| Dollar Declines As Housing Outlook Worsens
The loose thread from last week's solidly packed economic calendar, Monday's new home sales report tipped the scales for fundamentalists torn between strong lagging indicators and a distinct cooling in more timely reports. After the worse-than-expected number hit the wires, the dollar cut its two session advance short with big moves across the majors. For EURUSD, the data was met with a 70-point rally to a 1.3350 high that was 100 points off of overnight lows. In a more intense dollar move, USDCHF slid 85 points in 30 minutes to test key support around 1.2120/10. Making a technical move of its own, GBPUSD extended a rally that began in the London session for a 140-point climb to mark a double top with Thursday's high at 1.9725. Finally, USDJPY continues to carve out a convincing ascending triangle following a test high around 118.45 and a subsequent turn around 117.65.
US must move out of Iraq-WB must take over
By Nowell Marufu AND Correspondent On Friday 30 March 2007, Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, long known for his virulent anti-American sentiments, rebuked the United States for instigating four years of poverty and violence in Iraq. This rebuke and a call for protests against the US will definitely have serious ramifications for the Bush administration. There is a very strong likelihood that USA forces in Iraq may become targets, and that the USA involvement in Iraq will increasingly become mired in controversy. Iraq's Sadr in his speech blamed the U.S. for the poverty and violence that is raging in Iraq. The fiery cleric urged Shiites to protest against the US on April 9. The Shiites have long viewed US actions in Iraq as something out of character, and they strongly believe that the Bush administration must not involve itself in the domestic scene of Iraq.
Israel and the Middle East III: The Obsession
Israelis Berl and Smadar are on an airplane that crashes in the Pacific ocean. They paddle their lifeboat to the usual island. There are many pressing problems of survival, as well as natural urges that suggest themselves in that situation.
"What are we going to do?" asks Smadar.
"We need to give up the occupied West Bank immediately," says Berl.
"Never. We must annex Judea and Samaria immediately!" says Smadar.
Since 1967, every question concerned with Israel and with the Middle East has been answered in terms of the territories conquered in the 6-day war. Everyone who talks about Israeli national planning and strategy discusses the occupation. Everyone in Israel who discusses the problem of Islamist terror also ties it to the territorial question as well.
S. Carolina Dockworkers Show the Way
The corporate media's penchant for tales of union corruption and mob-ties serves an underlying agenda for union-busting, but workers have a different impetus for clean strong unions: They serve as one of the best tools for advancing working-class interests. One of the best examples of this is International Longshoremen's Association Local 1422 and the case of the Charleston Five. In 2000, a Danish shipping company, Nordana, attempted to break the union on Charleston docks with scab labor at half the pay, and the union began picketing. Local 1422 had a solid history of internal reform initiatives and a solid rank-and-file membership and had played a strong role in the previous year's successful campaign to remove the Confederate flag flying high over the South Carolina Capitol Building.
Uganda should not rest on its laurels
The 2007 Index of Economic Freedom report has found that Uganda is the fifth freest economy in sub-Saharan Africa.
While coming fifty ninth in a world wide survey of 161 countries, Uganda only trailed Mauritius, Botswana, South Africa and Namibia in sub-Saharan Africa.
The study sponsored by the US-based heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal based their conclusion on Ugandas labour, fiscal and trade freedoms.
However the report showed there were serious concerns about issues of corruption, respect for property rights and business freedoms.
Showing strong results in labour, fiscal and trade issues is a sign that we are building a strong fundamental basis for future economic growth.
But the poor showing on issues of corruption, property rights and business freedoms suggests the economy is still fragile and we are not taking full advantage of an ever strengthening foundation.
Economic developers come to Washington for answers
Look for good things to happen in worldwide entrepreneurship, in part, because economic developers from all over the globe have invaded the Puget Sound. The reason? Professionals from 50 nations, 620 to be exact, traveled here this week to discuss ways of incubating new business startups. That includes third world countries, such as Ghana. Officially, the gathering is called the National Business Incubation Association 21st International Conference on Business Incubation. So, the visitors are members and invitees of the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA). NBIA's mission is to facilitate the growth of business startups. And Washington state is home to some outstanding incubators. For example, the 20-year-old Tri-Cities Enterprise Association in Richland has three facilities and was the 1998 incubator of the year.
Barack Obama’s youth shaped by different worlds
These have been the stories told thus far about the first two character-shaping decades of Barack Obama's life, a story line largely shaped by his own best-selling memoirs, political speeches and interviews. But the reality of Obama's narrative is not that simple. More than 40 interviews with former classmates, teachers, friends and neighbors in his childhood homes of Hawaii and Indonesia, as well as a review of public records, show the arc of Obama's personal journey took him to places and situations far removed from the experience of most Americans. At the same time, several of his oft-recited stories may not have happened in the way he has recounted them, sometimes making him look better in the retelling, and sometimes skipping over some of the most painful, private moments of his life.
Sarkozy aims to block foreign takeovers
Nicolas Sarkozy has underlined his determination to block foreign takeovers of strategic French companies by fiercely condemning last year's acquisition of Arcelor, Europe's biggest steel group, by Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian billionaire, as a waste, reported the Financial Times late this week. The presidential frontrunner voiced a sharp protectionist twist to his industrial policy at a campaign rally in Lille on Wednesday night. His comments are likely to shock many of his admirers in the US and UK, who see him as France's best hope for reform. Blaming the euro for low wages, promising to reintroduce community preference in the European Union and to combat social, monetary and ecological dumping, Mr. Sarkozy launched an attack on free trade, which he called a policy of naivety.
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