Saturday, November 05, 2011
U.S. unemployment ticks down to 9%
From The Hindu
After an unrelenting three month-stretch of 9.1 per cent unemployment, the United States economy finally returned to the psychologically-important 9 per cent mark in October, a month that saw the labour markets add another 80,000 jobs.
In its monthly jobs report, the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) noted that employment in the private sector rose, with modest job growth continuing in professional and businesses services, leisure and hospitality, health care, and mining. Government employment, still reeling under pressure from budget cuts at the state and federal levels, continued to trend down.
Yet the BLS also said that the previous two months' record was better than initial estimates had suggested, and it revised upwards the jobs figures for August and September. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for August was revised from 57,000 to 104,000, and the change for September was revised from 103,000 to 158,000.
The marginal drop in unemployment figures came even as President Barack Obama issued a statement criticising the Republican opposition for blocking the White House's Infrastructure Bill, aimed at boosting job creation in this sector.
In a statement on Thursday the President said, “For the third time in recent weeks, every single Republican in the United Sates Senate has chosen to obstruct a jobs bill that independent economists said would boost our economy and put Americans back to work. At a time when more than a million construction workers are looking for a job, they voted ‘no' to putting them back to work doing the work America needs done — rebuilding our roads, bridges, airports and transit systems. That makes no sense.”
The remarks also underscored the dire state of government finances and the continuing adverse impact that it has had on government jobs. According to the BLS, the government shed 24,000 in October, with most of the decline in the non-educational component of state government. It added that employment in both state government and local government had been trending down since the second half of 2008.
In the private sector, however, employment in professional and business services rose by 32,000 jobs in October, in leisure and hospitality jobs edged up by 22,000, in health care employment expanded by 12,000 jobs and in mining it increased by 6,000. Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 5 cents, or 0.2 per cent, the BLS noted, to $23.19.
Labels: Obama administration, U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, U.S. unemployment figures, United States economy
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
S&P chief Deven Sharma resigns
Deven Sharma (55), Indian-American president of credit rating agency Standard & Poor's, has resigned less than three weeks after his company found itself at the receiving end of the Obama administration's ire following its downgrade of the United States' credit rating from AAA to AA+.
S&P's announcement, that Mr. Sharma would be stepping down immediately and leaving the company at the end of the year, also follows reports last week that the U.S. Justice Department had initiated an investigation into the mortgage securities ratings allocation process at the McGraw-Hill subsidiary. In particular, authorities were said to be examining whether S&P “improperly rated dozens of mortgage securities in the years leading up to the financial crisis.”
S&P's downgrade of the U.S.' debt from AAA to AA+ on August 5, based on its perception that the deficit reduction measures agreed by the administration were insufficient to stabilise national debt, saw further market turmoil in its wake as the downgrade triggered a massive global sell-off.
Credit ratings allocation, which yielded enormous profits in the boom years to the major agencies including S&P, Moody's and Fitch, have come under fire from regulators for their role in fuelling the financial markets collapse in 2008. The U.S. Congress and White House have both challenged S&P's “secretive process, its credibility and the competence of its analysts.”
In this week's announcement, S&P said Douglas Peterson (53), chief operating officer of Citibank N.A., would be its next President effective September 12, while Mr. Sharma “will take on a special assignment working on the Company's strategic portfolio review,” until the year's end.
Mr. Sharma's resignation also marks intensifying woes faced by the McGraw-Hill Group internally, with activist investors demanding stridently to break up the media conglomerate into four parts including splitting up the S&P into its indexes operations and ratings and financial business, reports said.
In announcing the change, Harold McGraw III, Chairman, President and CEO of the McGraw-Hill Companies said, “I particularly want to thank Deven for his dedicated leadership of S&P. Four years ago, in one of the most difficult times facing S&P in the midst of the financial crisis, I turned to Deven whose background as head of S&P's Investment Services, head of McGraw-Hill's Global Strategy and as a partner at Booz Allen & Company, brought the right kind of skills to address the situation.”
Mr. Sharma was however known for his outspoken views on imbalances in the market, for example saying last month to members of the House of Representatives Committee On Financial Services that, “The independence of rating agencies to develop their own methodologies, rather than be pushed by regulation toward a common methodology, mitigates the systemic risk that ratings could become indistinguishable from agency to agency.”
He had further warned that it was critical that new regulations preserved the ability of credit rating agencies “to make their own analytical decisions without fear that those decisions will later be second-guessed if the future does not turn out as anticipated or that, in publishing a potentially controversial view, they will expose themselves to regulatory retaliation.”
Labels: credit rating, downgrade, Obama administration, Standard and Poor, U.S. debt crisis, U.S. economy
Friday, June 03, 2011
U.S. unemployment hits plateau at 9.1 per cent
From The Hindu
The United States labour markets continued to be buffeted by the economic downturn, with a mere 54,000 payroll employment jobs added in May, which left the overall unemployment rate essentially unchanged at 9.1 per cent.
The grim news came when U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics released its monthly jobs report, in which it said although private-sector employment continued to trend up with a net addition of 83,000 jobs, even that figure was a much smaller amount than the average for the prior three months, which was 244,000.
Reacting to the negative news, even as President Barack Obama continued to keep job creation at the top of his 2011 policy agenda, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Austan Goolsbee, said, “There are always bumps on the road to recovery, but the overall trajectory of the economy has improved dramatically over the past two years.”
While he sought to focus attention on private-sector job growth arguing that this sector added more than 2.1 million jobs over the past 15 months, Mr. Goolsbee conceded that the unemployment rate was “unacceptably high and faster growth is needed to replace the jobs lost in the downturn.”
The slowdown in the jobs growth rate comes at a particularly challenging time for the Obama White House, as the recent clashes with the U.S. Congress over raising nation’s the debt limit are likely to put the brakes on any further initiatives to boost employment. In this context Mr. Goolsbee noted, “We will continue to work with Congress to responsibly reduce the deficit and live within our means.”
Thus while numerous measures such as the payroll tax cuts and business incentives for investment have already been implemented and may well have contributed to employment growth thus far, even Mr. Goolsbee admitted that the latest BLS report “is a reminder of the challenges that remain.”
Most worrying for the current administration must be what the BLS report indicates about stalled recovery in the manufacturing, real estate and construction sectors. The report said that employment in some manufacturing areas actually dipped in May, with 5,000 jobs being lost.
Construction employment was essentially unchanged in May, the report said, noting that employment in the industry has “shown little movement on net since early 2010, after having fallen sharply during the 2007-09 period.”
Further the report suggested that states and local governments were continuing to reel under deficit pressures. Employment in local government declined during May, by 28,000 jobs. In fact since an employment peak in September 2008 local governments in the U.S. have lost 446,000 jobs, the report cautioned.
Yet Mr. Goolsbee struck a note of hope on the employment-boosting policies of the administration. He said, “We are focused on promoting exports, reducing regulatory burdens and making the investments in education, research and development, and infrastructure that will grow our economy and create jobs.”
The United States labour markets continued to be buffeted by the economic downturn, with a mere 54,000 payroll employment jobs added in May, which left the overall unemployment rate essentially unchanged at 9.1 per cent.
The grim news came when U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics released its monthly jobs report, in which it said although private-sector employment continued to trend up with a net addition of 83,000 jobs, even that figure was a much smaller amount than the average for the prior three months, which was 244,000.
Reacting to the negative news, even as President Barack Obama continued to keep job creation at the top of his 2011 policy agenda, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Austan Goolsbee, said, “There are always bumps on the road to recovery, but the overall trajectory of the economy has improved dramatically over the past two years.”
While he sought to focus attention on private-sector job growth arguing that this sector added more than 2.1 million jobs over the past 15 months, Mr. Goolsbee conceded that the unemployment rate was “unacceptably high and faster growth is needed to replace the jobs lost in the downturn.”
The slowdown in the jobs growth rate comes at a particularly challenging time for the Obama White House, as the recent clashes with the U.S. Congress over raising nation’s the debt limit are likely to put the brakes on any further initiatives to boost employment. In this context Mr. Goolsbee noted, “We will continue to work with Congress to responsibly reduce the deficit and live within our means.”
Thus while numerous measures such as the payroll tax cuts and business incentives for investment have already been implemented and may well have contributed to employment growth thus far, even Mr. Goolsbee admitted that the latest BLS report “is a reminder of the challenges that remain.”
Most worrying for the current administration must be what the BLS report indicates about stalled recovery in the manufacturing, real estate and construction sectors. The report said that employment in some manufacturing areas actually dipped in May, with 5,000 jobs being lost.
Construction employment was essentially unchanged in May, the report said, noting that employment in the industry has “shown little movement on net since early 2010, after having fallen sharply during the 2007-09 period.”
Further the report suggested that states and local governments were continuing to reel under deficit pressures. Employment in local government declined during May, by 28,000 jobs. In fact since an employment peak in September 2008 local governments in the U.S. have lost 446,000 jobs, the report cautioned.
Yet Mr. Goolsbee struck a note of hope on the employment-boosting policies of the administration. He said, “We are focused on promoting exports, reducing regulatory burdens and making the investments in education, research and development, and infrastructure that will grow our economy and create jobs.”
Labels: Obama administration, U.S., U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, U.S. economy, unemployment
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
U.S. House to investigate Wikileaks
From The Hindu
Even as the United States’ 112th Congress convenes for the first time on Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has planned a far-reaching investigation into Wikileaks, the whistleblower website that courted controversy by publishing secret State Department cables over the last few months.
According to a list of hearing topics obtained by Politico magazine, the House Oversight Committee headed by Representative Darrell Issa, “is aiming to launch investigations on everything from WikiLeaks to Fannie Mae to corruption in Afghanistan in the first few months” of the year.
While the investigation into Wikileaks in particular is regarded by some as a partisan action targeting U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for his “slow and too weak” reaction to the leaks, Mr. Issa’s minority counterpart, Representative Elijah Cummings was quoted as saying that Congress ought to “be careful with [oversight] power” and use caution and austerity in hearings.
Specifically Mr. Cummings warned, in a statement to Politico, that he would “draw a line at which any witch hunts or hearings that are conducted purely for partisan gains,” and he would ask Mr. Issa not to prejudge any of issues or seek answers only to confirm political leanings.
Some commentators also noted that “there was a grand jury in place looking at Assange and these investigators should be left to complete their work,” adding that charges were needed that would stick.
The House Oversight Committee enjoys sweeping powers of summons and can demand testimonies from top officials through subpoena. According to the Guardian newspaper the Committee could begin conducting hearings later this month.
In justifying his committee’s investigation into Wikileaks, Mr. Issa reportedly said it wanted “to get that right so the diplomats can do their job with confidence and people can talk to our government with confidence.” He added that the new Congress would have to pass legislation to try to prevent similar acts of whistle blowing.
In a television interview over last weekend he was further quoted as saying, “If the president says, ‘I cannot deal with this guy as a terrorist’' then he has to be able to deal with him as a criminal, otherwise the world is laughing at this paper tiger we've become.”
In the mid-term Congressional elections held in November Democrats lost control of the House and their majority was trimmed in the Senate.
President Barack Obama is likely to face an onslaught of challenges to numerous policies enacted last year, including healthcare reform across states, as well as to his 2011 policy agenda, which is likely to focus on job-creation and controlling the U.S.’ deficit.
On Tuesday the Gallup Poll said that surveys indicated that for the first time in eight months Mr. Obama’s approval ratings had jumped to 50 per cent.
Even as the United States’ 112th Congress convenes for the first time on Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has planned a far-reaching investigation into Wikileaks, the whistleblower website that courted controversy by publishing secret State Department cables over the last few months.
According to a list of hearing topics obtained by Politico magazine, the House Oversight Committee headed by Representative Darrell Issa, “is aiming to launch investigations on everything from WikiLeaks to Fannie Mae to corruption in Afghanistan in the first few months” of the year.
While the investigation into Wikileaks in particular is regarded by some as a partisan action targeting U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for his “slow and too weak” reaction to the leaks, Mr. Issa’s minority counterpart, Representative Elijah Cummings was quoted as saying that Congress ought to “be careful with [oversight] power” and use caution and austerity in hearings.
Specifically Mr. Cummings warned, in a statement to Politico, that he would “draw a line at which any witch hunts or hearings that are conducted purely for partisan gains,” and he would ask Mr. Issa not to prejudge any of issues or seek answers only to confirm political leanings.
Some commentators also noted that “there was a grand jury in place looking at Assange and these investigators should be left to complete their work,” adding that charges were needed that would stick.
The House Oversight Committee enjoys sweeping powers of summons and can demand testimonies from top officials through subpoena. According to the Guardian newspaper the Committee could begin conducting hearings later this month.
In justifying his committee’s investigation into Wikileaks, Mr. Issa reportedly said it wanted “to get that right so the diplomats can do their job with confidence and people can talk to our government with confidence.” He added that the new Congress would have to pass legislation to try to prevent similar acts of whistle blowing.
In a television interview over last weekend he was further quoted as saying, “If the president says, ‘I cannot deal with this guy as a terrorist’' then he has to be able to deal with him as a criminal, otherwise the world is laughing at this paper tiger we've become.”
In the mid-term Congressional elections held in November Democrats lost control of the House and their majority was trimmed in the Senate.
President Barack Obama is likely to face an onslaught of challenges to numerous policies enacted last year, including healthcare reform across states, as well as to his 2011 policy agenda, which is likely to focus on job-creation and controlling the U.S.’ deficit.
On Tuesday the Gallup Poll said that surveys indicated that for the first time in eight months Mr. Obama’s approval ratings had jumped to 50 per cent.
Labels: House of Representatives, Obama administration, Wikileaks
Saturday, December 18, 2010
U.S. sues BP over Gulf of Mexico spill
From The Hindu
The Justice Department of the United States government has announced that it has slapped BP and several other companies it held responsible for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last summer with a lawsuit seeking “unlimited removal costs and damages” under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.
Speaking at a news conference following the announcement Attorney General Eric Holder said “We intend to prove that... violations [of industry regulations] caused or contributed to this massive oil spill, and that the defendants are therefore responsible – under the Oil Pollution Act – for government removal costs, economic losses, and environmental damages.”
Mr. Holder also warned that the Obama administration would not hesitate to take “whatever steps are necessary” to hold accountable those who are responsible for this spill, a remark that led some experts such as law professor David Uhlmann of the University of Michigan to speculate in the New York Times whether a criminal case might follow.
Currently it is only a civil suit that the U.S. government has filed, one that was built on the case that BP and companies related to the oil spill incident ought to be held liable for allowing over millions of gallons of crude oil to flow in the Gulf from the ruptured Macondo well of the Deepwater Horizon rig.
Other companies named as defendants in the suit include Anadarko Exploration and Production, Moex Offshore, Triton Asset Leasing, Transocean Holdings, QBE Underwriting and Lloyd’s Syndicate 1036. Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank in April this year, and was only capped in July after an unprecedented effort by BP and the government to halt the oil flow.
One notable absentee from the defendants list, however, was Halliburton, which was said to be the contractor for the cement work on the well. When asked about this Mr. Holder was reported to have explained that the complaint could be amended later and more defendant names could be added to the list. The wording of the lawsuit corroborated this claim.
Touching upon the vast scale of the damage resulting from the spill the lawsuit observed, “While the full scope and impact of this disaster are not yet known, the consequences include lost lives, destroyed livelihoods, and grave harm to natural resources across several States and related waters.”
The specific charges brought by the lawsuit against the operators of the well and the rig related to failure to prevent the blowout of oil and methane gas was not prevented by defendants, and the companies involved had not taken “necessary precautions to keep the Macondo Well under control.”
Other charges that the U.S. government has brought against the defendants include failing to use the best available and safest drilling technology to monitor and evaluate the Macondo Well’s conditions, failure to maintain continuous surveillance on the rig floor, and failure to maintain equipment and materials such as the Blow-Out Preventer stack, that were “available and necessary to ensure the safety and protection of personnel, equipment natural resources, and the environment.
Labels: environmental catastrophe, Gulf of Mexico, Obama administration, oil spill
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Announcement likely on India’s role in Afghanistan
From The Hindu
The Obama administration was “keen to see a level playing field,” regarding the civil nuclear agreement with India and there will “definitely” be an announcement on India’s role in Afghanistan and regional counter-terrorism issues, a senior State Department official said hours before the U.S. President embarked on his India visit.
Speaking to The Hindu from Washington the official said that the parties concerned had continued working on the civil nuclear agreement as a “priority” in the aftermath of the passage of the nuclear liability Bill in Parliament.
Responding to a question on whether India could expect any assurances about its future role in Afghanistan, in particular the safety of its workers there, the official said “You will definitely see things highlighted on strategic issues like Afghanistan.”
The official also rejected suggestions that the weakening of Democrats’ control over Congress might alter the course of the U.S.’ India policy, specifically the Obama administration’s anti-outsourcing stance.
Explaining that unlike the parliamentary system a loss of power in one house of the U.S. Congress did not imply a dramatic change, the official added that “there really is a bipartisan consensus on U.S.-India relations.”
When asked whether the Republicans’ willingness to permit outsourcing of jobs would clash with President Obama’s stated preference to keep jobs on U.S. soil the official said that there was “not going to be any significant change” in the official position.
The reason for this was that to create any bill the House of Representatives, the Senate and the President would have to approve and “the President still remains the President” even if he hoped to have the cooperation of Congress.
Besides these two critical issues the State Department expects that during Mr. Obama’s time in India significant announcements will be made in the areas of clean energy, science and technology cooperation, and agricultural cooperation. Education-sector partnerships also “surely will come up in the course of the trip.”
In particular the senior official said to The Hindu that initiatives on agricultural cooperation and science and technology would be taken forward, respectively by Indian-Americans Raj Shah of the USAID aid agency and Anish Chopra, Mr. Obama’s Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Chopra is in India already.
Reinforcing comments by the President this week, the official said that the State Department viewed the India leg of Mr. Obama’s trip as kicking off a four-country visit in Asia, and that was “actually quite important… because what it means is that India is the cornerstone of our approach to our engagement with Asia.”
Labels: AfPak policy, Nuclear liability law, Obama administration
Thursday, October 21, 2010
IIT alumnus joins Team Obama
From The Hindu
The Obama administration has made one of its most senior appointments yet from the Indian-American community. Subra Suresh (54), Dean of the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, has been confirmed as the Director of the high-level National Science Foundation.
Commenting on Dr. Suresh’s appointment at a White House Science Fair this week President Barack Obama said, “I want to welcome and congratulate Subra Suresh, who was sworn in this morning as the Director of the National Science Foundation… We are very grateful to have Subra taking this new task.”
The President noted that at MIT Dr. Suresh was leading one of the top engineering programmes in the United States, and “for him now to be able to apply that to the National Science Foundation is just going to be outstanding.” Mr. Obama had initially announced his intention to appoint Dr. Suresh to the prestigious office on June 3.
The NSF, which is supported by a funding base worth around $6.9-billion, principally finances research in the non-medical sciences. In assuming his new responsibilities Dr. Suresh would, according to reports, take over “just as a $3-billion infusion of economic stimulus money given to the agency early last year begins to run out.”
In a feature on the new Director Nature magazine quoted Samuel Rankin, Chair of the Coalition for National Science Funding, an advocacy group based in Washington, as saying, “Morale is going to be low… He needs to take advantage of the fact that he’s new and push for more funding.”
While NSF funding was said to have enjoyed a massive boost last year as the stimulus money was topped up by a “whopping 6.2% rise in regular agency funding for fiscal year 2010,” Mr. Ranking had said that that rate would drop as the stimulus money petered out.
With immense pressure owing to the politics of soaring national debt levels, reports said that the U.S. Congress would probably only set the NSF’s budget after the midterm elections in November, “which means funding could be frozen at 2010 levels well into next year.”
However expressing a strong vote of confidence in Dr. Suresh’s ability to tackle all such challenges in Washington despite being a newcomer to the scene, Robert Ritchie, his advisor at MIT, said, “The thing about Subra is that, while he’ll take on tasks that are quite complex, you know from the start that he’ll succeed.”
Dr. Suresh, who was the Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering at MIT, first joined MIT in 1993, as the R.P. Simmons Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. Holding numerous joint faculty positions in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Biological Engineering, as well as the Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Dr. Suresh served as the head of the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering from 2000 to 2006. Apart from MIT Dr. Suresh was also a faculty member at Brown University between 1983 and 1993, in the Division of Engineering.
Winning wide recognition for his expertise, Dr. Suresh was the recipient of the 2007 European Materials Medal, “the highest honour conferred by the Federation of European Materials Societies,” and the 2006 Acta Materialia Gold Medal. After gaining his bachelor’s degree from IIT-Madras he obtained an M.S. from Iowa State University, and a Sc.D. from MIT.
Labels: IIT alumnus, NSF, Obama administration, Subra Suresh
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Geithner meets Indian delegation
From The Hindu
Tim Geithner, United States Treasury Secretary, met with an Indian delegation of the U.S.-India Aspen Strategy Group to discuss economic and other policy priorities between the two nations, according to a statement by the Treasury.
The participants in the meeting considered the progress of working groups that were established during Mr. Geithner’s visit to New Delhi in April, to launch the U.S.-India Economic and Financial Partnership. The main focus of the working groups was the deepening of capital markets and on macroeconomic issues.
The meeting came close on the heels of President Barack Obama hitting out at the loss of American jobs to countries such as India and China. Secretary Geithner had touched upon the very same issue prior to his India trip, when he had argued that higher taxes levied on U.S. companies having offshore operations were justified because tax incentives were not neutral to the location of the investment. “We are just trying to get reform that achieves neutrality; it is pretty good policy to be neutral on these kinds of things,” he had said at the time.
During Tuesday’s meeting the Secretary and the delegation discussed “a broad range of issues including the G-20’s commitment to create strong, sustainable and balanced global growth,” a Treasury official said.
Labels: India-U.S. ties, Obama administration
Sunday, May 30, 2010
U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue to cover entire gamut of bilateral relationship
From The Hindu
The forthcoming Strategic Dialogue between India and the United States will be comprehensive and cover the “entire gamut of bilateral relations,” according to Rahul Chhabra, Indian Minister for Press, Information and Culture here.
The Strategic Dialogue, to be held in Washington during June 1-4, will be led by S.M. Krishna, Minister for External Affairs, on the Indian side, and by Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, for the U.S. It will cover such a wide range of policy areas as including energy, agriculture, science and technology, health, education, defence and counter-terrorism.
Going by the statements of both the Indian Embassy here and the State Department, the “Singh-Obama 21st Century Knowledge Initiative” will receive a major shot in the arm during this dialogue. The Initiative aims to increase university linkages and junior faculty development exchanges between U.S. and Indian universities.
In that context Mr. Chhabra noted that Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal’s visit to the U.S. last year “generated interest in leading universities in U.S. to consider collaborations or a presence in India.” He added that the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill was tabled in the Parliament earlier this month and following that Mr. Sibal is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with his counterpart U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan on June 2.
Other key meetings
Another key set of meetings will be led by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, who will hold a bilateral meeting on June 2 with her counterpart William Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. She will also meet with Eric Hirschhorn, Under Secretary for Industry and Security at the Department of Commerce – likely to be a closely followed discussion as Ms. Rao and Mr. Hirschhorn co-chair the U.S.-India High Technology Cooperation Group.
Speaking about the planned meetings on Friday, Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, said, “We have made very good progress over the last year on both the global and bilateral fronts in our relations with India.”
In terms of the global issues Mr. Blake noted that Mr. Singh had played “a very important role in Copenhagen in the climate change negotiations,” and also praised his participation the recent Nuclear Security Summit hosted by President Obama. In particular, Mr. Blake noted that Mr. Singh had then announced that India would build a centre for nuclear security.
Food security would also be discussed at the Strategic Dialogue, Mr. Blake suggested, as would health – through establishing a global disease detection centre aimed at finding cures for major global pandemic diseases.
U.S.-India relationship
In terms of issues specific to the U.S.-India relationship, Mr. Blake noted there were 18 separate dialogues under way on the bilateral front, one of the most important being the nuclear issue, “following up on the civil nuclear agreement in the Bush Administration.” He said that as a follow-up to that, the U.S. was “following very closely the nuclear liability legislation that the Indian Government has introduced into the Indian parliament.” He hoped that would be consistent with the Convention on Supplementary Compensation, he added.
Finally Mr. Blake highlighted the “unprecedented counterterrorism cooperation that is taking place between our two governments,” underscoring the increasingly common threats such as Lashkar e-Taiba and similar groups. He said, “We have had very close cooperation, and we look forward to doing even more in that area.”
The forthcoming Strategic Dialogue between India and the United States will be comprehensive and cover the “entire gamut of bilateral relations,” according to Rahul Chhabra, Indian Minister for Press, Information and Culture here.
The Strategic Dialogue, to be held in Washington during June 1-4, will be led by S.M. Krishna, Minister for External Affairs, on the Indian side, and by Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, for the U.S. It will cover such a wide range of policy areas as including energy, agriculture, science and technology, health, education, defence and counter-terrorism.
Going by the statements of both the Indian Embassy here and the State Department, the “Singh-Obama 21st Century Knowledge Initiative” will receive a major shot in the arm during this dialogue. The Initiative aims to increase university linkages and junior faculty development exchanges between U.S. and Indian universities.
In that context Mr. Chhabra noted that Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal’s visit to the U.S. last year “generated interest in leading universities in U.S. to consider collaborations or a presence in India.” He added that the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill was tabled in the Parliament earlier this month and following that Mr. Sibal is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with his counterpart U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan on June 2.
Other key meetings
Another key set of meetings will be led by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, who will hold a bilateral meeting on June 2 with her counterpart William Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. She will also meet with Eric Hirschhorn, Under Secretary for Industry and Security at the Department of Commerce – likely to be a closely followed discussion as Ms. Rao and Mr. Hirschhorn co-chair the U.S.-India High Technology Cooperation Group.
Speaking about the planned meetings on Friday, Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, said, “We have made very good progress over the last year on both the global and bilateral fronts in our relations with India.”
In terms of the global issues Mr. Blake noted that Mr. Singh had played “a very important role in Copenhagen in the climate change negotiations,” and also praised his participation the recent Nuclear Security Summit hosted by President Obama. In particular, Mr. Blake noted that Mr. Singh had then announced that India would build a centre for nuclear security.
Food security would also be discussed at the Strategic Dialogue, Mr. Blake suggested, as would health – through establishing a global disease detection centre aimed at finding cures for major global pandemic diseases.
U.S.-India relationship
In terms of issues specific to the U.S.-India relationship, Mr. Blake noted there were 18 separate dialogues under way on the bilateral front, one of the most important being the nuclear issue, “following up on the civil nuclear agreement in the Bush Administration.” He said that as a follow-up to that, the U.S. was “following very closely the nuclear liability legislation that the Indian Government has introduced into the Indian parliament.” He hoped that would be consistent with the Convention on Supplementary Compensation, he added.
Finally Mr. Blake highlighted the “unprecedented counterterrorism cooperation that is taking place between our two governments,” underscoring the increasingly common threats such as Lashkar e-Taiba and similar groups. He said, “We have had very close cooperation, and we look forward to doing even more in that area.”
Labels: Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor, National Security Strategy, Obama administration
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Tackling a jobless recovery
From The Hindu
Even as the Obama administration pushes forward with its Af-Pak and healthcare reform policies this month, joblessness in United States will increasingly dominate the attention of the President, Congress and the ordinary Americans. Unemployment may have fallen marginally in November after touching a 26-year high of 10.2 per cent in the month before, but the Federal Reserve has projected that even with positive economic growth it will hover around 8.3-8.7 per cent during 2010. Over the coming months, President Obama will worry that four states that are all Democratic bastions — Michigan, Nevada, Rhode Island, and California — will see the highest rates of unemployment. He will have to also struggle with the limited room for manoeuvre in public finances implied by staggering levels of public debt and the overall budget deficit. Given the elevated spending commitments in the Af-Pak region and subsidies for the proposed healthcare reform, there is practically no fiscal leeway to tackle America’s jobless recovery through further stimulus-like measures.
Yet the deterioration in labour market conditions for middle-class Americans is an ominous threat to President Obama’s already-falling popularity. With the entire House of Representatives and a part of the Senate facing elections next year a decisive strategy to create jobs quickly has become imperative, even urgent. The government has a range of relatively inexpensive policies to choose from. For example, the House will soon pass a bill that may include an extension of transport-related spending, a tax credit for expanding company payrolls, and incentives for credit to small businesses. Some Senators have proposed a plan, at an estimated cost of $600 million, whereby the government could share employers’ labour costs temporarily in a bid to avoid layoffs. If a financial transactions tax is introduced to address the issue of excessive risk-taking by financial institutions, the additional revenue could be productively deployed via local government to create new jobs. Public services such as education would benefit from this type of support. Additionally, policies of the last one year are likely to begin producing results: literally thousands of job-creating projects financed by the $787 billion stimulus package are still in the pipeline. Even the flourish of fiscal dexterity may not, however, save President Obama from politically motivated accusations of profligacy, typically from conservative lobbies opposing big government. The President needs to hold his nerve and soldier on regardless, only ensuring that he is transparent in outlining his plans to those who stand to gain from them.
Even as the Obama administration pushes forward with its Af-Pak and healthcare reform policies this month, joblessness in United States will increasingly dominate the attention of the President, Congress and the ordinary Americans. Unemployment may have fallen marginally in November after touching a 26-year high of 10.2 per cent in the month before, but the Federal Reserve has projected that even with positive economic growth it will hover around 8.3-8.7 per cent during 2010. Over the coming months, President Obama will worry that four states that are all Democratic bastions — Michigan, Nevada, Rhode Island, and California — will see the highest rates of unemployment. He will have to also struggle with the limited room for manoeuvre in public finances implied by staggering levels of public debt and the overall budget deficit. Given the elevated spending commitments in the Af-Pak region and subsidies for the proposed healthcare reform, there is practically no fiscal leeway to tackle America’s jobless recovery through further stimulus-like measures.
Yet the deterioration in labour market conditions for middle-class Americans is an ominous threat to President Obama’s already-falling popularity. With the entire House of Representatives and a part of the Senate facing elections next year a decisive strategy to create jobs quickly has become imperative, even urgent. The government has a range of relatively inexpensive policies to choose from. For example, the House will soon pass a bill that may include an extension of transport-related spending, a tax credit for expanding company payrolls, and incentives for credit to small businesses. Some Senators have proposed a plan, at an estimated cost of $600 million, whereby the government could share employers’ labour costs temporarily in a bid to avoid layoffs. If a financial transactions tax is introduced to address the issue of excessive risk-taking by financial institutions, the additional revenue could be productively deployed via local government to create new jobs. Public services such as education would benefit from this type of support. Additionally, policies of the last one year are likely to begin producing results: literally thousands of job-creating projects financed by the $787 billion stimulus package are still in the pipeline. Even the flourish of fiscal dexterity may not, however, save President Obama from politically motivated accusations of profligacy, typically from conservative lobbies opposing big government. The President needs to hold his nerve and soldier on regardless, only ensuring that he is transparent in outlining his plans to those who stand to gain from them.
Labels: Af-Pak, economic downturn, Obama administration, recession, stimulus package, unemployment
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