By Andrew P. Napolitano
The president's men trash the Constitution to pursue antagonists
Weak earnings from Pfizer and other companies held back major market indexes on Tuesday as the Standard & Poor's 500 flipped between slight gains and losses.
Along with the cherry blossoms, hordes of bureaucrats descended on Washington for the spring meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The meeting concluded with, among other things, a communique from the International Monetary and Financial Committee urging the United States and the European countries, including the United Kingdom, to keep the money spigots flowing and ease up on austerity.
There is a deal in place that will bail out the government of Cyprus — but only after extracting more than $5 billion from bank depositors and plunging the economy into uncertainty. It virtually guarantees the island nation will stay in the recession that has been plaguing it for the past six quarters.
Money that's been trapped in Cyprus banks for the last two weeks could begin to cross the Atlantic and flood the American banking system starting Thursday when banks on the European island reopen, one banking expert predicts.
Money that's been trapped in Cyprus banks for the last two weeks could begin to cross the Atlantic and flood the American banking system starting Thursday when banks on the European island reopen, one banking expert predicts.
In 1922, the German political theorist Carl Schmitt wrote a book called “Political Theology,” in which he made the now often quoted statement, “Sovereign is he who decides the exception.” What he meant was that the best way to tell who is truly in charge in a nation is to see who the person is who has the power to change the rules – even if changing the rules means changing or suspending the constitution and invalidating the rule of law.
Stocks fell Tuesday on Wall Street as investors fretted about the latest chapter in Europe's debt saga.
Europeans have so many nations in financial trouble that they came up with an acronym, PIIGS, to keep track of the worst: Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain. Now a sixth nation, Cyprus, is about to join this less-than-illustrious group.
LONDON
Stocks slumped Thursday on Wall Street, and the rally that has pushed indexes close to record levels stalled.
There has been intensive discussion about the U.S. trillion-dollar annual fiscal deficits and the consequent federal debt of $16 trillion, headed for $20 trillion in three years.
The Standard and Poor's 500 closed at another five-year high Thursday after the stock market got a boost from reports suggesting the outlook for economic growth may be improving.
European Union leaders, seeking to avoid a repeat of the crisis that has dogged the 27-country bloc for the past three years, are debating plans for an unprecedented shift of national financial policy powers to the EU.
Four top European Union officials on Thursday set out a blueprint for a closer financial union in a move that will clash with some member states' cherished national interests.
Greece has avoided imminent bankruptcy after its international creditors finally agreed to give it the money it urgently needs, but the cash-strapped country's economic distress is likely to drag on for years to come.
