The U.S. stock market regained some of its initial 200-point drop at the start of today’s trading following the stunning collapse of Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns. If the market stabilizes and other big banks don’t fail, that would justify the Federal Reserve intervening to assist a takeover of Bear Stearns and provide access to cash for other investment firms. Still, a Wall Street Journal editorial noted that such bailouts can be “an invitation for everyone to behave the way Bear Stearns did in the mortgage securities market.â€
As Hillary Clinton tells it, a trip she made to Bosnia as first lady involved “landing under sniper fire†and running “with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base†— meaning it was an example of her vast foreign policy experience. Did she forget that the comedian Sinbad and singer Sheryl Crow were along? “I think the only ‘red-phone’ moment was: ‘Do we eat here or at the next place?’†Sinbad said of the trip. Clinton’s response: “He’s a comedian.â€
Americans are much less aware of troop casualty figures in Iraq than they were a year ago, partly because of a sharp decline in news stories about Iraq since then, according to a study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. About 28 percent of those surveyed knew that U.S. fatalities had reached about 4,000. Nearly half thought the number of deaths was around 3,000.
“People are not seeing news about fatalities, and there isn’t much in the news about the war, whether it be military action or even political discussion related to it,†said Pew research director Scott Keeter.
The presidential campaign and economic slump have diverted media and public attention, but that may change: Iraq violence has surged recently.
In a remarkable essay in Asia Times Online, Seattle-based management consultant Julian Delasantellis argues that the selection of the larger Airbus plane for the next generation of refueling tankers may be a response to the Bush administration’s failure to make foreign friends willing to let the U.S. military use their airfields or let the United States build their own bases. The bigger the tanker, his thinking goes, the better to base air crews far from the hot spots. “Who needs diplomacy when you have aerial refueling?†he wrote. “In much the same way that Vladimir Lenin said that communism was Soviet power plus electricity, it now appears that neoconservatism is jingoistic arrogance plus the KC-45.â€
Because the Wichita Center for Graduate Medical Education serves the state and supplies so many of its primary care physicians, the center’s funding gap — $22 million over the next two years — is a state problem. So it was good to see the Kansas Board of Regents agree Thursday that more money is crucial, and create a task force to work on the issue. Meanwhile, the center is only slated to receive $1 million in the fiscal 2009 budget, though legislators are still trying to come up with more. State lawmakers, University of Kansas officials and regents must help find sustaining funding for Wichita’s doctor-training program, or Kansas may find itself hurting for doctors.
The U.S. stock market regained some of its initial 200-point drop at the start of today’s trading following the stunning collapse of Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns. If the market stabilizes and other big banks don’t fail, that would justify the Federal Reserve intervening to assist a takeover of Bear Stearns and provide access to cash for other investment firms. Still, a Wall Street Journal editorial noted that such bailouts can be “an invitation for everyone to behave the way Bear Stearns did in the mortgage securities market.â€
