Plethora of news making priority-fixing difficult
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
From Fazle Rashid
NEW YORK, October 20: There are plethora of news. Each seemingly more crucial than the other. It is difficult to fix the priority.
The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is under a cloud; the US federal budget deficit will be much higher than previously projected; the number of members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) demanding a cut in production to prevent the fall in oil prices would be rising from two to six; Democratic Party President hopeful not only earned an endorsement from Colin Powell but raised $150 million in contribution in September in the midst of the financial crisis and several prestigious US newspapers are dropping AP news service to cut cost and job loss in the Silicon Valley.
Let's begin with the IMF. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, its managing director, like former World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, is under investigation for allegation that he encouraged a top ranking Fund official Ms Piroska Nagy to leave the organization with a hefty severance packet. A Shakoor Saihlan, Dean of the IMF's executive board has ordered an investigation.
The news comes amid plans to revamp the entire system of global financial regulation.
The investigators have been asked to complete the findings by the end of October. Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister has denied any wrongdoing. His attorney said her client had no hand in either in the exit of Pirosa Nagy or in determining the severance packet. Pirosa Nagy was not favoured with anything extra. She received the termination like any other official with her seniority, the attorney stressed.
Now about US federal budget deficit which will be far more fatter than earlier projected. The federal budget deficit which was projected at $400 plus will now be more than $700 billion. Added to it is $700 billion bailout package, rising cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a $150 billion of stimulas package. To add to the growing woes is the prospect of a drastic fall in revenue earnings and rise in spending in unemployment insurance, food stamp and other federal aids.
On the US electoral front, Barack Obama not only won an important endorsement from Colin Powell but also enhanced his war chest by $150 million, winning 632,000 new donors who gave an average of $86 apiece. He will outspend his Republican Party rival John McCain with polls only a fortnight away. It has been described as the most expensive presidential race in American history. The former US Secretary of State Colin Powell has described Obama as 'transformation figure'. Powell vowed in public to vote for Obama and said he was troubled by the false claim that Obama was a Muslim. Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in America?, Powell asked.
NEW YORK, October 20: There are plethora of news. Each seemingly more crucial than the other. It is difficult to fix the priority.
The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is under a cloud; the US federal budget deficit will be much higher than previously projected; the number of members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) demanding a cut in production to prevent the fall in oil prices would be rising from two to six; Democratic Party President hopeful not only earned an endorsement from Colin Powell but raised $150 million in contribution in September in the midst of the financial crisis and several prestigious US newspapers are dropping AP news service to cut cost and job loss in the Silicon Valley.
Let's begin with the IMF. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, its managing director, like former World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, is under investigation for allegation that he encouraged a top ranking Fund official Ms Piroska Nagy to leave the organization with a hefty severance packet. A Shakoor Saihlan, Dean of the IMF's executive board has ordered an investigation.
The news comes amid plans to revamp the entire system of global financial regulation.
The investigators have been asked to complete the findings by the end of October. Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister has denied any wrongdoing. His attorney said her client had no hand in either in the exit of Pirosa Nagy or in determining the severance packet. Pirosa Nagy was not favoured with anything extra. She received the termination like any other official with her seniority, the attorney stressed.
Now about US federal budget deficit which will be far more fatter than earlier projected. The federal budget deficit which was projected at $400 plus will now be more than $700 billion. Added to it is $700 billion bailout package, rising cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a $150 billion of stimulas package. To add to the growing woes is the prospect of a drastic fall in revenue earnings and rise in spending in unemployment insurance, food stamp and other federal aids.
On the US electoral front, Barack Obama not only won an important endorsement from Colin Powell but also enhanced his war chest by $150 million, winning 632,000 new donors who gave an average of $86 apiece. He will outspend his Republican Party rival John McCain with polls only a fortnight away. It has been described as the most expensive presidential race in American history. The former US Secretary of State Colin Powell has described Obama as 'transformation figure'. Powell vowed in public to vote for Obama and said he was troubled by the false claim that Obama was a Muslim. Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in America?, Powell asked.