Tag Archives: IMF

What the President Can Learn From Ukraine

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Ukrainian army personnel dispatched to reclaim a city from pro-Russian forces decided instead to defect to the Russian side. [Credit: AFP/Getty]

Ukrain­ian army per­son­nel dis­patched to reclaim a city from pro-Russ­ian forces report­ed­ly defect­ed to the pro-Russ­ian side. Last night’s ten­ta­tive agree­ment will put an inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tion — includ­ing Russ­ian, Amer­i­can and Euro­pean mon­i­tors — at the lead in return­ing the cities to Kiev’s con­trol. [Cred­it: AFP/Getty]

Ear­li­er this week, four armored troop car­ri­ers head­ed toward the east­ern Ukraine city of Slo­vian­sk, which had been occu­pied by pro-Russ­ian forces.  The para­troop­ers from Ukraine’s 25th brigade were dis­patched by the gov­ern­ment in Kiev to spear­head its “anti-ter­ror­ist” offen­sive, designed to reclaim the city for the cen­tral gov­ern­ment.  But after talk­ing with the demon­stra­tors who met them out­side the city, the troops report­ed­ly defect­ed to the pro-Russ­ian side, replaced the Ukraine flag with a Russ­ian one, and drove their vehi­cle into Lenin Square.

Short­ly after Rus­sia invad­ed Crimea, Sec­re­tary of State John Ker­ry said, “The peo­ple of Ukraine will not sit still for this.  They know how to fight.”

Evi­dent­ly not. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Next Ukraine Crisis

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Pro-Russian Crimeans celebrate referendum results. Putin won this round of the Ukraine crisis. How should the West prepare for the next one? [Credit: China Daily]

Pro-Russ­ian Crimeans cel­e­brate ref­er­en­dum results. Putin won this round of the Ukraine cri­sis. How should the West pre­pare for the next one? [Cred­it: Chi­na Daily]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma and his Admin­is­tra­tion have been pro­claim­ing for weeks that the Rus­sians would suf­fer if they didn’t with­draw from Crimea.

They haven’t with­drawn.  They’re not suf­fer­ing.  Now what?

Vladimir Putin seems once again to have pre­vailed, annex­ing Crimea with­out mil­i­tary or eco­nom­ic reprisals of con­se­quence.  Our government’s veiled threats of mil­i­tary action and explic­it warn­ings of deep eco­nom­ic pain have thus far proven emp­ty, though both the US and Europe are expect­ed to add to the list of Rus­sians on whom it will impose trav­el and finan­cial restric­tions. The cri­sis may soon wind down, but we can expect anoth­er in a few months when new elec­tions are to be held and bills come due for a Kiev gov­ern­ment on the edge of bank­rupt­cy.  The Admin­is­tra­tion should han­dle this next cri­sis differently.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Ukraine Economic Woes Could Hold Key To Peace

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Uniformed troops believed to be Russian stand guard outside a Ukrainian military base in Crimea. Is there a peaceful resolution to this crisis? [Credit: Business Insider]

Uni­formed troops believed to be Russ­ian stand guard out­side a Ukrain­ian mil­i­tary base in Crimea. Is there a peace­ful res­o­lu­tion to this cri­sis? [Cred­it: Busi­ness Insider]

Ukraine’s inter­im gov­ern­ment, whose part the Admin­is­tra­tion has tak­en in the Crimea cri­sis, includes a promi­nent polit­i­cal leader who has in the past urged his coun­try­men to fight the “Mus­covite-Jew­ish mafia” and called on his gov­ern­ment to halt the “crim­i­nal activ­i­ties” of “orga­nized Jewry.”

The author of this calum­ny, Oleh Tyah­ny­bok, is a leader of Ukraine’s Svo­bo­da (“free­dom”) par­ty, who in Decem­ber 2012 was named Per­son of the Year by read­ers of the coun­try’s lead­ing news mag­a­zine, Kor­re­spon­dent.

Such are the com­plex­i­ties that lurk not far beneath the sur­face in the ongo­ing cri­sis over Russia’s incur­sion into Crimea. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

On Ukraine, President Obama Should Heed Merkel

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Russia has seized control of Crimea, the southernmost portion of Ukraine. Resolving the crisis peacefully requires adult leadership. [Credit: Washington Post]

Rus­sia has seized con­trol of Crimea, the south­ern­most por­tion of Ukraine. Resolv­ing the cri­sis peace­ful­ly requires adult lead­er­ship. [Cred­it: Wash­ing­ton Post]

In deal­ing with the Russ­ian incur­sion into Ukraine, Pres­i­dent Oba­ma will hear no bet­ter advice than this: lis­ten to Angela Merkel.

A week ago, it appeared that Ukraine would prove an embar­rass­ment for Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin. Demon­stra­tors in Kiev demand­ed the res­ig­na­tion of the country’s Russ­ian-backed Pres­i­dent, Vik­tor Yanukovych, reject­ing a ten­ta­tive set­tle­ment with protest lead­ers that would have allowed him to retain pow­er tem­porar­i­ly. Yanukovych fled to Rus­sia and a tran­si­tion gov­ern­ment was formed in Kiev, which prompt­ly charged him with mass mur­der. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Could A Wealth Tax Solve the Problem of Government Debt?

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A recent IMF report suggests that this man's enormous wealth might help resolve the government's debt problem. [Credit: NY Post]

A recent IMF report sug­gests that this man’s enor­mous wealth might help resolve the gov­ern­men­t’s debt prob­lem. [Cred­it: NY Post]

The Inter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund (IMF) recent­ly report­ed that Euro­pean gov­ern­ments could reduce their debt back to pre-Great Reces­sion lev­els by con­fis­cat­ing 10 per­cent of the wealth held by their rich­est cit­i­zens. IMF isn’t rec­om­mend­ing that, of course.

They’re just sayin’. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

How’s That Cyprus “Bail-In” Working Out?

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The Cyprus "bail-in" is no more popular today than when it was hatched last spring. [Credit: CNNMoney.com]

The Cyprus “bail-in” is no more pop­u­lar today than when it was hatched last spring. [Cred­it: CNNMoney.com]

You may remem­ber Cyprus, the Mediter­ranean island that grabbed inter­na­tion­al head­lines last March when its gov­ern­ment was com­pelled by Euro­pean author­i­ties to seize mon­ey that indi­vid­u­als and busi­ness­es had deposit­ed in the country’s two largest banks.

The “bail-in” of Cypri­ot banks, so called because it requires peo­ple who have deposit­ed their mon­ey in fail­ing banks to help save those banks by for­feit­ing some of their deposits, is a por­tent of bank res­cues to come.  Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Egypt: It’s Not About Democracy

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Protesters crowded Tahrir Square in Cairo earlier this month to call for their President's ouster. The military obliged them. [Credit: Washington Times]

Pro­test­ers crowd­ed Tahrir Square in Cairo ear­li­er this month to call for their Pres­i­den­t’s ouster. The mil­i­tary oblig­ed them.  Is that the tri­umph of democ­ra­cy or just a mil­i­tary coup?  [Cred­it: Wash­ing­ton Times]

The Oba­ma pres­i­den­cy, now well into its fifth year, seems as flum­moxed by glob­al devel­op­ments as it did in its first. Egypt pro­vides the most recent exam­ple. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Cyprus: Euro Saved! But things are not so good for Cypriots who saved euros

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CyprusDid you cash a check today?  Or with­draw mon­ey from your sav­ings account?  Or use your deb­it card to buy a sand­wich?  If so, many Cypri­ots wish they were you. Con­tin­ue read­ing →