Turkey goes smoke free

It's hard to believe this made it though we'll see how well the implementation goes.

It's just after midnight at Ankara's EskiYeni (OldNew) Bar and customers are feting "The Last Night of Smoking." A majority have lit up and are swaying to the rhythm of cigarette-themed 60s and 70s Turkish songs.

Technically, they are breaking the law. At midnight Saturday Turkey extended a ban on indoor public smoking to include bars, restaurants, village coffeehouses and hookah bars. Some smokers have left the bar for its courtyard to light up, but most are carrying on smoking inside.

The ban came into effect despite protests from bar and coffeehouse owners who fear it will ruin businesses that have already been hit hard by the effects of an economic crisis.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-oriented government barred smoking in offices and public transport and other public places in May 2008 in an effort to reduce the country's high smoking rates and the effects of secondhand smoke on people's health. Bars, restaurants and cafes were given a grace period that ended at midnight Saturday.

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Krugman: The Joy of Sachs

Krugman on the business-as-usual response to the financial crisis. Neither Bush nor Obama took actions necessary to prevent the next crisis which means they helped create the next crisis. Not only was the lack of action disappointing to those who expected change, it was dangerous for the long term health of the economy. Today both Bush and Obama own this but there's still time for Obama to do the right thing. More from Paul Krugman:

The American economy remains in dire straits, with one worker in six unemployed or underemployed. Yet Goldman Sachs just reported record quarterly profits — and it’s preparing to hand out huge bonuses, comparable to what it was paying before the crisis. What does this contrast tell us?

First, it tells us that Goldman is very good at what it does. Unfortunately, what it does is bad for America.

Second, it shows that Wall Street’s bad habits — above all, the system of compensation that helped cause the financial crisis — have not gone away.

Third, it shows that by rescuing the financial system without reforming it, Washington has done nothing to protect us from a new crisis, and, in fact, has made another crisis more likely.

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US spends most per capita for health care of any country, yet our health care quality is not nearly top of the list

From Kaiser Family Foundation:

Health spending is rising faster than incomes in most developed countries, which raises questions about how these countries will pay for future health care needs. The issue may be particularly acute in the United States, which not only spends much more per capita on health care than any other country, but which also has had one of the fastest growth rates in health spending among developed countries. Despite this higher level of spending, the United States does not achieve better outcomes on many important health measures.

We're only number in one in spending money, not in getting quality health care, regardless of what the patriots over at FOX News would like you to think. Blind nationalism is not a health care plan. Read the rest of this post...

India looks to green energy for future

While a great-to-have, green energy doesn't always have to be about the environment. The combination of energy independence plus sound financial sense is a good reason as well. Moving beyond the old oil based economy isn't such a bad idea for other countries either though we all know how hard it is for countries to change.

"We believe India is innovative and entrepreneurial enough to figure out how to deal with climate change while continuing to lift people out of poverty and develop at a rapid rate," she said Saturday in Mumbai.

"We need to get our act together," said Gauri Singh, joint secretary in India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, which was set up 26 years ago, "because India is growing faster than anyone can imagine. Renewable energy will have to supplement conventional power supply.

"Our priority is to achieve energy security and self-reliance. Climate change is not the main driver for renewable energy in India, it is a co-benefit," she added, echoing a debate in the United States, where renewable energy is being sold less as a way to save the planet than as a way to create new "green collar" jobs.

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What assault weapon would Jesus carry?

The future of the Republican party in all its glory. Read the rest of this post...

Krugman on Stiglitz and the exclusions of progressives from the Obama team

There is a larger point here, that Joe and I keep harping on. For some reason, the Obama White House, and even back when they were the Obama campaign, doesn't see much of a need for progressives. They don't reach out very much to progressives, they don't effectively use progressives who want to help advance the Obama agenda, and they don't help progressives in return. It's something floating between disdain and indifference, topped with some supreme self-confidence (i.e., masters of the universe need not consult mere mortals).

And in fact, there is some concern that Obama is actually hurting the progressive infrastructure. During the campaign, it was Team Obama that killed the 527 that was formed to take on the Republicans (only to decide with 6 weeks left in the campaign that they did in fact need those 527s). And during the campaign, there were reports that the Obama campaign was telling people not to give to outside groups working the election, like Planned Parenthood and VoteVets. And, even today, I know of progressive groups in DC who are concerned that Obama is directing all big donor money to his own Organizing for America (formerly Obama for America) organization, and away from the traditional groups. Now, I've not always been a fan of the traditional groups, but they're all we've got. When Obama's presidency ends, and he sails off into the sunset with his 12m person email list, who is going to be left in Washington to protect our values, beyond the Netroots, Rachel and Keith?

Here's Krugman, talking about the Newsweek Stiglitz profile I posted this morning:

[T]he larger story is the absence of a progressive-economist wing. A lot of people supported Obama over Clinton in the primaries because they thought Clinton would bring back the Rubin team; and what Obama has done is … bring back the Rubin team. Even the advisory council, which is supposed to bring in skeptical views, does so by bringing in, um, Marty Feldstein.

The point is that even if you think the leftish wing of economics doesn’t have all the answers, you’d expect some people from that wing to be at the table. Yet I don’t see Larry Mishel, or Jamie Galbraith … Jared Bernstein is it.

Joe Stiglitz stands out because in addition to being on the progressive wing, he’s also, as I said, a giant among academic economists. But I think the real story is more about excluded points of view than excluded people.

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Iran continues to round up opposition

The hard-liners still doing the only thing they know what to do. CNN:

Government agents used tear gas to disperse demonstrators, and beat and kidnapped a human rights lawyer, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said Saturday, citing witnesses.

The advocacy group said human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr, who was walking with friends to Friday prayers, was confronted by people dressed in civilian clothes. They pushed her into a car and drove off, the group said, citing witnesses.

In a subsequent telephone call to her husband, Sadr said she had been arrested and detained in ward 209 of Tehran's Evin prison, the group said.

"Her husband reported that intelligence officers had searched his house and requested the keys to her legal office," the group said.

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South Carolina governor/adulterer Mark Sanford apologizes, again

Someone really, really wants to be president. Putting our political allegiances aside for a moment, should what Sanford did disqualify him for the presidency? If so, what's the problem - the adultery, the skulking about, the lying about it after the fact, the use of public funds, or what? Read the rest of this post...

Joseph Stiglitz predicted the global financial meltdown. So why can't he get any respect here at home?

There's an excellent profile of Nobel economist Joe Stiglitz in Newsweek. I tried to excerpt it, but it's really too good to get the gist in bits and pieces. Please do read it.

I met Joe and his wife Anya at a conference last summer in Greece, the Symi Symposium, hosted by Greek opposition leader George Papandreou. Great people. Interesting. Welcoming. I got to interview Joe for the blog - I'm posting the first part of the interview at the end of this story - and mind you, this was two months before the economic meltdown last September. We talked about oil prices, and why they're high, and the mortgage crisis and more. His intelligence is very accessible. I learned a lot in the interview, and if you have the time, do watch it - it's just a nice economics lesson on the issues of the day, in a manner in which we simple folk can understand.

Here's the Newsweek piece:

Summers's aide soon called back, and this time he said it was urgent: could Professor Stiglitz come to Washington for a dinner hosted by the president—that same night? Anya [Stiglitz] patched him through to Joe's office at Columbia University; Stiglitz accepted, and jumped on an early train. He was a little miffed: the other eminent economists attending the dinner, like Princeton's Alan Blinder and Harvard's Kenneth Rogoff, had been invited the week before. Stiglitz, a former chairman of Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, had supported Barack Obama as a candidate as early as 2007. But until that day, four months into the administration, he had heard barely a word from the White House. Even now, when the president was making an effort to hear a range of economic voices, Stiglitz seemed to be an afterthought. (A White House spokesman said only that the president wished to include Stiglitz.)....

Stiglitz has warned for years that pro-market zeal would cause a global financial meltdown very much like the one that gripped the world last year. In the early '90s, as a member of Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, Stiglitz argued (unsuccessfully) against opening up capital flows too rapidly to developing countries, saying those markets weren't ready to handle "hot money" from Wall Street. Later in the decade, he spoke out (without results) against repealing the Glass-Steagall Act, which regulated financial institutions and separated commercial from investment banking. Since at least 1990, Stiglitz has talked about the risks of securitizing mortgages, questioning whether markets and authorities would grow careless "about the importance of screening loan applicants." Malaysian economist Andrew Sheng says, "I think Stiglitz is the nearest thing there is to Keynes in this crisis."...

Despite the Obama team's occasional efforts to reach out to him, Stiglitz remains deeply unhappy about the administration's approach to the financial crisis. Rather than breaking up or restructuring the big banks that failed, "the Obama administration has actually expanded the notion of 'too big to fail,' " he says. In a veiled poke at his dubious standing in Washington, Stiglitz adds: "In Britain there is a more open discussion of these issues." A senior White House official, responding to this critique, says that the Obama administration is most often criticized these days for intervening too much in the economy, not too little....

While Stiglitz was flattered by the discussion over a dinner of roast beef and Michelle Obama's homegrown lettuce, he can't stop himself from complaining that an occasional meal with dissidents is not the best way for the president to formulate policy. "Some of the most difficult debates and judgments can't really be hammered out in an hour-and-a-half meeting covering lots of topics," he says. Stiglitz may a prophet without much honor in Washington, but he seems to be determined to keep the prophecies coming.

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Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

The big topic is health care reform, although, there will be some moon talk on the 40th anniversary of the first actual moon walk.

HHS Secretary Sebelius, OMB Director Peter Orszag and several Democratic members of Congress will be pushing actual reform, which is now closer to reality than ever. They're on the side of doctors, nurses and patients. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his GOP colleagues will be representing the side of the insurance companies who are trying to kill reform. That's what this debate is about. Plus, the Republicans want to make Obama and the Democrats look bad.

The full listing is after the break.

Here's the full lineup:

ABC's "This Week" — Pre-empted by British Open golf tournament.

___

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.; former astronaut and Sen. John Glenn.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" — Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

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CNN's "State of the Union" — White House Budget Director Peter Orszag; Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.; Rev. Jesse Jackson.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Orszag; Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.

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REM - Orange Crush

Great live performance and don't you love Rickenbacker guitars? Read the rest of this post...

Former Lehman traders are doing just fine

So much for the worst recession in decades having much of an impact on pay. Between Obama and Congress, there's pathetic lack of movement to bring this back to planet earth. Both are terrified to take on this industry. The rest of America is still wondering when, if ever, they will get back the money they lost for their retirement plans but no, the Wall Street crowd is comfortable flipping America the finger and piling on the bonus money. It's the classic bully scenario where they could care less what anyone in "authority" thinks because they know they're all too scared to take them on.

It's an impressive though disgusting show of force. Business as usual for the untouchables.

Barclays is to pay tens of millions of pounds to its investment bankers, who have made huge profits from trading in government debt, derivatives and foreign exchange.

Some of the biggest payouts are expected to go to former Lehman Brothers traders hired by the British bank after it took over Lehman's US operations at a knockdown price in September. Some Lehman staff were granted guaranteed bonuses to ensure they stayed with Barclays rather than jump ship and sign up with rivals.

The bonuses are expected to cause outrage among Barclays UK employees, who are being balloted by the Unite trade union on strike action over the scrapping of the firm's final-salary pension scheme. Barclays has cut hundreds of jobs since the financial crisis erupted in 2007. Protests are also expected from Lehman creditors, who are fighting in the courts on both sides of the Atlantic for money that was owed by the US bank before it went bust. Barclays stepped in to buy Lehman's American business for $250m (£153m), while its European arm was sold to Nomura.

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China admits killing Uighurs during riots

An unusual admission though they are pitching the "to maintain security one has to use any means possible" which is so familiar with America from the Bush years. Of course, the Uighurs are the same ethnic group that China allegedly interrogated at Gitmo in 2002. The Guardian:

The Chinese authorities today acknowledged shooting dead 12 Uighur rioters in Xinjiang this month, in a rare acknowledgement of deaths at the hands of security forces.

Nuer Baikeli, governor of the north-western region, said police had exercised "the greatest restraint" as they sought to suppress riots in the capital Urumqi.

Brutal inter-ethnic violence over several days left 197 dead and more than 1,700 wounded. Last week the government offered the first breakdown of fatalities, saying 137 Han and 46 Uighurs died. But until now officials have given few details of when and how people met their deaths.

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