Debt Crisis

It's impossible to know whether Occupy Wall Street will coalesce into a political movement, but there's little question Wall Street is still up to its old tricks. Right now the Street is dedicating all its lobbying power to water down regulations designed to implement financial-reform legislation. Its spokespeople, including congressional Republicans and GOP candidates, charge that Dodd-Frank (as the law is known) is overkill. Yet take a close look at Europe's debt crisis and you see quite the opposite.

By all accounts, President Barack Obama won the fiscal cliff showdown. Why anyone would take much pride in this kind of "win" is beyond me. It's a bit like being the least filthy toddler in the mud pit. One of the main reasons Mr. Obama won, according not only to Mr. Obama but an at times cheering press, is that he had a mandate. He ran on the need for the wealthy to "pay their fair share. " To his credit, Mr. Obama never said raising taxes on the "rich" will solve all of our problems.

The problems we face were foreseen for decades. For decades, Congress has let foreseeable problems grow until they reached a crisis point. They left no time for reasonable debate. Instead of outlining the facts and the options, they endlessly repeat the same futile rhetorical points. They claim to be reasonable, while each accuses the other, accurately, of being intractably ideological. Meanwhile, they work for the lobbyists who support their campaigns more than they do for their constituents.

Everyone needs to put something on the table for any resolution of the debt crisis to move forward ("McConnell key to 'cliff' deal," Dec. 27). I am newly retired and living on a fixed income, but I will rejoin the work world if I think I need the added security. I understand how Medicare and Social Security work, but I also recognize that my generation and the one just before mine are getting a subsidy that is too big for the country to sustain. I would put Medicare and Social Security on the table.

Bracing for the loss of a steady paycheck is becoming something of a routine for Frank Silberstein. A statistician for the U.S. Census Bureau and a union steward for the American Federation of Government Employees, Silberstein said the pitched battle in Washington over whether to raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling has — for the second time this year — put federal workers in Maryland on edge about whether they'll still have a...

I caught Ed Henry's first report on Fox News Monday. At least, that's the way host Martha MacCallum described his appearance at 1:30 p.m. from the White House. Henry was reporting on the debt crisis -- nothing like jumping into a raging river feet first. But, as always, he was the steady, informed, on-top-of-it Ed Henry whom CNN viewers have been lucky enough to have covering the White House for them in recent years. Fox has made some moves that were not so brilliant lately -- like getting far too involved in Republican presidential politics.

In a countdown to crisis time like this weekend, if you can only watch one channel, once again, I would make it CNN. On one level, the argument is simple. In terms of cable, there is little or none of the blatant ideology that drives MSNBC and Fox News to make facts fit a political narrative or the world view of their perceived audience. In terms of the networks, none can commit the airtime to constantly updating the story like a webpage as new developments emerge in the way a committed cable channel like CNN can. So, I spent most of my weekend so far with CNN, and there are two aspects of the coverage especially worth talking about -- so far. First, CNN's scored one of the timeliest interviews of the summer when it had Sen. Mitch McConnell on "State of the Union" at 9 a.m. (ET)

WASHINGTON -- Economic policies advocated by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are contributing to a Third World environmental crisis that is undermining the very development strategies the international lenders seek to promote, according to a new study to be released today.Unless the major lending institutions begin to factor environmental considerations into their planning, their economic development strategies for the Third World will in the long run prove to be self-defeating, a two-year study by the World Resources Institute warns.

London---WHEN STUPIDITY is compounded by short-sightedness and reinforced by ideological rigidity and then lack of compassion, it's difficult to tell those most harmfully affected to just grin and bear it.Nearly 10 years of debt crisis in the Third World have squeezed whole societies to the wall. The policy of ''growing out of debt'' by pruning and belt tightening, supposedly leading to renewed economic growth, is totally discredited. The poor have been kicked around for too long in the pursuit of free-market solutions.

Everyone needs to put something on the table for any resolution of the debt crisis to move forward ("McConnell key to 'cliff' deal," Dec. 27). I am newly retired and living on a fixed income, but I will rejoin the work world if I think I need the added security. I understand how Medicare and Social Security work, but I also recognize that my generation and the one just before mine are getting a subsidy that is too big for the country to sustain. I would put Medicare and Social Security on the table.

January 1. A dropped pass and a missed field goal keep Joe Flacco and the Ravens out of the Super Bowl. February 2. Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson becomes Mr. Super PAC by pumping millions into Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign. 3. Riots in Athens kick off a year of public unrest over the European debt crisis . March 4. Federal regulators approve Chicago-based Exelon's takeover of Constellation Energy , leaving Baltimore without a Fortune 500 headquarters.

The United States is in a debt crisis across the board. The leadership in Washington refuses to do what we elected them to do which is make the hard and intelligent decisions for the population. That requires actually leading from the front and not behind. Instead, the politicians take polls and point fingers. The housing industry that has driven the economy for 50 years is still mired in foreclosed homes and homeowners who are underwater with no way out. Student debt keeps rising due to ever higher college and university costs.

The problems we face were foreseen for decades. For decades, Congress has let foreseeable problems grow until they reached a crisis point. They left no time for reasonable debate. Instead of outlining the facts and the options, they endlessly repeat the same futile rhetorical points. They claim to be reasonable, while each accuses the other, accurately, of being intractably ideological. Meanwhile, they work for the lobbyists who support their campaigns more than they do for their constituents.

Your recent editorial on European elections states that "the real lesson to be drawn from the rise ofFrance's Francois Hollande and others is that many in Europe are fed up with austerity measures" ("Rejecting austerity," May 9). Contrary to that assertion, the real lesson to be drawn from the European debt crisis is that a country cannot afford to be so deeply in debt that its prospective creditors are in a position to demand onerous loan covenants that are politically untenable.

Europe is in recession. Portugal, Italy and Greece are basket cases. The British and Spanish economies have contracted for the last two quarters. It seems highly likely that France and Germany are in a double dip as well. Why should we care? Because a recession in the world's third-largest economy (Europe) combined with the current slowdown in the world's second-largest (China), spells trouble for the world's largest (that's still us). Remember, it's a global economy. Money moves across borders at the speed of an electronic impulse.

If you have a college student in the family - or an interest in presidential politics - by now you've probably heard that the interest rates on Stafford student loans are set to double on July 1 unless Congress takes action. President Barack Obama has been touring college campuses this week asking that rates be held to 3.4 percent. As one might imagine, this is a message that has some traction with young voters, a crucial bloc for Democrats, and the reception at places like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Colorado at Boulder, where the president has taken his message, has been warm and welcoming.

Your recent editorial on European elections states that "the real lesson to be drawn from the rise ofFrance's Francois Hollande and others is that many in Europe are fed up with austerity measures" ("Rejecting austerity," May 9). Contrary to that assertion, the real lesson to be drawn from the European debt crisis is that a country cannot afford to be so deeply in debt that its prospective creditors are in a position to demand onerous loan covenants that are politically untenable.

The United States is in a debt crisis across the board. The leadership in Washington refuses to do what we elected them to do which is make the hard and intelligent decisions for the population. That requires actually leading from the front and not behind. Instead, the politicians take polls and point fingers. The housing industry that has driven the economy for 50 years is still mired in foreclosed homes and homeowners who are underwater with no way out. Student debt keeps rising due to ever higher college and university costs.

Kirk-Habicht Co. in Essex doesn't do much business in Europe, but problems on the continent are buffeting the manufacturer all the same. Its employees rely on a heavy wire to make springs tough enough for trucks, and the only plant they know of that makes what they need is in Germany - or was. The factory shut down. Company president Mark Habicht is struggling to find an alternative. "What's going on there is definitely affecting us," he said of events in Europe. "It's causing us to scramble and search the far corners of the world to see if there's anyone who can make this material for us. " As world economies knit ever closer together, the debt woes and economic slowdown in Europe are sending ripples across the Atlantic - giving pause to Maryland companies anxious about recessionary contagion and offering business opportunities to others.

After a brutal third quarter in which the United States saw an unprecedented downgrade of its credit, many weary investors are staying on the sidelines. Despite encouraging signs about new unemployment claims in recent days, uncertainty remains as the continuing European debt crisis threatens to erode an already fragile economic recovery in the United States. Meanwhile, investors fear that failure by the congressional "supercommittee" to reach a deficit-reduction plan by this week's deadline could further hurt consumer confidence, especially as the crucial holiday shopping season begins.