Italy fury at ‘Taliban pay’ claim.

In the article the speak about the fact that there is told that the Italian government paid the Taliban to let survive their soldiers in a area that they took over. This claim is published in an UK newspaper report. The fact that the people think these claims is because the French soldiers have taken over this area now and from on that moment there are already killed 10 French soldiers and 21 injured in a mountain ambush. In the previous year there was only one soldier that was killed.

The Italian government really couldn’t laugh with this claims and said that there was nothing true about it.
I think that it is a stupid idea that a government would pay for let their soldiers live. If there is war in an area than you fight for peace, you don’t go over there for paying the opposition (the fighters of the Taliban) to let yourself live than it is better that you stay at home. I think that it has something to do with the fact that the Italians are more liked than the French soldiers. Why wouldn’t they kill an Italian and kill a French? The French had maybe did something wrong. Otherwise they wouldn’t say that they believe in the fact that the Italian government is honest and don’t pay bribes.
I think that the French government knows why their soldiers are killed. It is true that they say if there is somebody who pays money to the Taliban than it is the Afghan government themselves. It would be stupid from a country to pay for peace. You can’t get peace by paying for it. Or the Italian soldiers had just being lucky that the Taliban never found their camp and never attacked them. In my opinion these claims aren’t true and are garbage like the Italian Defence Minister Herve Morin told.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8309464.stm

How come Wall Street is minting money in this crisis?

While most people fear of losing their jobs due to the tough economic times, the banks are making boatloads of money. The only reason for this is because of the intervention of the united states government. As the biggest banks of America were seen as too big to fail, the government quickly aided the struggling banks with a stimulus plan. But now these big banks are profiting from the bad economic situation. Instead of giving more loans and decreasing their other high risk activities they are doing the exact opposite. With an all time low interest rate, the banks are able to lend money at no cost and investing it in high risk areas like stocks or bonds. The competition was also thinned down since last year which makes them able to lend money at even higher interest rates. The stimulus money from the government was to save the banks but with the expectation that they would get smaller and focus more on the traditional actions like lending money.

I think that the stimulus plan of the government was good and absolutely necessaries. This doesn’t mean I agree with the current actions of the banks. Although they are saying they want more regulations, it just seems that it’s business as usual. They totally ignore the working people and only focus on making the most money. The government should have had a lot more conditions for the stimulus plan and enforce those conditions.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/business/economy/17wall.html?ref=politics

Senate panel passes health bill

The new president Barack Obama has achieved another item. In his campaign for president elections he promised to do something about the US healthcare and recently the government panel has approved a bill to reform the US healthcare. The outcome of the vote was 14 in favor and 9 against.

Creating more insurance for Americans and cutting some health costs are 2 mean reasons why the senate has approved the health bill. But there are also some negative reactions, some people of the committee believe that the panel bill is making more government control.

There is still a long way to go for a better healthcare in America. But with the approval of this health bill, it looks like president Obama has achieved more then president Clinton in 1990. Because his attempts to create a better healthcare never got beyond the committees.

But not everybody is happy with this new measure. The lawmakers are divided about the public option. Because some studies showed that the costs could be higher than expected.

In my view, I think that the approval of the health bill is a great step forward in the healthcare of America. A lot of people in America aren’t insured because they don’t earn a lot of money. When an uninsured person gets ill or had an accident they have to pay the total sum of the hospital bill. A lot of people cannot pay this, so they don’t receive medical care. I don’t think this is acceptable in a modern country like America.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8304375.stm

Date: 13/09/2009

Climate protectionism on the rise

One of the biggest dangerous in the form of trade and technology protectionism is damaging the North-South relations and this leads to a climate change. The United States is taking measures, such as imposing tariffs, taxes or charges on products of developing countries to protect their own products.

The Us government just passed a bill against technology transfer to adopt and protect themselves against foreign competition on the technology market. Other countries start to follow them and are also taking measures including countervailing border measures, against goods and services imported from developing countries on grounds of protection and stabilization of climate.

The developing countries are starting to oppose these moves, because they think is not fair. Developing countries claim that linking trade measures to climate and the environment are unjust because they have lower technological capacity and thus cannot match the developed countries. Developing countries should instead be assisted through technology transfer
I think all measurements should be lifted because it doesn’t help the world economy. In the contrary, it stops the recovery of the world economy. We live in a world of understanding and helping each other and this proves the opposite. These measurement undermine the free economy. That’s why I’m against protectionism.

Source: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/KJ10Dj01.html

Interest rates 'to stay low for years'

The British government has decided to allow the interests rates to be very low to help the weakened economy. Also other instruments will be used to aid both individuals as companies in these difficult economic times. Most likely through tax rises and spending cuts to deal with the country’s deficit. The report forecasts that if the Conservatives win the elections, they want to receive £20 billion in taxes and save £80 billion by reductions. Only tricky thing about possible tax rises is the next year general election that can easily damage every political party that supports getting more money out of the tax payer’s wallet.

I think it’s the moral duty of the government to use all political/financial ways and means at their disposal to boost the economy. Tax rises will most likely harm every citizen in its material welfare but a government can’t just wait till this crisis is over. It’s better to act quickly and accurate with a relative high cost then wait and bear the even higher costs in the near future.
Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/12/interest-rates-to-stay-low-cebr

Team Blog: Obama links job growth to health proposal

President Obama has one goal and that’s to make the economy stable again. He believes that he can do that with his health plan. This plan would create new jobs and less employment.
He believes if aspiring entrepreneurs can stay insured while switching jobs, they will start new businesses and hire workers. This is de main goal because it creates new jobs and makes the economy grow. It’s also really necessary that it happens fast because 15.1 million people are already now out of work.
The big problem today is that many people have a good idea, but they don’t have the expertise and determination to build it into a thriving business. They also don’t have the courage because they can't afford to lose the health insurance they have at their current job.
The plan of Obama is build on the fact that everybody should have a health insurance and who can’t afford one , should get help of the government.
We don’t believe in the plan because the people of the United States also don’t believe in the plan. The Cities and States have not been able to meet their budgets due in part by the number of unemployed, obviously to most common sense people: no job, no buying of products and/or paying of taxes! They lobby to much instead of making a really good plan.

Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/03/obama-links-job-growth-health-care-proposal/comments/?cpage=1

Team blog