For the last week, the attention of the country (okay, of the media) has been on events in Iowa and Washington. There was all the political items about the town halls, debates and the Iowa caucus. For some of the media, there was also all the news about the new disclosures of Hillary Clinton's emails and her blatant disregard of the rules to protect national security secrets. Let's leave that behind for the moment and look at stories that got little coverage during that time.
1. In Gaza, seven Hamas terrorists were killed when a tunnel they were in collapsed due to heavy rain in the region. You may recall that during the last confrontation between the Israelis and Hamas, the main goal of the Israelis was to destroy the Hamas tunnel system. The terrorists used that system to go under the border with Israel and to attack or kidnap Israelis in nearby areas. By the end of the battles, the Israelis had destroyed essentially all of those tunnels. Now, Hamas is busy rebuilding them. After the collapse, Hamas held a big funeral for the "martyrs" who died in the tunnel. During that funeral, a large crowd gathered. At one building next to the procession, a great many people crowded onto the roof for a better view. The roof collapsed and there were casualties among those who fell with it. It's worth considering this because it makes clear the mindset of the Hamas group.
2. In New York, the markets rallied to be up for the week after a terrible start to 2016. In the perverse world of Wall Street, one of the best news items was that the GDP grew during the 4th quarter of 2015 by only 0.7%. With such anemic growth, the consensus is now that the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates again for quite some time. The market soared in celebration.
The reality is that growth at 0.7% is a tragedy for the country. It means that the output in this country is not rising on a per capita basis. It means that all those spending programs that the candidates discuss are beyond the means of the USA because we just don't have the money and we aren't going to get it. Let's put this into proper context. If the economy grew by three percent more, that would mean that at the end of a year, the USA would have produced nearly half a trillion dollars more of goods and services. Just think how many jobs that would provide. Just think how many more middle class families would see their incomes rise. That difference alone would give the federal government an addition hundred billion dollars in revenues. The anti-growth policies followed by president Obama and strongly supported by Hillary Clinton, however, keep suppressing the economy. As a result, the middle class keeps sinking closer to poverty and the country gets further and further into debt.
3. In Europe, the fight over the "refugees" from the Middle East keeps intensifying. There have been bizarre events like the sweep of the Stockholm train station. Most likely you have not heard of this. Sweden, which opened its arms to the immigrant wave, has been the site of many crimes committed by the new arrivals. The Swedish government has done its best to keep a lid on the news reports about this. Nevertheless, it became widely known in Stockholm that the main train station had been "taken over" by a group of immigrants mainly from Morocco who were demanding money from travelers and threatening women in the station. It is disputed whether or not many of the women were attacked. Despite an avalanche of complaints, the authorities did nothing. A few days ago, a group of almost 100 young Swedish men (supposedly soccer hooligans according to the media) swept through the station and ousted all the Moroccans. Again, the government did nothing. Is this the Swedish model that Bernie Sanders wants us to follow?
4. In East Asia, the uncertainty about the Chinese economy continues to grow. The world saw the latest economic reports from Beijing, but no one believes them anymore. Is China now in a recession? Certainly, the Chinese behavior says the could well be so. The Chinese are no longer buying commodities on the world markets in amounts even half what they purchased just a few years ago. There is a huge flight of capital out of China as the wealthy Chinese look for safer places to keep their money. The Chinese have a debt problem that is severe. No one knows what is coming, but we do know that the Chinese government staked its future on providing economic growth for the country. If that is no longer being achieved, there could be massive changes within China, and that presents grave danger for the rest of the world.
There are many more stories like these, but these four provide enough context. Does it really matter whether or not Megyn Kelly's questions to Trump at the first GOP debate were fair? Not compared to these problems. Do we really want to hear Hillary's campaign tell lies about how Bernie Sanders has gone negative because he recites Hillary's record? It's nonsense. The world should demand our attention. There are too many big problems to spend time on silly minutiae.
1. In Gaza, seven Hamas terrorists were killed when a tunnel they were in collapsed due to heavy rain in the region. You may recall that during the last confrontation between the Israelis and Hamas, the main goal of the Israelis was to destroy the Hamas tunnel system. The terrorists used that system to go under the border with Israel and to attack or kidnap Israelis in nearby areas. By the end of the battles, the Israelis had destroyed essentially all of those tunnels. Now, Hamas is busy rebuilding them. After the collapse, Hamas held a big funeral for the "martyrs" who died in the tunnel. During that funeral, a large crowd gathered. At one building next to the procession, a great many people crowded onto the roof for a better view. The roof collapsed and there were casualties among those who fell with it. It's worth considering this because it makes clear the mindset of the Hamas group.
2. In New York, the markets rallied to be up for the week after a terrible start to 2016. In the perverse world of Wall Street, one of the best news items was that the GDP grew during the 4th quarter of 2015 by only 0.7%. With such anemic growth, the consensus is now that the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates again for quite some time. The market soared in celebration.
The reality is that growth at 0.7% is a tragedy for the country. It means that the output in this country is not rising on a per capita basis. It means that all those spending programs that the candidates discuss are beyond the means of the USA because we just don't have the money and we aren't going to get it. Let's put this into proper context. If the economy grew by three percent more, that would mean that at the end of a year, the USA would have produced nearly half a trillion dollars more of goods and services. Just think how many jobs that would provide. Just think how many more middle class families would see their incomes rise. That difference alone would give the federal government an addition hundred billion dollars in revenues. The anti-growth policies followed by president Obama and strongly supported by Hillary Clinton, however, keep suppressing the economy. As a result, the middle class keeps sinking closer to poverty and the country gets further and further into debt.
3. In Europe, the fight over the "refugees" from the Middle East keeps intensifying. There have been bizarre events like the sweep of the Stockholm train station. Most likely you have not heard of this. Sweden, which opened its arms to the immigrant wave, has been the site of many crimes committed by the new arrivals. The Swedish government has done its best to keep a lid on the news reports about this. Nevertheless, it became widely known in Stockholm that the main train station had been "taken over" by a group of immigrants mainly from Morocco who were demanding money from travelers and threatening women in the station. It is disputed whether or not many of the women were attacked. Despite an avalanche of complaints, the authorities did nothing. A few days ago, a group of almost 100 young Swedish men (supposedly soccer hooligans according to the media) swept through the station and ousted all the Moroccans. Again, the government did nothing. Is this the Swedish model that Bernie Sanders wants us to follow?
4. In East Asia, the uncertainty about the Chinese economy continues to grow. The world saw the latest economic reports from Beijing, but no one believes them anymore. Is China now in a recession? Certainly, the Chinese behavior says the could well be so. The Chinese are no longer buying commodities on the world markets in amounts even half what they purchased just a few years ago. There is a huge flight of capital out of China as the wealthy Chinese look for safer places to keep their money. The Chinese have a debt problem that is severe. No one knows what is coming, but we do know that the Chinese government staked its future on providing economic growth for the country. If that is no longer being achieved, there could be massive changes within China, and that presents grave danger for the rest of the world.
There are many more stories like these, but these four provide enough context. Does it really matter whether or not Megyn Kelly's questions to Trump at the first GOP debate were fair? Not compared to these problems. Do we really want to hear Hillary's campaign tell lies about how Bernie Sanders has gone negative because he recites Hillary's record? It's nonsense. The world should demand our attention. There are too many big problems to spend time on silly minutiae.
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