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Is the scowling really necessary?
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson should really get a handle on his public image. While he has been seen laughing and smiling in public on a few occasions, this picture in the Wall Street Journal with the permanent scowl just sends the wrong message to readers.
Then again, maybe he figures that Chinese government officials read the WSJ too and they might need a little convincing to get their currency to move.
This no less frightening picture is still up over at the Treasury Department ... yikes!
According to this report($) about the just concluded G7 meeting held in Washington, little progress is being made on the U.S.-China debate over currency exchange rates.The G-7 officials also reiterated their longtime call for China to allow its currency to rise against other currencies; Western manufacturers complain that Beijing keeps the yuan artificially weak against the dollar and the euro, giving Chinese companies a price edge over their competitors. "Greater exchange-rate flexibility and stronger domestic demand in China are critical parts of rebalancing, and it is crucial that China move now with greater urgency," Mr. Paulson said.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is like a broken record that's been playing for the last five years. It looks like Senator Chuck Schumer (Dem. - NY) is otherwise occupied these days with the subprime bailout, or he would probably be waving his 27.5 percent tariff legislation around again.
It appears that New Yorkers losing their homes has taken precedence over New Yorkers losing their jobs.
7 comments:
I wager the US can't make any of its new whiz-bang military technology work, from here on out. Not before siezing up in bankruptcy. The whole contracting complex is now too inept and stupid to pull it off, from years of erosion of the math & science education base, and excessive debt-funded spending with no accountability. Even if we had the line workers, the managers would prevent anything from getting done.
This post reminds me of your commentary on Max Sawicky's pic back in Oct. '05 (Ten Econobloggers Blogging).
Funny stuff.
Yeah, I hope Hank doesn't know where I live.
Actually in July of 2006, an American-made SM-2ER Standard missile, fired from the AEGIS-equipped USS. Shiloh, shot down a suborbital ballistic warhead in a test at the Pacific Missile Range. In three similar tests, missiles shot from barges off the coast of Guam were intercepted by
THAADS and EKV systems shot from Vandenburg AFB Test Center. All of these systems use American technology and American components. In late 2007, our European NATO partners will unveil their own contribution to the missile defense shield, which will be compatible with our current SPY-1D and APR-5600 Phased-Array radar systems. All of our systems now have a proven track record, after a seemingly spotty start in 2000, and are being constantly updated to adjust for a changing threat environment. Our current naval rocket, the SM-2ER, is resistant to electronic jamming and can maneuver in exo-atmospheric flight, enabling it to intercepot even the "smart" warheads that Russia claims to have developed. These systems also allow for three seperate threat envelopes: boost-phase transition, orbital phase, and reentry phase. In short, we're going to have a very reliable system when it finally is completely on-line.
From all reports, Iran is at least 8 years away from a bomb. IF that was their goal.
1. it's more than possible Iran would like an energy replacement as the oil age winds down.
2. i'm not sure it's our responsibility to prevent them from acquiring nukes, even if it was their goal.
Of course, the true agenda of our Middle East policy over the past 50 years is to maintain and encourage chaos. That keeps the oil flowing and the countries never learn how to do anything with all their wealth.
Marginalized and exploited.
Crazy Iranians with a nuke? Now, that's scary! It would seem a very worthwhile mission to deny those dummies anything close to it. They'd actually use it! Just consider the Iranian leadership has publically announced that it wants to eliminate Israel. Morons. The resulting fallout, due to the jet stream, would rain down on Tehran and all places east. Nobody wants to see an exchange of these terrible weapons, but we must consider the implications if we allow them to go forward. The invasion of Iraq was a stupid idea from the beginning with virtually no idea of measurable objectives and no consideration of potential long term consequences. Heck, this stupid administration didn't even force their hand into allowing American oil companies to acquire oil concessions after more than 3,000 brave souls gave their lives for those ungrateful people. Let them have their kings, dictators, ayatollahs and guys wearing funny hats and clothes. Bring our people home.
Although a lot of our time is wasted on paperwork & satisfying stupid gov. requirements in the defense contracting world, there are still many bright people in the industry. The more worrisome trend is that companies seem unwilling to replace the actual people doing the number crunching & analysis with young engineers, they prefer to put them into jobs pushing paper. Makes you wonder about the long term industry health once the older generation retires. There will be a lot of time spent relearning things.
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