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...German government has been negotiating with GM over Opel since March. The U.S. automaker wants Germany to provide state guarantees for Opel of up to $6.4 billion. In return, the Germans wanted GM to agree to sell a 55% stake in Opel to the Magna-Sberbank consortium. At first GM seemed to be playing ball. It spun off Opel into a trust to protect the Rüsselsheim-based manufacturer from GM's Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. (Read "Ron Bloom Monitors GM - and Eyes the Exit...
...nowadays, Congress would much rather reward than penalize, and bribery as policy has a modern elegance to it. Cash for Clunkers didn't involve intricate algorithms or a 1,400-page appropriations bill. The only debate was over how much sugar was needed to sweeten the pot. That first billion was supposed to last a few months; when it ran out in a week, a bipartisan coalition voted to squirt $2 billion more into the pipeline. Here, finally, was stimulus policy Americans understood...
...these are penny-size ideas. Now that trillion has replaced billion in our fiscal conversations, the scope for inventive incentives is vast. The cost of treating obesity has doubled in a decade, to $147 billion. So how about Cash for Chunkers: we get to trade in that extra 20 pounds for a coupon good at the local farm stand. Roads and bridges crumbling? Why bother allocating $27 billion in stimulus money when we could pay people to reroute or, better yet, stay home? California plans on releasing at least 37,000 inmates to ease prison overcrowding and save $1 billion...
...Foreign Relations chairman that Kerry has become most influential. A relationship with Syrian President Bashar Assad, forged in 2005, helped Kerry play the key role in thawing U.S.-Syrian relations after the White House renewed Bush-era sanctions on Damascus in May. With Lugar, he shepherded a $1.5 billion nonmilitary-aid package to Pakistan last spring. His support is also vital to Obama's surge strategy in Afghanistan; though he voted to send more troops earlier this year, Kerry now wonders whether the Administration has a clear agenda there. "I'm very concerned about Afghanistan's footprint," he says...
...forward. Critics in Mexico say that decriminalizing users but not sellers will only strengthen the trafficking mafias that are waging a bloody turf war in Mexico. More than 12,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in the past three years. The cartels make an estimated $30 billion smuggling narcotics north to American users and some $5 billion more selling to the Mexican market. "It is illogical to have a law that allows drug consumption but does not control where it is coming from," says Representative Enrique Cardenas, who voted against the bill. "It will only fuel corruption...