weapon in the United States since the 1980s, and no one has built a new one since the early 1990s,” he said…

   “To be blunt,” Gates said, “there is absolutely no way we can maintain a credible deterrent and reduce the number of weapons in our stockpile without resorting to testing our stockpile or pursuing a modernization program.” …

   “Currently, the United States is the only declared nuclear power that is neither modernizing its nuclear arsenal nor has the capability to produce a new nuclear warhead,” Gates said…

   “Let me be clear: The program we propose is not about new nuclear capabilities — suitcase bombs or bunker-busters or tactical nukes,” he said. “It is about safety, security and reliability.”

   Gates also endorsed the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Four at Four continues with Pakistan and Syria demanding apologies from the U.S., movement to negotiate with the Taliban, and Spanish dominance of U.S. wind energy.

1. A week to go before the general election. On Sunday, Barack Obama appeared before more than 100,000 people in Denver making it the largest U.S. crowd to ever attend one of his campaign rally. He has been maintaining he lead in the polls, while John McCain has been spinning the Despite the polls, the race will be tight. If McCain is right, it will be the first time this whole campaign.

   Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported on Monday that as he makes his closing argument, Obama avoids partisan rhetoric and focuses on unity.

   There’s no point, he says. “We’re all in this together,” the Illinois Democrat assures the crowds who flock to his events… “We don’t have the luxury of relying on the same political games and the same political tactics that are used every election to divide us . . . by who we are or what policies we support.”

   In this final week of the campaign, the LA Times suggests to look for both candidates to Soften their blows. As part of his closing argument for why we should elect him president, Obama explains:

   We have always been at our best when we’re called to look past our differences and to come together as one nation, leadership that rallied this country to a common purpose, to a higher purpose.”

Four at Four continues with two stories about the global food crisis and some stories about Barack Obama from people who have known him at various parts of his life.

1. McClatchy Newspapers report the U.S. threatens to halt services to Iraq without troop accord. Iraqi politicians see this as blackmail by the United States.

   The U.S. military has warned Iraq that it will shut down military operations and other vital services throughout the country on Jan. 1 if the Iraqi government doesn’t agree to a new agreement on the status of U.S. forces or a renewed United Nations mandate for the American mission in Iraq…

   In addition to halting all military actions, U.S. forces would cease activities that support Iraq’s economy, educational sector and other areas _ “everything” _ said Tariq al Hashimi, the country’s Sunni Muslim vice president. “I didn’t know the Americans are rendering such wide-scale services.”

   Apparently this ‘threat’ has taken Iraqi leaders “by surprise”.

Four at Four continues with finding the right strategy for Afghanistan, the bailout’s mission creep, and Project Midas.

1. The NY Times reports OPEC orders a cut in oil production. OPEC will reduce its oil production by at least 1.5 million barrels a day to stem what it called ‘a dramatic collapse’ in oil prices as the world economy slows down and oil demand shrinks.”

   Fears of a global recession; however, meant the announcement did nothing to halt the price fall of oil futures which “fell 4.6 percent to $64.75 a barrel, their lowest since May 2007.” Oil was at $147 a barrel in July. “Many analysts expect global oil consumption to fall this year for the first time since 1983.”

Four at Four continues with the Detroit housing market collapse, Mexico’s oil reform, and erasing memories in mice.

Today’s Four at Four focuses on terrorism and dealing with it.

1. The CS Monitor examines The lasting impact of the 1983 Beirut attack twenty-five year ago today. The bombing killed 241 Americans, most of them marines, in the deadliest day for the Marines since Iwo Jima. “The bombing that left the Reagan administration’s Lebanon ambitions in tatters continues to reverberate today in shaping US diplomatic, political, and counterinsurgency policies toward Lebanon and the Middle East.”

   The blast rippled across Beirut just after dawn, throwing Khodr Hammoud out of bed and stumbling to his front door.

   Gazing across the packed houses of the Shiite-populated slums east of Beirut airport, the young Shiite resident saw a huge plume of smoke rising into the pale sky…

   “When I heard that marines had been blown up, I couldn’t believe it,” says Mr. Hammoud. “We didn’t think of [the Marines] as an enemy then like we do now.“

2. McClatchy Newspapers report Indonesia fights terrorism with power of persuasion. Indonesian government “authorities try to ‘de-radicalize’ militants, debating religion with them and re-connecting them with their families instead of relying on the high-tech weapons and harsh interrogation techniques that have characterized President Bush’s approach since 9/11.

   “Because terrorism is an ideologically motivated crime, it is not possible to stop it using mere physical operations,” said Ansyaad Mbai, the head of the Indonesian government’s Counter-Terrorism Coordinating Desk. “Based on our experience, the harder we hit them with military force, the more radical they become.”

   Mbai is critical of the Bush administration’s approach to fighting terrorism. The war in Iraq, in particular, has made the job of handling terrorism in Indonesia harder, he said: “Even the moderate Muslim leaders find it difficult to explain that the war taking place in the Middle East is not a war against Islam.”

   Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, treats terrorism as a crime, not a cause for war.

Four at Four continues with a bombing in Iraq and a missile strike in Pakistan. Plus, there is a poll to vote in.

1. Despite the rhetoric blatant lies and distortions from the McCain campaign and other Republicans, McClatchy Newspapers report, Obama’s tax plan is not socialism.

   Favoring higher tax rates for the wealthy than for the less fortunate isn’t socialism, and if it is, then the U.S. has been a socialist country for nearly a century, under both Democrats and Republicans.

   “The answer is clearly no, Senator Obama is not a socialist,” said Paul Beck, a professor of political science at The Ohio State University. “We’ve had a progressive tax system for some time, and both Republicans and Democrats have bought into it.” …

   Socialism involves state ownership of the means of economic production and state-directed sharing of the wealth. America’s democratic capitalist system is neither socialist nor pure free market; rather, it mixes the two, and it has at least since the progressive income tax was introduced 95 years ago. Under it, the wealthy pay higher income tax rates than those who are less fortunate do. It’s a form of sharing the wealth.

   Government intervenes in U.S. “free markets” all the time. The deduction that homeowners get for mortgage interest is one form, for it subsidizes housing. The Pentagon procurement that sustains U.S. defense contractors such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics is another.

   For that matter, President Bush and many other Republicans, including McCain, backed a massive federal government rescue of ailing financial institutions this fall, one that’s committed more than $1 trillion so far to “private” banks, even taking partial state ownership of the nine biggest…

   Conservatives often charge that Democrats are engaging in “class warfare” when they want to raise tax rates on the rich – McCain and Palin have used the phrase to attack Obama – but they rarely find such fault when tax cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthy.

2. The Seattle Times reports the U.S. is run by Wall Street “crooks,” Nader says in Seattle.

   Every agency of the federal government is controlled by corporate power, independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader told reporters before a public speech at a packed Town Hall Seattle on Tuesday evening.

   Nader said the U.S. is essentially a “plutocracy” (government by the wealthy), run by “speculators and crooks” on Wall Street. He offered as evidence the $700 billion financial-rescue package that Congress approved, which, he said, rewards “deceivers” for the “looting and swindling.” …

   Tuesday night, Nader called for the prosecution of those on Wall Street responsible for the current financial crisis.

Four at Four continues with news from Afghanistan, Iraq, and concerning the 18 threats to beluga whales in Alaska.

1. The AP reports on a report finding the Gap between rich and poor has grown.

   The gap between rich and poor is getting bigger in the world’s richest countries – and particularly the United States – as children and low-skilled workers slide deeper into poverty, according to a 30-nation report released Tuesday.

   In a 20-year study of its 30 member countries, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said children and young adults are 25 percent more likely to be poor than the population average – with an even larger gap for single-parent families…

   The United States has the highest inequality and poverty in the OECD after Mexico and Turkey, and the gap has increased rapidly since 2000, the report said…

   In the United States, the richest 10 percent earn an average of US$93,000 – the highest level in the OECD. The poorest 10 percent earn an average of US$5,800 – about 20 percent lower than the OECD average

   But even with the growing gap, Reuters adds Society is not breaking down. “The gap between the rich and poor has grown in most wealthy nations, but not as quickly as many people believe and not enough to raise fears of social upheaval”. The report also claimed the growing gap was “not one that would justify … talk about the breakdown of society.” So, don’t look for a revolution any time soon.

   The full OECD report, “Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries,” is available for purchase. Some of the findings for the U.S. made in the report are:

   • “The distribution of earnings widened by 20% since the mid-1980s which is more than in most other OECD countries. This is the main reason for widening inequality in America.”

   • “Redistribution of income by government plays a relatively minor role in the United States… This is partly because the level of spending on social benefits such as unemployment benefits and family benefits is low – equivalent to just 9% of household incomes, while the OECD average is 22%.”

   • “Wealth is distributed much more unequally than income: the top 1% control some 25-33% of total net worth and the top 10% hold 71%. For comparison, the top 10% have 28% of total income.”

Four at Four continues with the U.S. suicide rate increasing at an alarming rate, the Fed to back money market mutual funds, and India’s moon shot.

1. The Washington Post wonders As fuel prices fall, will the push for alternatives lose steam? Of course. I think most Americans have a very short term memory. Energy alternatives were all about maintaining the status quo, rather than about reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

   Bill Reinert, one of the Toyota Prius designers… cautioned that designing and ramping up production of a new car takes five years.

   “If oil goes down to $60 or $70 a barrel and gasoline gets back to $2.50 a gallon, and that very possibly could happen,” he said, “will that demand stay the same or will we shift back up?”

   As quickly as the price of oil per barrel has fallen it can rise just as quickly again.

   “Declining oil prices can give us an artificial and temporary sense that reducing oil consumption and energy consumption is an issue we can put off,” said Greg Kats, a managing director of Good Energies, a multibillion-dollar venture capital firm that invests in global clean energy.

   The NY Times reports that people are Challenging the car culture on campus with free bikes.

   “We’re seeing an explosion in bike activity,” said Julian Dautremont-Smith, associate director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, a nonprofit association of colleges and universities. “It seems like every week we hear about a new bike sharing or bike rental program.”

   But I wonder, if such free bike programs will still be around next fall? Somehow, I doubt it.

Four at Four continues with the U.S. economy, stimulus, and national debt, campaign news, and NATO in Afghanistan.

1. So the Washington Post reports that Bush defends the bailout and says the plan was the ‘last resort’. Bush said his administration has been “systematic and aggressive” trying to thaw the credit freeze and urged Americans to be patient with his administration’s efforts.

   “The federal government has responded to this crisis with systematic and aggressive measures to protect the financial security of the American people,” Bush said in a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. “… It took a while for the credit system to freeze up; it will take a while for the credit system to thaw.”

   Bush went on to blame Bill Clinton for his and the economy’s problems saying “the roots of the crisis go back ‘more than a decade'”. Actually, many of the problems go back to August 1987, when Alan Greenspan became the 13th Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

   Yesterday, the NY Times reported that the Banks are likely to hold tight to the bailout money. “Since mid-2007, when the credit crisis erupted, the country’s nine largest banks have written down the value of their troubled assets by a combined $323 billion.”

   For every dollar the banks earned during the industry’s most prosperous years, they have now wiped out $1.06.

   Even with the capital from the government, analysts say, the banking industry still needs to raise around $275 billion in light of the looming losses…

   Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. is urging them to use their new capital soon. On Monday, Mr. Paulson unveiled plans to provide $125 billion to nine banks on terms that were more favorable than they would have received in the marketplace. The government, however, has offered no written requirements about how or when the banks must use the money.

   “There is no express statutory requirement that says you must make this amount of loans,” said John C. Dugan, the comptroller of the currency. “But the economics work so that it is in their interest to do so.”

   Marketplace, on public radio, reported that all this Unused cash piling up at the Fed. The banks are not lending and hundreds of billions of dollars in cash are now at the Federal Reserve. The reserve balances “have hit historic highs in the past few weeks” and have “gotten even bigger” from the bailout.

   Now $265 billion are in now at the Fed in reserve accounts and the Fed is paying interest on those deposits. So much for thawing the credit markets.

2. Setting the stage for the next two years at the United Nations, the NY Times reports Three nations win security council seats.

   Turkey, Austria and Japan won nonpermanent seats on the United Nations Security Council on Friday, defeating Iceland and Iran in elections in the General Assembly…

   They join Uganda, for Africa, and Mexico in taking up the five rotating seats on the 15-seat Security Council for the 2009 and 2010 sessions.

Four at Four continues with the Iranian revolution and Obama’s gray hair.