Gaza: Who Gains?

In the light of Barack Obama’s trip to Burma I had planned to write an article on the American government’s attempts to fend of China’s growing influence by shifting its foreign policy focus towards the Far-East and in doing so extract itself from the Middle-East. I may still write that, but in the context of the resumed hostilities in Gaza talk of American dis-engagement from the region would appear ridiculous. So I've decided to bite the bullet and write something about Israel-Palestine.

The Fiscal Cliff is Coming and it Doesn’t Exist

You may have heard recent talk about the “Fiscal Cliff”, and if you haven’t then trust me you will over the next few weeks. For those of you confused about what the fiscal cliff is don’t worry; everyone is confused by it and I'm about to tell you some things that might make it a bit less scary.  Essentially, over the next few months a lot of temporary laws in the United States are going to expire. These are laws which were brought in saying that taxes would be reduced for certain people for a number of years, or that certain government programmes would be guaranteed funding for a certain number of years. As the time limit on these all finish at roughly the same time that means that quite suddenly government spending will go down and taxes will rise. This has made people worry that the recession will start up again as suddenly a lot of money will be taken out of the economy. Trying to fix this is an even bigger problem as Republicans who control the House of Representatives want to cut spending and keep the tax cuts, whereas Democrats who control the Senate and the Presidency want to increase spending and get rid of the tax cuts. Either way this means increasing the deficit, which is the government’s debt.

What's Your Prediction Now?

I've had a few people make references to my earlier post in the last few days, asking me who is going to the President of the United States in 2016. Now first off I have to point out that my system of “gut feelings” obviously doesn't work as Mitt Romney isn't the President (see also my previous post about facts and whatnot). Having said that I am more than happy to give you some incredibly vague references to people you should be paying more attention to over the next 4 years if you want to impress your friends by possibly guessing who might be president next. I’ll probably hold off making any firm prophesies until the Mid-term elections in 2014 but in the meantime here are three democrats and three republicans to look out for.

American “Conservativism” and the Strange Issue of Faith

So the American election happened and I stayed up to watch it. I stayed up till 8am and my sleep patterns have been horribly messed up for the last few days because of it so that I am now living in UK time but sleeping on American time. Much like that little girl we all saw crying because she was so tired of hearing about the election a lot of people were thinking “thank god it’s over! Now we can go back to living out lives!” but politics is never over and it is continuing to mess everything up. After Fox News’ on air meltdown the debate has now switched to Facts vs Faith, or Nate Silver vs Conservatives which is funny and depressing for a whole range of reasons, and as such it is now time for me to stick my oar in.