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obama_state_of_the_union

It’s time for an honest tax debate

by Nina Easton, CNN Money, January 25th 2012 – In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama reiterated his vision for a tax code in which the wealthy — “people like me and an awful lot of members of Congress” — pay their fair share. It’s a conversation worth engaging: In this read more

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The Buffett Ruse

by The Wall Street Journal, January 26th 2012 – Remember the moment in 2008 when Charlie Gibson of ABC News asked Senator Barack Obama why he would support raising the capital gains tax even though “revenues from the tax increased” when the rate fell? Mr. Obama’s famous reply: “I would look at raising the capital read more

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Fed Signals That a Full Recovery Is Years Away

by Binyamin Applebaum, The New York Times, January 25th 2012 – WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve, declaring that the economy would need help for years to come, said Wednesday it would extend by 18 months the period that it plans to hold down interest rates in an effort to spur growth. The Fed said that read more

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Capriles Radonski and the New Venezuelan Opposition

by Michael Penfold, Foreign Affairs, January 26th 2012 – In October, Venezuelans will head to the polls for the fourth presidential vote since Hugo Chávez took power in 1999. With the announcement earlier this week by Leopoldo Lopez that he is ending his candidacy and throwing his support to Henrique Capriles Radonski, the young and read more

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The Coming U.S.-India Train Wreck

by Richard Fontaine, The Diplomat, January 25th 2012 – Iran is the crisis of the hour in Washington, and for the first time in recent memory talk now routinely turns to military action. In an effort to forestall Tehran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon, the United States has launched a worldwide effort to limit Iran’s read more

Former Taliban militants attend a surrender ceremony in the Afghanistan city of Herat.

The Afghan divide

by Sarah Chayes, Los Angeles Times, January 25th 2012 – How should we measure success in Afghanistan? It’s a crucial question, but there isn’t much agreement on an answer. In mid-January, this newspaper ran a story on the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan, a classified assessment drafted by analysts at more than a dozen read more

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A Europe-Iran War

by Mark A. Heller, The New York Times, January 25th 2012 – TEL AVIV — This week, the European Union went to war against Iran. There was no formal declaration, of course, nor even any undeclared use of military force. But the E.U. decision to place an embargo on Iranian oil imports, ban new contracts, read more

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Ben Bernanke smiles in the face of critics

by Dana Millbank, The Washington Post, January 25th 2012 – They likened him to a traitor. They hinted darkly that he might suffer violence because of his actions in office. They said they wanted him fired. But when Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke was invited to respond to the Republican presidential candidates who have made read more

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Thunderdome Election Result of Rhetoric Not Ideology

by Ezra Klein, Bloomberg, January 25th 2012 – To listen to the candidates, the 2012 election is an epochal clash between irreconcilable worldviews. It is the Alliance against the Empire, the elves versus the orcs, the forces of capitalism battling the forces of compassion. They’re right about one thing: The 2012 election matters. A lot. read more

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Obama’s State of the Union rallies his troops

by Bill Schneider, Politico, January 25th 2012 – A speech about fairness is bound to be divisive. Mitt Romney figured that out. In a “prebuttal” delivered hours before President Barack Obama’s spoke on Tuesday night, Romney said, “It is shameful for a president to use the State of the Union to divide our nation.” There read more

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