Generation Kill goes to Gaza

by | Jan 17, 2009 | Conflict and security, Middle East and North Africa

Chances are you’ll already have seen media coverage of Generation Kill – HBO’s outstanding new mini-series based on Evan Wright’s book on his time as an embedded correspondent with a US Marine Corps reconnaissance battalion as they invaded Iraq. The series comes from David Simon and Ed Burns, the creators of The Wire (here’s an audio interview with Ed Burns, Wire fans).  Lest you haven’t already sampled the extensive selection of clips on YouTube, here’s a small sample to whet your appetite:

[youtube:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aSLAIKjT7y8&feature=channel]
Book and series alike both give close-up perspectives on the failures of counter-insurgency doctrine that typified the early Iraq campaign.  Even then, it’s clear that the more thoughtful marines portrayed in Wright’s account become steadily more aware of the hearts and minds dimensions of their campaign – especially in the case of Lt. Nathaniel Fick, who led the platoon in which Wright was embedded.  Fick has since left the USMC for the Center for a New American Security, where he’s now co-authoring research with long-time 4th Generation Warfare expert John Nagl. (more…)

Stupidest man alive?

by | Jan 17, 2009 | Economics and development, Global system

Donald Luskin has long held the position of  ‘stupidest man alive‘ – but Larry Kudlow has surely now taken the crown. 

A couple of days’ ago, I posted a run-down of Kudlow’s mindless optimism about the economy, sustained over years of shamelessly abasing himself before George Bush. But now the man has surpassed himself, declaring that rampant deflation is just the boost the American consumer needs. It’s even better than a tax cut. Yes – seriously.

The plunge in consumer prices is a great thought. It is a tax cut of massive proportions. The drop in retail gas prices alone has been variously estimated at $350 billion in new consumer purchasing power. In fact, real average weekly earnings have now risen four straight months on the back of the CPI drop. Over the past year, this key measure is up nearly 3 percent.

And while consumer prices are deflating, producer prices — which represent wholesale costs to business — have been deflating even faster with the plunge in energy and other commodities. Consequently, corporate profit margins are improving as costs drop faster than prices. This important development is also overlooked.

Inflation is the cruelest tax of all. It is a prosperity killer. But the inflationary decline is the most pleasant tax cut of all, and is a key part of the recovery process. 

Now British readers probably just think that Kudlow is some fringe crank, but in fact he’s an esteemed mind on the American right. Esteemed enough that he was part of a select group that Obama chatted up over dinner the other night. (Kudlow couldn’t help gossiping about what went down, despite the meeting beingg strictly off the record.)

Of course, it’s not up to me to declare Kudlow the stupidest man alive – only Brad de Long has that right. But i trust he’ll make a prouncement as soon as he takes a break from the various other feuds he’s engaged in..

Privatise all the banks?

by | Jan 17, 2009 | Economics and development, Global Dashboard, Global system

So it looks like we’re getting close to an announcement of a ‘bad bank’ here in the UK, with signs that this move has been co-ordinated with the new US adminstration.

According to the Telegraph:

The bad bank plan has climbed the political agenda in the past couple of weeks as the Government has become aware of the extent of the lenders’ bad debts.

Sources said that a bad bank would have to take on about £200?billion of toxic assets. That would take the Government’s total commitment to solving the banking crisis to almost £1?trillion in taxpayers’ money that has either been spent or pledged.

Valuation remains controversial, with banks scrabbling to extract as much as they possibly can from the taxpayer. One option (following the Swedes again) is to use an independent board to have a go at guessing what all the crap is worth.

Willem Buiter has a simpler suggestion – privatise the whole sector, with the government then making whatever valuation it likes as it transfers toxic assets into a new vehicle. Buiter, who thinks that even HSBC is now toast, points out that the current half-way house (partial state ownership) may be the worst of all worlds:

Ironically, by partially nationalising some of the banks, by making this injection of public capital expensive financially and as regards other conditionality, and by holding the threat of possible future (partial) nationalisation over the remaining banks, the authorities created an incentive structure that is biased strongly against bank lending, and against bank risk taking generally.  The best escape from this unfortunate halfway house is to go to temporary full public ownership of all the banks.  It would be cheap.  It should not cost more than £50bn for the state to buy the rest of the UK high street banks.  It could wait a while and get them even cheaper – possibly for nothing. But time is more precious than money in this case.