Obama
President Barack Obama Arrives in Europe
StoriesObama arrives in London, first leg of Europe trip
LONDON – President Barack Obama embarked on his Europe trip Tuesday, with a hefty economic and national security agenda for his first journey across the Atlantic since taking office two months ago. The president and first lady Michelle Obama arrived in London Tuesday night local time. First up for the president was a summit of the world’s economic powers to address the global financial meltdown.
Obama planned to meet with leaders of Britain, Russia and China — major players in the U.S. financial system. He also scheduled meetings with leaders of India and South Korea while in London.
During his eight-day, five-country trip, Obama is scheduled to meet with European leaders who split with the United States over the war in Iraq and the treatment of suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, under President George W. Bush.
He also will participate in a NATO summit marking the 60 years since the alliance was founded to blunt Soviet aggression in Europe.
Obama plans to attend international summits on urgent topics, including the downward-spiraling fight against terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He also will make his first stop in a Muslim nation, Turkey.
Wildly popular around the globe but relatively inexperienced in foreign affairs, Obama and the first lady also will squeeze in a Buckingham Palace audience with Queen Elizabeth II. He will deliver a speech in France on the trans-Atlantic relationship and an address in Prague on weapons proliferation. And he will host a round-table session with students in Turkey.
Mos Def, Salman Rushdie and Chris Hitchens on RealTime with Bill Maher
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Bill Maher's Real Time | March 27, 2009
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Barack Obama. Global Financial Crisis, E.U., Emerging Markets, France, G-20, IMF, Iran, NATO, Prague, Robert Gibbs, Russia, Strasbourg, UKObama Will Face a Defiant World on Foreign Visit
WASHINGTON — President Obama is facing challenges to American power on multiple fronts as he prepares for his first trip overseas since taking office, with the nation’s economic woes emboldening allies and adversaries alike.
Despite his immense popularity around the world, Mr. Obama will confront resentment over American-style capitalism and resistance to his economic prescriptions when he lands in London on Tuesday for the Group of 20 summit meeting of industrial and emerging market nations plus the European Union.
The president will not even try to overcome NATO’s unwillingness to provide more troops in Afghanistan when he goes on later in the week to meet with the military alliance.
He seems unlikely to return home with any more to show for his attempts to open a dialogue with Iran’s leaders, who have, so far, responded with tough words, albeit not tough enough to persuade Russia to support the United States in tougher sanctions against Tehran. And he will be tested in face-to-face meetings by the leaders of China and Russia, who have been pondering the degree to which the power of the United States to dominate global affairs may be ebbing.
Mr. Obama is unlikely to push for specific commitments from other countries on stimulus spending to bolster their own economies, White House officials acknowledged Saturday in a teleconference call, despite the fact that administration officials would like to see European countries, in particular, increase their spending to try to prompt a global economic recovery.
“Nobody is asking any country to come to London to commit to do more right now,” said Michael Froman, deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs. Instead, world leaders at the meeting will try to “do whatever is necessary to restore global growth,” Mr. Froman said.
The challenges stem in part from lingering unhappiness around the world at the way the Bush administration used American power. But they have been made more intense by the sense in many capitals that the United States is no longer in any position to dictate to other nations what types of economic policies to pursue — or to impose its will more generally as it intensifies the war in Afghanistan and extracts itself from Iraq.
“There is a direct challenge under way to the paradigms that America has been trying to sell to the rest of the world,” said Eswar S. Prasad, a former China division chief at the International Monetary Fund. The American banking collapse, which precipitated the global meltdown, has led to a fundamental rethinking of the American way as a model for the rest of the world. Yet even as his presence stirs opposition to particular American policies, Mr. Obama is being welcomed by many Europeans as an embodiment of American ideals.
In Prague, where Mr. Obama will stop later in the week, local officials are installing a hot line for residents to find out about street closings. In Strasbourg, France, site of a NATO meeting, protesters are planning an “international resistance camp” with antiwar actions designed to press Mr. Obama to get American troops out of Afghanistan. In Istanbul, his last stop, workers are polishing up the Hagia Sophia basilica-cum-mosque-cum-museum for the expected visit.
“The rest of the world is yearning for him,” said Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard economist. “On the one hand, they’ll all be criticizing him, and criticizing the American model. But they all want to hear that he does have a miracle to deliver.”
The quandary has left senior advisers to Mr. Obama scrambling to come up with a way for him to project both American power and the new cooperative international model that his aides have been promising.
Mr. Obama will try to show confidence that his stimulus and economic program will work, administration officials said, while conceding that it may take time. He will say that he has put all the pieces in place to fix the American economy, while acknowledging that in a global system nations cannot put up walls to protect their individual economies.
Robert D. Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International, said the president “must demonstrate to the world that he understands that it’s not just about saving ourselves.”
And Mr. Obama must try to do all of that in the middle of a global recession for which most of the world blames the United States. “The U.S. brand name has clearly suffered from this crisis, and the rest of the world is no longer willing to sit quietly and be lectured by the United States on how they should conduct economic policy,” Mr. Rogoff said.
A senior Obama administration official acknowledged that it would be harder for Mr. Obama to exhort other countries to adopt the American model. But Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said Saturday in the conference call that Mr. Obama “is going to listen in London, as well as to lead.”
“Many of the things we’ve done in the past week demonstrate that America is leading by example,” he said.
In the past, American officials traveled to India, Brazil, China and South Africa and lectured government officials on the need for open markets, free trade and deregulation. But now some of those very policies — particularly deregulation — are viewed as the culprits for the recent economic collapse.
“Emerging markets now think they can do what they want without hectoring from the United States,” said Mr. merging Markets, Prasad, the former monetary fund official.
Compounding the problem for Mr. Obama is that the route that he has chosen to lead the United States out of the mess — heavy government spending — is not available to many other countries. European governments, for instance, are far more lukewarm about enormous stimulus programs because they already have strong social safety nets, and more fears of inflation, than does the United States.
So when Mr. Obama meets with other world leaders in London, he will be confronting a philosophical divide, with the United States on the defensive not just on economic issues like trade and financial regulation but also on a variety of national security and diplomatic matters.
After he leaves London, Mr. Obama will go to the French-German border for a NATO meeting at a time when European governments, under pressure from their populations, are looking for the exit doors in Afghanistan even as the United States sends more troops and money.
Administration officials had initially said they hoped to get more troop contributions at the NATO meeting; now they do not even talk about securing more troops from the Europeans, in a tacit acknowledgment that the forces will not be coming.
“I hope that Afghanistan will not be Obama’s war, because it should be owned by all of us,” said NATO’s secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
But there are already twice as many American troops as NATO troops in Afghanistan, and “Europe will never be able to match the numbers of the Americans in Afghanistan,” Mr. de Hoop Scheffer said. The NATO summit meeting, he said, “will not be about troop contributions.”
In Prague, Mr. Obama will confront an Eastern Europe nervous about Russian attempts to reassert itself in an area that Moscow views as its backyard. Mr. Obama has taken pains to reassure Russia that his administration will tread carefully regarding Bush administration plans to locate a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Yet in placating Russia, Mr. Obama has raised hackles in Poland, where officials seek closer ties to the United States.
George Soros Calls G20: "Make or Break"
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Billionaire investor Gorge Soros has said the G20 summit will be a “make or break” event for the world’s economy.
In a BBC interview, Mr Soros said the international financial system had collapsed because it was flawed and it had to be restructured.
Mr Soros say it may be the last chance to prevent a full-scale depression.
He said the G20 meeting had to come up with concrete solutions to help the developing world in particular, which had been been worst hit.
‘Depression’
Mr Soros warned that any attempt to pull economies out of recession had to be done co-operatively.
He said: “The G20 meeting is make or break because unless they do something for developing world there will be serious collapse in that part of the world.
“I’m using phrase depression because unless we take the right measures we’re liable to end up there.
If countries start doing it [engineering a new financial world order] bilaterally instead of multilaterally, the system will fall apart and we’ll end up in depression.”
He also said the rebuilding meant the previous economic system had to be scrapped.
“ The International financial system has collapsed and cannot be restored in its current form ”
George Soros
George Soros
“I don’t think we’ll ever be back to where we came from. It should be recognised that the last 25 years were an aberration and we cannot go back there. We have to reconstruct the financial system from its foundations up.”
Mr Soros said regulators and the financial sector shared the blame for the meltdown, as they “participated in this crazy boom built on false premises on the belief that markets are self-regulating and should be left alone”.
Mr Soros also warned the UK economy was in a deep recession “which is going to be a lasting one”.
He added: “The International financial system has collapsed and cannot be restored in its current form. It will have to be restructured because it was flawed and collapsed under its own weight.”
In May last year, Mr Soros was interviewed by the BBC’s business editor Robert Peston and said he was worried about the US and UK’s ability to deal with the downturn because of their reliance on credit.
Mr Soros urged wealthy nations to give their allocations of the IMF’s internal currency, called Special Drawing Rights, to poorer ones because developing countries were not in a position to bail out their own failing banks.
George Soros famously made his name – and $1bn – when he bet that sterling would have to withdraw from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992. He’s also said to have accurately predicted and profited from the Asian financial crisis in 1997.
The 78-year-old Hungarian is one of the largest aid donors in Africa, having donated around $6bn to his favourite causes.
C'Mon, C'Mon Listen To The Money Talk
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The Federal Government’s flood of red ink hit another high-water mark as the Treasury Department quietly reported today that the National Debt hit $11-trillion for the first time ever.
To be exact, the Debt now stands at $11,033,157,578,669.78. Divide it by the U.S. population and it comes up to over $36,000 in debt for every man, woman and child among us.
And the government is running up mountains of debt with increasing speed. It took just over 5 ½ months for Uncle Sam to go another trillion dollars deeper in debt since hitting $10-trillion last September 30th. It’s the fastest jump in U.S. history.
The hundreds of billions of dollars being spent as part of the federal bailout of the financial markets is a leading factor in the rapid increase. Over $400-billion in debt has been accrued in the 57 days since President Obama took office.
And the federal budget he unveiled last month projects even faster increases in the National Debt. It’ll hit $12.7-trillion by the end of the fiscal year on September 30th. The Administration’s four year estimate shows that by the end of September 2012, the Debt will have soared to $16.2-trillion – which amounts to nearly 100% of the projected Gross Domestic Product that year.
The U.S. is running up so much debt so quickly, some investors are worried. Over the weekend, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who says his country has about a trillion dollars invested in U.S. Treasury notes, said he wanted a guarantee.
President Obama said Wen’s got nothing to worry about.
“Not just the Chinese government, but every investor, can have absolute confidence in the soundness of investments in the United States,” he said on Saturday.
That’s because the U.S. government’s power to tax stands behind all of its debt. If Uncle Sam ever needs a bailout, then as now, taxpayers get nailed.
It took the U.S. government 191 years – from 1791 until 1982 – to run up its first trillion dollars in debt. The second and third trillions got on the scoreboard much more quickly – each in just four years.
By the time George W. Bush was inaugurated in 2001, the National Debt stood at $5.7-trillion. He ran up more debt faster than nearly all of his predecessors combined: just under $4.9-trillion.
The National Debt stood at $10.6-trillon on the day Barack Obama took office. But if his budget projections are accurate, he’ll run up nearly as much government debt in four years as President Bush did in eight.
Former AIG Head Hank Greenberg on CNBC With Maria Bartiromo
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Stories“Yes We Can”
The Associated Press
NEW YORK–
In any normal year, it would be impossible to discern a coherent theme from a year of American pop culture, try as we journalists might. This year was different.
The presidential campaign seeped into our culture everywhere it could: into our music, our television, our street art, our Internet habits. And it was a symbiotic relationship, for pop culture seeped back into our politics, too. Remember the bizarre moment Paris Hilton and Britney Spears became part of the campaign, courtesy of a John McCain ad likening Barack Obama to a vapid Hollywood celebrity?
Or try this: Tina Fey and Sarah Palin, walking by each other at a fake news conference on “Saturday Night Live,” indistinguishable from each other in matching red blazers and Palin hairdos. Even Fey’s toddler daughter had trouble telling them apart that night.
Now Palin’s back in Alaska, Fey’s back on “30 Rock” and, oh yes, Obama’s on his way to the White House. But they weren’t the only big names in the 2008 pop culture firmament. A chronological journey back:
JANUARY
How can we begin without BRITNEY SPEARS still, amazingly, the most-searched term on Yahoo. A few days into 2008, she melts down spectacularly, ending up in a hospital after locking herself in a room with her young son. We don’t need Dr. Phil to tell us this girl needs help, though he does. Celeb magazines freely diagnose her as bipolar. (But more on Britney later.)
In politics, HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON has her first real pop-culture moment of the year when she chokes up talking to voters in a New Hampshire diner, a scene to be replayed endlessly on YouTube.
And true tragedy strikes when actor HEATH LEDGER dies of an accidental prescription drug overdose in a New York apartment, cutting short a brilliant career.
FEBRUARY
The Obama slogan “Yes We Can” ricochets across the Web in rapper and songwriter WILL.I.AM’s viral video hit, starring a host of celebrities. It’s not the only good news for Obama: His campaign raises a staggering $55 million this month, a success attributed to small donations gathered on the Internet.
And “SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE” spoofs the media’s fondness for Obama later, Clinton will refer to the skit in a real debate.
HOLLYWOOD WRITERS, meanwhile, end their 100-day strike. Days later, the OSCARS air to dismal ratings.
MARCH
Politics continues to enthrall, and this time it’s New York Gov. ELIOT SPITZER who’s on everyone’s mind. The most striking visual: the ashen-faced misery of his wife, Silda, standing next to him at the podium as he resigns over a prostitution scandal. The blogosphere and the airwaves buzz with the question: Why did she stand by him? Would you?
Obama may be the Internet candidate, but here’s an Internet sensation he’d prefer disappear: video of his former pastor JEREMIAH WRIGHT, making incendiary comments that will give Obama a major political headache.
APRIL
MILEY CYRUS is a genuine superstar at age 15, a role model to countless girls. So what’s the problem? A few pesky photos shot by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair. They show the Disney princess, aka Hannah Montana of course, in a come-hither pose, with a bare back and shoulders. A rare bump in the road for this teen phenom.
In one of his many pop-culture moments, OBAMA displays true hip-hop cred, channeling Jay-Z with a “Dirt Off Your Shoulders” reference at a North Carolina rally. Mashups spread across the Web.
MAY
After four years and endless buildup, the “SEX AND THE CITY” gals return in a feature-length film. Will Carrie find happiness with Mr. Big? Yes, but even happier are the producers, after a $55.7 million opening weekend unprecedented for a chick flick. And this IS a chick flick. Men flock to root canal appointments.
HARRISON FORD returns as Indiana Jones at age 65! We doubt Hollywood would be so kind to a 65-year-old actress. And speaking of older women, they’re said to be behind the “American Idol” victory of 25-year-old DAVID COOK, who beats the baby-faced 17-year-old, DAVID ARCHULETA, breaking the hearts of countless tween girls.
Los Angeles street artist SHEPARD FAIREY creates his wildly popular poster of Obama, a red-white-and-blue hued image of the candidate gazing ahead, underlined by the word “HOPE.”
JUNE
TIM RUSSERT dies at 58 of a sudden heart attack, after more than 16 years in one of the most influential jobs in TV news moderator of NBC’s “Meet The Press.” The death causes some baby boomers to start to wonder about their own health.
A computer-animated science fiction romance? Leave it to Pixar. After “The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille” and “Cars,” another triumph for the studio comes in the form of “WALL-E,” a futuristic film about love between two robots.
JULY
Bonjour to the new JOLIE-PITT twins, who emerge in France, where parents ANGELINA JOLIE and BRAD PITT are hunkered down on their enormous estate. And BATMANIA reigns, thanks to LEDGER’S stunning (and posthumous) portrayal of the Joker in “The Dark Knight.”
BRITNEY and PARIS make their unwitting entrance into the campaign, fodder for McCain’s commercial mocking Obama as “the biggest celebrity in the world.” Hilton, though, gets the last laugh: The doe-eyed hotel heiress, lounging in a leopard-print swimsuit, offers up a much cleverer video riposte.
AUGUST
Call this the anti-celebrity month: Wary after that Britney-Paris spot, the DEMOCRATIC PARTY does its very best to de-emphasize the celeb factor at its convention in Denver. Meanwhile, McCain’s anti-celebrity campaign unveils its own, well, celebrity: the telegenic PALIN, who bursts onto the scene with a speech that galvanizes the GOP convention.
MADONNA turns 50! And the chiseled superstar is hardly alone. Also hitting the half-century mark this year: MICHAEL JACKSON, PRINCE, ELLEN DEGENERES, MICHELLE PFEIFFER, VIGGO MORTENSEN. Let’s imagine an amazing party at the royal palace in Monaco, where PRINCE ALBERT also hits the big 5-0, perhaps covered for CNN by CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR (yup, 50 too.)
SEPTEMBER
“I can see Russia from my house!” FEY debuts her impersonation of PALIN on “Saturday Night Live.” Kudos to the “SNL” writers, but you can’t say Palin doesn’t give them plenty of material including verbatim chunks of her rambling exchanges with KATIE COURIC. The CBS anchor, long plagued by low ratings and high expectations, makes a welcome comeback.
Also making a comeback: the ’60s, with all that guilt-free smoking, thanks to “MAD MEN,” the evocative drama on cable’s AMC. “Mad Men” wins an Emmy this month, thrilling its small but hugely loyal audience.
OCTOBER
Shall we just call it “HSM3”? And if you don’t know what that means, you probably won’t be seeing the movie. “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” the big-screen sequel to the two Disney TV movies, sings and dances its fresh-faced way to the top of the box office, thanks to the durable appeal of Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale and the other “HSM” alums.
“SNL” scores its highest ratings in 14 years when it snags the ultimate prize: Palin herself. The VP candidate proves a game cast member, obliging happily when Amy Poehler shouts out: “All the mavericks in the house, put your hands up!” ”
And JOE THE PLUMBER makes his debut, as a constant reference in the third presidential debate. Later, Joe, aka Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, 34, campaigns for McCain and Palin.
NOVEMBER
Yeah yeah, Obama is elected, but we’ll reserve the pop culture prize this month for OPRAH WINFREY. Weeping on the shoulder of a stranger at Obama’s victory rally, and gushing uncontrollably on her postelection show, the talk-show queen can surely claim a little credit for the triumph of her “favorite guy.” Maybe MOST celebrity endorsements don’t mean much, but this is Oprah. Two economists even claim she brought Obama a million votes in the primaries.
DECEMBER
Any true pop culture story must end as we started: with BRITNEY for, after a year in which she seemed to reach the depths, this famously durable young woman is in the midst of an astonishing comeback, with “Circus,” her latest CD, reaching No.1 on the album charts, according to her label, Jive. At 27, she seems to be not only “the world’s pop princess,” as her manager says. She’s the world’s pop culture princess, too.
The New York Herald Sun 