Tag Archives: Chuck Schumer

The Iran Nuclear Deal and the Price of Raising False Hopes

Posted on by

US Secretary of State John Kerry shares a moment with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammed Javad Zarif, after concluding an agreement for relaxed sanctions and renewed talks. [Credit: BBC]

US Sec­re­tary of State John Ker­ry shares a moment with his Iran­ian coun­ter­part, Mohammed Javad Zarif, after con­clud­ing an agree­ment for relaxed sanc­tions and renewed talks. [Cred­it: BBC]

Iran, World Pow­ers Reach His­toric Nuclear Deal. – Wash­ing­ton Post 

“What was agreed last night in Gene­va is not a his­toric agree­ment, it is a his­toric mis­take.” — Israeli Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu

The irre­sistible ten­den­cy of gov­ern­ment to over­sell its achieve­ments was on dis­play in this past weekend’s announce­ments of an agree­ment between Iran and the so-called G5+1 – the five per­ma­nent mem­bers of the UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil and Germany.

News out­lets the world over her­ald­ed the Iran nuclear deal as “his­toric.”  Its crit­ics called it his­toric fol­ly.  Review­ing the agree­ment, it appears that both sides are exag­ger­at­ing. It nei­ther sets back Iran’s capac­i­ty to devel­op nuclear weapons nor facil­i­tates their devel­op­ment. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

How TARP Begat Obamacare

Posted on by

Wall Street titans successfully lobbied Congress for TARP in 2008. Their success made Obamacare possible. [Credit: UPI]

Wall Street titans suc­cess­ful­ly lob­bied Con­gress for TARP in 2008. Their suc­cess made Oba­macare pos­si­ble. [Cred­it: UPI]

Oba­macare goes live on Octo­ber 1, when new­ly-cre­at­ed gov­ern­ment exchanges are to begin sell­ing health insur­ance and enrolling peo­ple in Med­ic­aid. The date car­ries an eerie sig­nif­i­cance. Octo­ber 1 also is the fifth anniver­sary of the Sen­ate vote that made Oba­macare pos­si­ble: a 74–25 vote to cre­ate the Trou­bled Asset Relief Pro­gram, the $700 bil­lion Wall Street bailout bill, more com­mon­ly known as TARP. Con­tin­ue read­ing →