Yesterday, Benjamin Netanyahu was reelected as the Israeli Prime Minister in a massive victory. His right-wing party drew votes from other right-wing parties as he was led to victory. Many analysts and commentators had called for a very close election, if not a victory by some kind of left-wing coalition. So, what happened? And how will the results affect relations with the United States?
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Over the last 6-8 months, oil prices have dropped precipitously, falling from a high of about $100 to around $50 today, where the price is fluctuating slightly. The causes and effects are numerous and have many geopolitical consequences, for America and the world.
Hey guys! It's been a while since I last posted, mostly due to college applications and being away during the holidays. I'm sorry about that, but let's get right into what has been happening:
First, the State of the Union address is tonight. Expect President Obama to make some big proposals. Ever since the midterms, Obama has decided to start pushing for many of his own programs harder than ever. His presidency may be in the fourth quarter, but Obama is giving it everything he's got. I expect Obama to make a number of large scale, progressive proposals. He has been hinting at a proposal for raising taxes on the rich to lower taxes on the middle class. Since Obama knows that he will probably not be able to do much with Congress in the next two years, he may announce some executive actions. Second, the United States is preparing to open an embassy in Cuba and beginning the process to normalize relations. If major steps are made during the next two years, Obama will add another huge achievement to his legacy. Our embargo against Cuba has lasted long past the end of the Cold War, and it is high time to end it. Third, the United States economy is pushing forward, with impressive growth during the last two quarters. However, wage growth has been nonexistent and wages actually fell slightly last month. Expect Obama to address wages and getting Americans good-paying jobs. Fourth, the United States dollar is racing ahead in the currency markets. Russia's rouble, after almost collapsing in mid-December, is still at about 65 roubles per dollar, which is less than half what it was a year ago. The combined drop in oil price(which will be addressed in another post) and Western sanctions have crippled the Russian economy. Also, Switzerland's major move to decouple the Swiss Franc from the Euro sent the Euro plummeting to new lows of 1.15 dollars per Euro, much lower than the 1.45 dollars per Euro that were needed last year. Finally, there has been a ton of news the last month and there will be more analysis to do once Obama gives his SOTU. I'll be making a few posts this week in order to catch up on everything. So, I don't think I have to say much about the midterms. The Democrats pretty much got destroyed, losing control of the Senate and losing even more seats in the House. The Republicans solidly control Congress, but there is much debate over how much will get done from either side.
Hello Everyone! I'm very sorry that I wan't able to post anything the last month. I experienced a number of problems with my web hosting service and was unable to edit my site. I had to work out the problems with them and I am finally able to post again. A lot has happened since then: the Democrats got crushed in the midterms, President Obama announced his immigration plan, oil prices are plummeting, and the Ferguson decision that just happened recently, among other things. All of these will be covered in the next few days. I'm so sorry for the delay. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Ah, yes: the big debate over welfare and whether or not people deserve money for doing nothing. But is that really the most important debate? In fact, there is a sound economic reason why distribution may be in the best interests of almost everyone. It all relies on an economic idea known as the velocity of money.
Watching the news today sometimes makes it seem as if the United States is about to collapse, China is going to take over, and democracy is going to die. America has stood as the guardian of liberal democracies and capitalism for most of the last century. But to understand the current state of affairs, we need to head further back into American history.
Last November, I wrote an article titled "Gerrymandering and Partisanship" that explored the basics of gerrymandering. Recently, I read an article in the Washington Post about a computer programmer who devised an algorithm that could potentially fix gerrymandering. Considering that gerrymandering is the root cause of many of the problems we see in Congress, this programmer may be onto something.
Recently, I read a very interesting article Foreign Policy called, "Ctrl + Alt + Delete. Resetting America's Military" which explored a possible way to totally revamp the organization of the military. It got me thinking: what happens if you could hit a reset button and rebuild the entire government from scratch? Would it have all three branches of government with the same authorities? Would it have the same programs? Would those programs be distributed in a similar way between federal, state, and local governments? What would happen if we hit the reset button?
Over the last couple decades, the Internet has become vital and central to the global economy as well as to our culture. It is important to understand that the internet itself is an incredible tool, but it is also incredibly complex. Computers have multiple parts all communicating and the internet is composed of millions of computers interacting with one another. There are vulnerabilities in basically every piece of software and there have been numrous examples, especially recently, of people or organizations exploiting them for their own gain. To understand this new world of cyberwarfare, let's define some terms and then explore a devastating cyberweapon as well as a vulnerability that the NSA used for cyberespionage.
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